By Teresa Boardman, for St. Paul Real Estate Blog
Homeowners ask a lot of questions about what they should do to their home to get it ready to sell and to get top dollar for it. Sometimes they will ask if the bed should be in the corner or under the windows or which shower curtain would increase the value of the home and attract buyers.
Some owners want to swap out all of their old
appliances and put in a new counter top. Do homes with stainless steel
appliances sell more quickly than homes with all white appliances? I can’t
think of a time when someone bought a home or rejected one solely because of
the refrigerator. Most home buyers look at the entire package.
If you really think about it a scientific study
with a lot of data would be needed to answer some of these questions. In
general I discourage home owners from spending any more money than they have to
when they are getting ready to sell.
I strongly encourage them to repaint if the
paint looks worn or if the colors are not neutral enough. Cleaning and de-cluttering
is a huge part of the process and so is moving the furniture around and or out
of the rooms. (staging)
The value of a home is determined mainly by size
location and condition. An immaculate 1600 square foot home built in the 1970′s
and located in one of the better neighborhoods can be worth almost twice as
much as the same home located in a different neighborhood. The same home next
to power lines or a noisy, busy road is usually worth less.
Even with improvements a homes value is limited
first by location and then by size. The color of the shower curtain or where
the couch is places just isn’t going to have the huge impact sellers sometimes
expect.
Pricing a home is more of an art than a science.
We try to find three comparable homes that are nearby and are similar in size
and amenities and that have sold in the last six months to one year.
It is the sales prices of the comparable homes
that help us determine how much a home is likely to sell for. Sometimes sellers
take the recommendation and other times they do not. Ultimately it isn’t the
home owner of the real estate agent who determines the value of a home it is
the buyer.
Homes for sale are worth the most amount of
money when they first come on the market. The first two weeks are critical and
we can usually tell right away if a price adjustment is needed. The idea of
over pricing to get more money for a home usually back fires and ultimately
results in less money for the home owner as home buyers decide there is
something wrong with a home that has been on the market for a long time.
