Selling A Home | Marketing Your Home | Open House

Marketing Your Home - Finding Buyers

Proper preparation and marketing are very important to the successful sale of your home.

When preparing your home for sale, use common sense:
Remove clutter: the more open and spacious the better
Clean: bathrooms, kitchen, closets, scuffed walls, garage, driveway, yard
Repair: any major or apparent items, leaky faucet-toilets, broken windows, etc.
Paint: this is the cheapest way to beautify your home and make it look open, use light colors, beige is always a good color
Remove pet odors
Don't smoke before showings

Exposure is the name of the game:
Make sure you have a marketing budget. It is not enough to place a few ads in the paper and pray.
Use as many resources as possible, magazines, websites, etc. – it is still cheaper than paying a real estate agent's commission.
When advertising, 'advertise warm fuzzies', things that appeal to families.
Look at other ads in the newspaper and magazines to see what works
Advertise price, address and phone numbers.
Change your message machine so that people know that you're selling your home.
You can't sell your home if you don't show it – hold open houses and be available for showing.
Have a quality sign. Use as many signs as you can with your address on them to attract people to your home. Use a flyer box (one that works) to give people the information on your home in a non-threatening manner.

Re-evaluate your position after 5-10 showings

Remember there is only one reason a home does not sell...PRICE! A properly priced home will sell itself. People look for homes in specific neighborhood because these homes are in their price range. Home buyers looking for $160,000 homes look in $160,000 neighborhoods, and not in $145,000 neighborhoods. No matter what improvements you have made, even if your house is the nicest house in the neighborhood, there is a limit to what it is worth. Be realistic and use common sense. Feel free to call about your free market analysis.

The FSBOthatWorks.com Home Seller's Kit includes a number of checklists designed to assist you in the home preparation and marketing process.