Creating Interior Appeal To Sell Your Home Fast
By: Paula Stone

The most important thing a home seller must do to resale their home successfully is make your house have exterior appeal. We‘ve written about it many times. You have to make potential buyers want to come inside.

But what do you do after you get them in the house? What is going to make them choose your house over another one?

1. Make the house neutral inside. Why? You want their stuff to go with the house. Do you know what their stuff looks like? No! Therefore you need to use neutral colors that will go with whatever stuff they have. Why? Buyers don‘t want to paint. If you want full price, do it for them. I always try to get full price. It‘s a pretty easy job for the return. New paint is the cheapest fix for houses. If you are willing to take less and sell slower, don‘t paint.
2. Make the house look like an upscale hotel suite. Pack up collections, toys and junk and store elsewhere. Donate some stuff and take a tax deduction. Don‘t leave anything on the floor except furniture. If you‘ve never seen a great hotel suite, take a nice weekend vacation and go see one. You deserve it. Store or replace worn or outdated furniture. Remember buyers really look at furniture more than the house. You want to impress them, but then you take your furniture with you. You need for the furniture you have to look good. It‘s irrational but true.
3. Skip wallpaper and fancy, custom paint treatments. Many buyers don‘t like them. Do add architectural detail like crown moldings, wainscoting, wood floors or window trims. It adds character and appeal. Skip art that might offend potential buyers. Hang something 6 to 12 inches over things like sofas and buffets. Fresh flowers only, no silk or plastic. Set your table but leave your silver flatware in safe deposit.
4. Do paint the walls soft neutrals like cream, khaki, or tan with white or wood contrasting trim.
5. Guard your traffic patterns through the house and the various rooms. Leaving natural paths to walk through rooms makes them look and feel larger and more attractive.
6. Put excess furniture and stuff in storage. I‘ve seen tiny bedrooms with furniture overload. If people can‘t walk through the room they won‘t like it. The sitting rooms (living rooms and dens) need to appear ready to make 4 people comfortable if space is limited. If you have a lot of electronics corral it and the cords to make the room look good. That may mean it‘s no longer the focal point of your family room. If there was ever a time when “it‘s better to look good than to feel good“, this is it. If your electronics look bad it will hurt resale. Your fireplace may be the feel good feature. Make the family aspect of it more outstanding.
7. Make all necessary repairs to make your house pass inspection. If you don‘t, savvy buyers WILL MAKE YOU PAY way more than you can fit something yourself. Remove the problems before they become an issue and get in the way of potential contracts.
8. Organize the closets and storage spaces in your house so that they look great and a bit empty. I don‘t care if you have to store half your clothes and shoes in a storage locker. Those closets need to be perfect, nothing on the floor and fragrant and attractive. Then do the same thing in the bathrooms. People hate dirty bathrooms only a little less than dirty kitchens. Your kitchen matters and it‘s good if it connects to an eating area and family room. These rooms must look, smell and be pristine.
9. Make sure window treatments let the light come into the house. All buyers want lots of windows. Let them see the windows. It may mean you want to take down some curtains. Any curtains you have up at resale time should leave the glass parts of your windows completely exposed when open. Hang panels from the ceiling to the floor and forget cheap pitiful catalogue curtains that can‘t do the job. Unlined curtains make your house look funny from the outside.

Notice we didn‘t mention granite countertops or much decoration. What sells houses is more restrained than over decorated and draped outrageously. Potential buyers need to be able to see the house, not your personal style statement. Don‘t distract them.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com

Paula Stone is a black belt home remodeler and former Realtor. She works with her husband Ron in his mortgage business. Their website is full of Free information about the mortgage process and real estate. Visit it at www.alabama-mortgage-specialists.com“>Alabama Mortgage Loan

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated