As the saying goes, “there is more than one way to skin a cat.” The saying is truer when it comes to selling your home than skinning cats since we don’t advocate doing that. Home buyers in Montgomery County have different needs; preparing your sales strategy accordingly helps increase home showings and makes for faster sales. Here are 4 ways to attract interested home buyers in Montgomery County.
4 Ways To Attract Home Buyers in Montgomery County
1. Declutter Inside and Out
When preparing to sell your home, decluttering becomes an essential task, even if it feels overwhelming, particularly if your family has accumulated belongings over the years. Clutter can make a home feel smaller and less attractive to potential buyers. Therefore, take this opportunity to be proactive and start the process of eliminating items that you plan to discard or donate. Pack up belongings that you won’t need in the next few months and consider renting a storage unit if your garage is not spacious enough to store them without creating a cluttered appearance.
Once you have cleared the excess belongings, it’s time to give your home a thorough deep clean. With countertops, bookshelves, and floors free of clutter, sweep, mop, and disinfect every surface possible. This step will help create an open and inviting atmosphere that potential buyers desire when envisioning themselves in the space. By decluttering and cleaning, you enhance the home’s potential and make it more appealing to potential buyers.
2. Make Necessary Repairs
Taking prompt action to fix any known issues is essential. While it may appear to be common sense, numerous homeowners choose to wait and observe what transpires when potential buyers visit their property. However, it’s crucial to recognize that buyers will inevitably discover non-functioning appliances, leaky roofs, and persistent plumbing problems. By proactively addressing these issues, homeowners can enhance their home’s overall appeal, demonstrate responsibility, and instill confidence in potential buyers. Neglecting necessary repairs can lead to extended time on the market, diminished buyer interest, and potentially lower offers. Therefore, it is in the homeowner’s best interest to invest time and resources in resolving known problems promptly.
How? Well, first you are required by law to disclose anything you know as a problem. Second, if you happen to not be aware of the problem, the home inspection will surely discover it. Buyers will request repairs or credits – so you will pay for it one way or another.
It is so much easier to disclose repairs, maintenance, and upgrades made while people are looking. It expedites the escrow process from lengthy repair requests and gives potential buyers the confidence to know you were a responsible homeowner that has taken care of what might be their new home.
3. Stage the Property
It’s not uncommon for real estate agents to encounter resistance from clients when suggesting staging services. Many clients fail to see the value in staging, particularly if their property is not in the multi-million dollar range. However, it’s important to highlight that staging doesn’t always involve a complete overhaul or renting new furnishings. Sometimes, it simply entails working with a skilled eye to rearrange existing furniture, remove personal items like family photos or heirlooms, and make strategic adjustments to enhance the overall presentation.
After decluttering, the next step is to create a space that appeals to a wide range of potential buyers. The goal is to make the home feel inviting and allow buyers to envision themselves living there. This approach maximizes the number of people who can connect with the property and increases the likelihood of receiving offers.
By employing staging techniques, whether through professional services or with the help of a skilled eye, you can effectively transform your home into a space that resonates with potential buyers. This can significantly impact their emotional connection to the property and ultimately influence their decision-making process.
4. Set a Market Price Just Under Expected Fair Market Value
This might seem counterintuitive: set a lower price than what the market says you can get for your house.
When potential buyers are looking at homes, they are looking for specifics on size, location, condition, and price. When the first three qualifiers are equal, then the buyers will look at the price as the primary sorting factor. In markets where there are a lot of buyers looking for homes, a lower price gets more people walking through.
A good agent then holds open houses where droves of people “ooh and ahh” over your home because it is clean, clutterless and staged. These situations often get multiple offers giving you the seller the ability to bid up the offers to what would be the fair market price, often higher than what you would have listed for if you didn’t list it at a lower than normal price.