How to sell our house
How To Get Your House Ready To Sell (2020)
today we're gonna talk about how to get
your home ready to sell
stay tuned hi my name is Malcolm Lawson
my Maryland real estate agent and I put
out videos all about Maryland and real
estate so we're interested in either
those topics make sure you subscribe and
hit that little Bell icon to stay
current on my latest content so the one
question I'm asked most by many my
clients is how do I actually get my home
ready for the market that's what we're
gonna talk about today what steps you
can take now so six months twelve months
down the road when you're ready to sell
the home you'll be able to sell it for
top dollar and in the shortest amount of
time so the first thing I want you to
focus on is any small maintenance issues
that you are aware of with your home
right these are known as deferred
maintenance this maintenance that you've
just been kind of putting off I'm
talking about little holes in the
drywall caulk around a bathtub gutters
that are clogged so just these little
deferred maintenance things that you've
been putting off and you don't really
notice anymore take care of all of these
things now because they may be
insignificant and you may not even
notice them anymore
but buyers absolutely will notice them
when a buyers walk through a property
and they're saying well I gotta take
care of that I gotta take care of that I
gotta take care of that they start
getting overwhelmed and the entire
perception of a house really changes
pretty quickly even a small thing that
you may have to hire a contractor for if
a contractor would charge you $100 when
a buyer is walking through a property
and they're trying to work out the math
in their head it may actually only cost
them $100 but in reality they always
overestimate the cost of repairs in
their mind they're thinking oh man
that's gonna be 200 $300 at least I
packed a small hole in the drywall so
the more of these little deferred
maintenance items that you can take care
of now the better next I want you to
start decluttering your home look we've
all been there things has tend to
accumulate pretty quickly in a home and
it can take a long time to start
organizing your stuff and figuring out
what you want to sell what you want to
keep what you want to donate but start
that process now and try to eliminate as
much stuff in as much clutter in your
home as possible when I walk through a
home with a buyer and a house is
cluttered and then I walk through
another home that's exactly the same but
it's open and it's not cluttered at all
that home feels larger it may not be
larger but it feel
larger and that's what is really
important what a home feels like to a
buyer I would say try to declutter as
much as you possibly can it's hard to
over declutter if you have a garage or
an attic or storage space start getting
boxes and boxing all the little things
up now put them away for a few months
and once you move into your new home
then you can take out all those little
knickknacks and decorations at that
point next I want you to try to brighten
up your home as much as possible there's
nothing that will turn a home more
unattractive than walking in and it'd be
incredibly dark in there even with all
the lights on and again with a buyer is
about what a home feels like so if they
walk into a home and all the lights are
on but it's still incredibly dark in a
room that's a very different feeling
than if they were walking in a home the
windows are open and it's bright and
sunny and very colorful that fire is
gonna feel two different emotions there
so find ways to make the home as bright
as possible if you have very dark
curtains open them up or even replace
them with lighter curtains if you have a
dark paint color in your home replace it
with a much lighter color that reflects
the light around if you have a dark
carpet in a room again I would consider
replacing it with a much lighter color
carpet or even a light color rug on top
of the carpet this is also important
when you have showings on the home I
always recommend that you leave your
blinds and curtains open and let it's
much natural light into the home when
you know you have a showing that day
it's also recommended that you leave at
least one light on in every room for
that showing now not all my clients feel
comfortable doing that because
electricity cost but if you do feel
comfortable doing that I do recommend
that just to make the rooms feel much
brighter next I want you to ask yourself
when was the last time and this was
updated and I want you to ask yourself
this question about your your kitchen
your bathroom your floor's your hardware
like the door handles and all your
electrical outlets and faceplates
because this is what buyers are gonna be
looking at when they come to the
property all right they're gonna open up
the door and if the handles 30 years old
you can absolutely tell they're like oh
man I gotta I gotta update this house
they're walking through and all your
face place are Allman colors and
obviously from the 70s or the 80s
they're gonna notice that if they walk
into a kitchen your kitchen may be
perfectly serviceable but in their minds
you're thinking
man I got to update this kitchen that's
gonna cost me 10 $15,000 to do same
thing with the bathrooms I would save
your kitchen or bathroom hasn't been
updated in about 20 years I would
strongly consider investing a little bit
of money in those areas and just kind of
bring them up to modern standards next I
want you to focus on your curb appeal so
this is the front of your home when a
buyer first walks up to your property
that is what they're gonna see typically
when they see your home online the very
first image that they're gonna see is
the front of your house so there's an
interesting psychological concept known
as confirmation bias so when we first
see a person or a house or anything
we're gonna make a snap judgment
decision right then and there about that
based off of our very first image of
them later on we're more likely to
accept facts that confirm our initial
decision rather than accept facts that
contradict our initial decision so how
this plays out in real estate is if they
walk up to your house and they see wow
what a cute and pretty house then they
walk in they're more likely to look and
accept the facts that confirm that
that's a cute and pretty house rather
