Sherri Williams,
Austin Realtor®

"Representing Your Best Interests in Real Estate" 

Selling Your Austin Home?   

 You only have one chance to make a first impression when putting your home on the market!

Home "staging" is critical to showing your home in its best possible light, and we've compiled a few tips to get you started.  

EXTERIOR IMPROVEMENTS:

Landscaping is an important sales factor according to Inman News Features.  Some experts say that good landscaping can increase property value by as much as 10%. Curb appeal has always been important, but with a growing number of homebuyers viewing properties online, the way a home looks on the outside is becoming an even bigger factor.

Home sellers can landscape yards themselves or can consult with nurseries or landscape designers. Many nurseries will provide landscape plans free of charge to customers who purchase plantings. Experts suggest landscaping the front yard first, since it is the most visible, then turning to the back yard and side yards.

INTERIOR IMPROVEMENTS:

Don't put your home on the market before it's ready. A recent study showed that well-prepared homes sold in half the time as unstaged (unprepared) homes. In the same study, the staged homes sold at their asking price compared to 2% below asking for the unstaged homes.

Take Thoreau's advice and "simplify, simplify."   Your collection of 4,000 vintage Hot Wheels® displayed proudly on an entire wall in the den may be your pride and joy, but it's likely to be detrimental to selling your home. You want potential buyers to remember your home, not your hobby.

Entryway:
Brighten and lighten.  If your light fixtures on the porch or entry way are dated, replace them.   Your foyer may be the "dumping ground" for coats, keys, hats, handbags, briefcases, etc., but while your house is on the market, find other places for those things.  Living with a little inconvenience for a while can pay off in a faster sale.

Throughout the House:
Clean the windows, inside and out.  Shampoo or replace carpeting.  Put any unnecessary furniture or decor in storage --and that doesn't mean in the garage!   The less "stuff" you have in a room, the larger it will appear.

Bathrooms should shine.  Stained sinks and corroded fixtures can be relatively inexpensive to replace and make a world of difference in how  your home is perceived.

If you have pets, keep the litter box clean and the dog toys put away. 
Lower-priced improvements yield the highest return:   Home sellers hoping to turn a bigger profit by making home improvements would do best to stick to moderately priced projects, according to a survey by HomeGain.The survey of real estate agents from across the nation found that home improvements in the $80 to $2,800 range yield the highest rate of return when the home sells.

The biggest return is on simple lightening and brightening, which typically costs about $80-$100 and gives an average return of 769% on the sale price.

Other big winners were cleaning and de-cluttering (cost = $305-$339; return = 594%), landscaping and trimming (cost = $432-$506; return = 266%), and fixing plumbing and electrical (cost = $338-$381; return = 196%).

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