In a recent article, Buying a Fixer-Upper: Tips for First-Time Home buyers by guest blogger Ray Flynn of the DIYGuys, we learned how to manage the buying process for a “fixer upper”, where to buy, setting a budget, what repair or design projects to tackle first, and creating curb appeal. We considered whether to stay or sell once your house is all fixed up. Did you decide to sell? How can you sell your fixer upper fast and get the highest price for all your hard work and investment
Do Your Research
With any home you put on the market, there is a range of prices for similar homes and you want to be able to list at the high end of that range and sell fast so you don’t have any price reductions. Give yourself the best chance for success by using professional home staging and avoiding mistakes many home sellers make that cause a house not to sell quickly.
Make an Emotional Connection with Buyers
The key to selling fast and for the highest price is making an emotional connection with buyers so they can envision themselves living in your for-sale home.
Avoid selling the house “vacant”. It is hard for any buyer to make an emotional connection with an empty house. They look a little sad and lonely! Buyers have a hard time visualizing how big the rooms are (they often look smaller with nothing in them to give a sense of scale), if their belongings will fit, how to arrange furniture and the purpose of different rooms. Without furniture and other things in the rooms, there is nothing to focus on except potential flaws. Were your “fixer-upper” skills perfect? Even the pros can make mistakes.
Use Color to Increase Your Selling Price
If you still have painting to do before selling, this is a great time to consider paint colors, inside and out. Did you know that studies show the right paint colors in the right rooms attract buyers and can increase the sales price? The wrong colors can also reduce the price buyers are willing to pay. Why? Color affects emotion and buyers buy on emotion! For the price of a cup of good coffee, this report gives you specific color recommendations to help sell your house for up to $10,000 more.
Get my guide to Top Paint Colors for a Speedy and Profitable Home Sale to learn more.
Appeal to Your Target Market
Who is your target market? Is it a young family with children that are interested in your location near schools? A single professional? A retired couple? Look at who lives in your current neighborhood or is moving in, check on Zillow to see how close the house is to different schools and what rating they have. Your house should be decorated or “staged” to appeal to that target market. For example, to appeal to a young family with children, at least one bedroom should be decorated as a child’s room.
Build a Great Home Selling Team
The best way to sell your house fast and for more is to compile a great team to help you. This includes a realtor, home stager and photographer. Just like you are the expert in converting a home that needed help into a thing of beauty, a good realtor is a marketing and negotiating expert to make sure your house is seen by buyers nad you get the best price. A home stager is an expert at getting buyers to want to see and then fall in love with your house. A real estate photographer is the expert at getting amazing photos that will attract buyers online and get them in your door. See my guide on how to build this team and find the right experts to help you.
A great home stager can help you build your team. Get a consultation with a professional home stager and ideally have them stage it for you. They can give you paint color recommendations, stage it to appeal to your target market and give you tips for living in the home if needed while it is for sale. They can even use your existing furnishings and belongings to stage it and save you money on furniture and other rental fees if you plan to live in the home while it is listed. They can recommend a professional photographer to take photos of your beautifully staged home to attract buyers online and give you tips to prepare for your photoshoot. They can also recommend good realtors if you do not have one yet.
Create Great Curb Appeal
As Ray mentioned in the previous article, make sure you have great curb appeal. You may outshine your competition online with great photos and get buyers to the property, but without great curb appeal they will just drive by and never make it inside to see your beautiful “fixer upper”.
Spending a little money on home staging and great photos before listing will help you sell fast and for more, cost less than your first price reduction if the house sits on the market and will be a lot less stressful!
Preparing for your Home Sale
The best tip I can give you is to get a professional home staging and color consultation to prepare for your sale. It can make all the difference in your final sales. price.
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Great Blog! Love your ideas of using color in staging!
Thanks Cheryl, glad you enjoyed it!
Great post. Very informative. I enjoyed it !
Thank you Laurence! I appreciate you stopping by to read it and glad you enjoyed it!
Great post. Love all of the tips for successful staging.
Thanks so much Doreen, I’, glad you enjoyed it:).
Staging is key to selling a home well. You offer such great insight on how to make the best appeal to potential buyers.
Thanks so much Lisa!
These are all fabulous tips. As you know, I’m a huge fan of staging prior to selling a home. Once again, I’ll be forwarding this onto the real estate agents that I work with.
Thank you so much Sheri!
These are all such great tips, Mary Ann. And especially the importance of great images. This is really critical in today’s world and so many people don’t realize it.
Thank Leslie! Yes, great images make all the difference in attracting buyers online. Getting professional photos of beautifully staged rooms is key!
Such great tips for your clients! You can never underestimate the power of curb appeal and staging a home when selling!
Thanks Christie!
YES YES YES. Beautifully articulated. Especially the point that people buy on emotion! THAT is why staging is so important to get the best price and fastest sale – good staging creates that positive emotional response!
Thanks Janet! Yes people think they buy on logic but if they really stop to think about it, it is all about emotion! Good staging definitely creates a positive emotional connection.
Colors are definitely very important when selling.
Thanks Christina for reading!