Home sellers get great returns on low-cost investments in home-sale preparation
Want to increase the value of your for-sale home and need a place to start? Here is a seven-point stimulus package for home sellers who want to get their home sold quickly and for the best possible price.
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"Home sellers need to beg, borrow or steal--okay, not steal, but certainly beg or borrow--that extra $500 or $4,000 that they need to create their own home-sale stimulus package to get their home sold faster," says EnergizedSeller.com President Dan Eason. "And the exciting thing is that this investment will pay for itself."
Selling a home can be extremely challenging today due to market conditions that haven't been seen since the late 1980s. That's why home sellers are flocking to the EnergizedSeller.com social networking website to learn how they can increase their home value.
"Sellers are realizing they have to work harder to make their home stand out and look better since there are so many other homes on the market," Eason says.
Sellers can stimulate the sale of their home by investing in the most valuable asset most of them own.
"We don't know what return we'll get from the national stimulus package, but with a proper home selling stimulus, they'll get a return that will be more than their initial investment. And once their home is sold, this stimulus shouldn't leave any new debts," Eason says.
The cost of staging a home for sale is typically much less than the average price reduction that's offered on homes that aren't prepared. Sellers should do whatever they can to make cost-effective improvements to their home. An investment of $500 to $4,000 can stimulate the sale of their home, help get the home sold more quickly and help protect against price reductions.
Here are EnergizedSeller.com's top seven home selling tips for home sellers who want to stimulate the sale of their home:
1. Hire a Good Realtor. The national median home price dropped 15 percent in 2008 (National Association of Realtors) and the median days on the market increased to 100 days in January (Altos Research). A home seller needs to gain every advantage they can in today's market, and finding a good Realtor that comes highly recommended is important when marketing a home.
2. Hire a Home Stager. A recent study by HomeGain showed that staging a home for a sale generates a return on investment of 343%. The average cost, depending on market and needs, is $403 to $584, and a house staging consultation can be as little as $150.
3. Clean and De-clutter. Cleaning a home isn't much fun, but a clean home is crucial to a fast sale. A recent EnergizedSeller.com survey found that Realtors around the country picked cleaning as the top task they wanted home sellers to focus on. Additionally, HomeGain found that an investment in cleaning and de-cluttering generates a staggering 578% return. Cost: $0 to $500.
4. Rent a Storage Unit. Savvy sellers remove extra furniture and household items to make their home seem larger. The return on investment is the perceived value of extra square footage. Cost: $100 to $500.
5. Hire a Handyman. Sellers who paint, repair, install and do whatever else is necessary to make their home move-in-ready will get a great return on their investment. Cost: $200 to $2,000.
6. Improve Curb Appeal. For the second year in a row the Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report (www.costvsvalue.com) showed that exterior remodeling projects return the most money as a percentage of cost. Cost: $200+
7. Utilize Free Home Selling Tips. There are a lot of free web sites with good home selling tips. For example, EnergizedSeller.com offers advice on more than 40 different topics related to selling a house and staging a home. Sellers who implement as many of these suggestions as possible can get tremendous returns.
About EnergizedSeller. EnergizedSeller, www.energizedseller.com, is a social networking community website for home sellers, Realtors, house stagers, home improvement contractors and other professionals who are involved in home sales. The website addresses the tremendous need that home sellers have for common sense information that will help them get their home ready for sale. The website offers practical advice and specific answers to home sellers' questions on how to improve their home to maximize their home property value and sell it as quickly as possible.
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