Listing Prep 101 (as told by Christina Fernandes)

You may be thinking about selling, or in fact, have gone through the selling process yourself and know the experience quite well. (Or, just have some extra time on your hands and want to brush up on the listing process! That works too.) Every Realtor (or Agent)  markets a home differently — I am not one to say what is bad / or good however want to share my thoughts and experience on what we do to get TOP dollar for our sellers.

They say, “There is no I in Teamwork” and that sure is the truth with Listings! Keep Reading…

Rule #1- No matter how much your home is worth – always put in the effort in Listing your Home (the right way – not the easy way…)

What I mean by this is, When you want to sell — Sell Right. With the right team representing you. There are so many ways to save a dollar here and there, trust me, we hear it everyday. No iPhone photos. I see so many listings that are thrown up on the MLS with trash/clutter/blurry photos. I don’t care if your home is a double wide next to a dump, you are doing yourself (and your wallet) a dis-service.

As Sue always says, “There is a lid to every jar out there”. Each and every home has a unique buyer out there, you just have to get your home in front of that buyer (and that is all the fun..!).

You may be asking…..

What does ‘effort’ look like Christina?

Glad you asked! Before we get to work on the pre-listing items, we need a great deal of effort from our sellers. This is the Teamwork Part.

  1. De-Clutter, De-Clutter, De-Clutter. We all have stuff. (Just look at Sue Darnell’s Garage! hehe) Its just time to put that stuff where your future homeowner don’t see it. They want to see your home and visual themselves living in your home. The big vaulted ceilings, can get diminished when they don’t even notice them because they are turned off by clutter or smells. This is probably the most important part in listing prep.

2. Clean – I mean a deep, deep, deep clean. Some clients we have are clean freaks! Which is amazing, the home is always spotless and smells like Lemon. This isn’t real life, we are all busy. Especially those with little kiddies, finger prints everywhere. Don’t stress about the deep cleaning. We have an amazing cleaning crew, that can do a Pre-Listing Clean, at a VERY reasonable price. Lupe and Alex, we can’t list homes without you!People stress about this part, yet, it doesn’t have to be stressful. We can get help..

Rule #2 – Always make sure your house smells good.

This may sound like an odd one, but so many homes are stuffy and smelly. Once you deep clean, your home will smell a million times better. However, if there is still an underlying smell, get rid of it. Neutralizers- Air Fresheners – Warm Baked Cookies (We do that on Open House days;) ) The Clean Linen Air Fresheners are GREAT, new and clean. No crazy smells, people.

Rule #3 – Yard Clean Up – Fresh Flowers!

When a prospective buyer does a ‘drive by’ of your home, the front yard is the first thing they see. We highly recommend do a yard clean up, as well as a load of fresh Beauty Bark. Fresh flowers, are always a plus as well!

Rule #4 – Touch Ups.

If there is anything inside your home that needs to be touched up we recommend doing this right before photography. This could include, new light bulbs, touch up paint on skuffs, repairing any holes in walls, etc.

Next Step, Staging and Professional Photography.

I could write a whole post on Staging alone, Staging is everything. Everything. Did you hear me? Everything. In a perfect world, sellers would completely move out, deep clean, hire professional vacant staging and their home would look picture perfect, straight out of Pottery Barn.  (Vacant Staging – Prices – we have a list of recommendations and Home Stagers we have used. Price varies on size of home and how much furniture is needed. For a 1500-2000 sq ft home I would estimate between $2K-$4K) There is something to be said about moving out completely, and ‘setting the stage’ and having a home designer design your home. We have seen it first hand – Staging alone, getting our sellers an extra, $25K… $50k…. If I were selling my home tomorrow, this is the way I would go. Plus, it makes it easier on you.

If Vacant Staging isn’t in the Budget (which we TOTALLY understand) — we work with you and the decor and furniture you have. We hire a design/staging team to do what is called a “Vignette Staging” – This includes re-arranging of current furniture, artwork, decor, pillows/rugs, adding furniture/pieces.

It gives your home a great look, and provides home-shoppers a vision of your home and the space and potential. This does wonders — see this before and after we just did last week:

The home came alive – after staging! We love seeing a transformation of a home. A home that comes together, comes together with hard-work both from our sellers and us.

(Side Note: We love listings – We are a listing dominate team, and historically have always closed most listings each year then buy-sides.)

How your pictures look is everything – this is what everyone sees. Your potential home buyer will be seeing these photos…

We have an amazing photographer we use for all of our listings-  He has an eye for angles/lighting/ everything really. On some homes, he does the drone shots which are great to portray the lot size and dimensions.

Rule #5 – List with a team puts the effort into making your home look its BEST.

(us, duh. just kidding. but really…)

We are a listing dominate team – and LOVE listings. (Take a look at our past sales to see examples of how we have marketed homes in the past 12 months) We truly take pride in the work we put into each and every listing. Consumers don’t see the work that does into listing a home. SO much work from the seller + us.

As I said before, Teamwork. 😉

Consumers spend hours perusing homes on Zillow, Redfin, and online. Think about the consumer, they see everything online. Let’s make your home look its best. Teamwork.

Rule #6 — Make sure your Realtor hosts an open house. Preferably as soon as you List!

We love open houses. Most Agents don’t. We do. Are they work? Yes. To you? No.

Open Houses give buyers / lookie-lou’s a chance to see your home without their Realtor.

Open Houses are GREAT – they allow for maximum visibility. Which is what you want. You want as MANY people possible to see your home. By having an open house (ideally, the next day after listing/weekend after listing) you allow for maximum visibility.

 This is everything we do and recommend for Pre-Listing Prep.

Next Post, How WE Market your home. We are strong believers in digital marketing/ and creating a custom marketing plan and campaign for each and every listing. We still do traditional forms of marketing i.e.) postcards, property brochures, but also SO much more.

If you are thinking about the idea of selling – let us help you. 

Lets chat!