than the facts that contradict that that
maybe this house isn't as cute and
pretty on the inside and vice versa they
walk up to your house and the first
impression is wow look at this overgrown
yard and it's ugly and there's mildew
all over the house you're gonna be like
oh geez what do we have here they're
gonna notice all the little things like
outdated door handles and smears and
smudges and stains all the little things
that reaffirm their initial perception
of your property this is absolutely a
real thing is called confirmation bias
and this is why focusing on your curb
appeal is so important now you don't
have to do anything really over the top
a lot of my sellers they just need to
focus on their landscaping a little bit
a lot of times bushes and can get
overgrown you just gotta trim them back
a bit make sure your grass is cut
possibly go buy some mulch and lay some
mulch down in the front of your house if
you have any mildew or algae growing on
your siding get a pressure washer and
clean that off if your welcome mat is 15
years old maybe get a new welcome mat
the door to your house hasn't been
painted in 10 years maybe give it a
fresh coat of paint try to do whatever
you can
make that initial impression of your
home as pleasant as possible so the next
step it's the hardest one for many of my
clients but I want you to de personalize
your home so when a buyer walks through
the property they need to be able to
envision themselves in this home and in
need availa envision their TV and their
couch and their furniture in this home
and when they come in and they see all
these family photos of another family
living in that property it absolutely
just kind of destroys that illusion in
their mind so I'll admit it's a little
awkward walking through the strangers
home sorry they have all their furniture
there and when you start seeing family
photos in the house and all these
personalized knickknacks I'll admit it's
even a little awkward for myself like
I'm invading somebody else's personal
space you don't want to you don't want
to portray that feeling to any potential
buyers so I know this is hard but I want
you to take down all your family photos
all the photos in your house of you your
husband your kids your grandkids and I
want you to very delicately box those up
in a box and stick them away in a closet
just for a few months until you're fully
moved into your new home once you're
fully moved in that can be one of the
first boxes that you unbox but while
you're selling your home I want you to
take down all your personal family
photos so my last tip is to start
interviewing real estate agents early
too often sellers go with the very first
real estate agent that they find or the
first ad that they see or the first
recommendation that they get and I
really want you to interview multiple
real estate agents ideally two to three
real estate agents before you finally
choose one now there's a couple areas
that I want you to focus on with these
real estate agents one is what kind of
marketing are they gonna do for your
listing are they taking pictures on
their cell phone or are they hiring
professional photographer to come in
there and take some beautiful pictures
I'll be honest
unfortunately the majority of the real
estate agents out there they don't
invest anything into their listings they
take all their pictures on their cell
phones and then they upload them to the
MLS and that's it what top agents do and
what I do as well is I invest money into
my listings and what I find is by
investing in marketing the homes
actually sell for more money and because
I get paid off of commission I actually
earn more money it makes up for a
portion of my marketing
cost personally depending on how large a
home is I spend anywhere between 500 and
$1000 marketing my listening so this is
paying for stuff like professional
photography which I do in all my
listings many of my listings get a video
tour of the property this video is
uploaded to YouTube it's uploaded
directly to Zillow so it's on your
Zillow listing automatically we also use
this video and a Facebook ad which I run
to the general area of the listing so
make sure whatever real estate agent
yous are investing in marketing and
they're investing in getting your home
so it as well
the second area I want you to focus on
with the real estate agent is
communication according to the National
Association of Realtors number one
complaint about real estate agents is a
lack of communication there are some
agents that they won't communicate with
their clients for weeks even months on
end personally what I do is I call every
client that I have every single week I
call it follow-up Friday and every
Friday I run through every single seller
client that I have and I just give them
an update
hey last week you had three showings
here's the feedback on those showings
this home down the street just so a few
for this price you have two new homes
that just came on the market in your
neighborhood I just give them a quick
update and I end every call with do you
have any questions for me so those are
the two areas that you really want to
look for a lot of people say you want to
look for experience I don't really find
that to be true I know plenty of agents
that have been doing this for a long
time and they're still bad agents they
still don't communicate with the clients
very well they still take pictures on
their cell phones and don't invest
anything in marketing for me personally
I think the two most important things
that you want to look for in a real
estate agent are effective marketing and
good communication so it's time for the
question of the day what do you guys
think about the difference between a
very bright home in a very dark home
when you walk in does it make a
difference it does a stir up a different
feeling in you if you walk into a home
and all the curtains are closed and
there's one little faded light off in
the corner versus if you walk into a
room and it's bright and the windows are
open and there's sunlight streaming in
does that make a difference of how
attractive a home is to you I'm really
curious let me know now in the comment
section below this video
and once again I am a Maryland real
estate agent and everything about buying
sell
investing in a home here in Maryland I'd
love to have a conversation with them
feel free to reach out anytime and I'll
see you over in the next video
