Need ideas on selling a house (Elk River, Stillwater: for sale, real estate, water heater)

[Hoosier]

Since one of my threads about considering moving to Elk River and not wanting to leave the northwest side of the Cities some things have occurred that are making my wife and I reconsider moving to the southern 'burbs. We're not too thrilled about the possibility of moving, but I wanted to ask you all a few questions about selling a house.

What is the best month to put a house on the market?
What are definite key selling points that people look for when buying a house?
Is it true that interior paint color detracts from the sale of a house? Should I paint my kids' room neutral along with the rest of the house?
Is purple really a bad color for a bedroom when selling?
What can I do to make my house sell the quickest in this market without losing my shirt?

Thanks for any input to these questions, or other ideas anyone may have.

[Delaneyland]

Howdy Hoosier, I don't know if you noticed, but there is a post just for real estate. I don't know if any of those that use it are actually realtors, but it may not hurt to put this post there as well (if you already haven't). Having sold and bought a half a dozen houses myself, I really have never been affected in making a decision by paint colors. I always have figured when buying or selling that paint is cheap (buying) and that the new owners will likely do what they want to make a house suitable for them (selling). Things I've found most distasteful when buying are clutter (both inside and out), obvious "cover ups", and not getting my questions answered. Of course, finding a good realtor you trust is absolutely essential. I have sold two houses and bought one on my own, thus saving between 5 and 8% on the deal. I've never been concerned about schools as I have no children living at home, but if you do, that may be one consideration when buying. If you're a handy guy and for minimal expense, you can do little things like update your water heater, make sure all the lights and bulbs work, fix any leaky faucets, stuff like that. I know, it doesn't sound like much, but the idea is to get any potential buyers to think of how little they will have to repair if they make an offer. Just my two cents.

[rubytue]

As someone who just sold a house in less than 1/3 the average time on the market in my area, I think one of our keys was keeping the place decluttered, and spotless. We staged the house outselves based on me spending too much time watching Designed to Sell on HGTV. Watch a few of thoseand you really get a good idea.

We are also looking for a house. We have seen over 30. Paint color doesn't bother me, but wallpaper bothers me. Wallpaper is a LOT of work. Also, its amazing some of the things I have seen while house hunting. First, like Delaneyland said, remove all clutter! Clean the place. Don't leave your microwave flithy, trash can overflowing, and cobwebs in the ceiling. Look for dings in your walls and patch & paint them. Paint your trim molding, too. I've seen several places where they put up crown molding, but didn't even fill the gaps or paint it. Don't overlook the basement, serious buyers will spend some time there and will notice things like duct tape on plumbing. Basically, go over your home and try to look at it from a buyer's eyes and you will see all the minor imperfections that you have overlooked over the years.

hope that helps!

[Hoosier]

Originally Posted by rubytue

As someone who just sold a house in less than 1/3 the average time on the market in my area, I think one of our keys was keeping the place decluttered, and spotless. We staged the house outselves based on me spending too much time watching Designed to Sell on HGTV. Watch a few of thoseand you really get a good idea.

We are also looking for a house. We have seen over 30. Paint color doesn't bother me, but wallpaper bothers me. Wallpaper is a LOT of work. Also, its amazing some of the things I have seen while house hunting. First, like Delaneyland said, remove all clutter! Clean the place. Don't leave your microwave flithy, trash can overflowing, and cobwebs in the ceiling. Look for dings in your walls and patch & paint them. Paint your trim molding, too. I've seen several places where they put up crown molding, but didn't even fill the gaps or paint it. Don't overlook the basement, serious buyers will spend some time there and will notice things like duct tape on plumbing. Basically, go over your home and try to look at it from a buyer's eyes and you will see all the minor imperfections that you have overlooked over the years.

hope that helps!

Thanks to both of you! I love Designed to Sell and all the other HGTV shows. I save them on my DVR to watch!! I agree with the paint color, I can look past it too, but have heard that many buyers cannot get past it. The one thing I absolutely hate in our house is a faux brick wall next to the fireplace downstairs (finished split level). I've thought about tearing it down and refinishing the wall, but not sure if it's worth the time and effort if we're going to sell. But if it hinders the sale of the house, I'm all for it.

And yeah I agree with wallpaper. I had lots of time tearing wallpaper down here. Not a shred left! I guess I'm paranoid since I hear about how bad the market is for sellers. It makes me worry.

Thanks again!!

[Yorkie_Mom]

Hoosier67, if you want to advertise your house for sale, you can put a thread in the Classified ads, I looked to find where you had something posted for your home, I could not find anything but this post, so go a head and list it in the classifieds. Yorkie

[Robert P Stewart]

I suppose it was only a matter of time before I chimed in.

Best month? I don't know. Not November, that's for sure. My February listings have gotten alot of attention and a couple have sold already. If you're going to be selling this year, get your home on the market as soon as possible.

Best color: something you might drink at Starbucks. Yes, even the kids room. For all that people like to say they can imagine what a new color would look like - they can't. Give them neutral. Give it to them now.

And don't lose your shirt. At least I've never sold a home by taking mine off... nevermind. I have one word for you: clean. Clean the bathrooms so they look like no one goes #1, #2, or #3 in there (and certainly not #4). Scrub the tub. Scrub the sink.

Defunk the house. Have an impartial person over to visit. Ask them if they can smell your house. If it smells like anything other than a) vanilla, or b) vanilla - do something about that.

I take many clients through dozens of home every single week. I know whether they are going to like the home in the first 10 seconds. Seriously. A smell? Forget about it. A dirty or cluttered entry way? Forget about it. That black leather "yoga swing" hanging from the ceiling in that extra bedroom? Uggghhhhh....

And while I'm handing you all this valuable and hard-learned experience from my life in the fast lane as a Realtor - let me give you a few more hints:

1. Don't leave the handcuffs on the dresser. And if you do, there had better be a (real) police uniform in the closet.
2. The only curly hairs my client intends to see on sinks, toilets, and tubs is their own. Remove yours.
3. You may be very proud of your distant 5th cousin-twice-removed-by-half-common-law-marriage who happens to have 6 fingers on each hand. You may want to have thousands of pictures of him and how he plays the piano. Hide them. I want my client looking at your house and not the pictures.
4. You can only wear two shoes at a time. Take the others and hide them. I don't want my client thinking about you. I want them thinking about their own shoes on the floor.
5. Clean your refrigerator. Yes, we look inside! I mean, we're buying it right? It CANNOT smell inside. It MUST look nice. There can be NO appearance of anything that might cause disease if eaten. I stage the fridge. I once sold a home specifically because the only thing in the fridge was a bottle of wine, a round of cheese, and some strawberries. Seriously.
6. Hire a stager. Seriously. Every single listing I have is either A) Staged, or B) Staged. It is expensive. I pay between $500-$2000 per listing for a stager. It drastically reduces the low-ball offers and is FAR less expensive than the first price drop.
7. Get rid of all your crap! You're selling your house, right? You're not going to live in the backyard afterwards, right? Start moving. Put everything you don't need for the next 2 months into boxes. Put these boxes in storage.
8. Clean the house.
9. Please hire a great agent. Hire an expensive one. Hire a real shark that is going to have your best interests at heart as he or she squeezes every last penny out of the buyer. How can you tell if an agent is good at this? What are you paying them? If you're not paying them much, don't expect much. If an agent won't squeeze every last penny out of you, don't expect them to do it FOR you. OK - here comes the criticism...
10. The entrance to the home must look as if you're going to have the pope over to dinner. Clean and polish the locksets to the doors. If they're loose or rusty, buy new ones. No cobwebs. No dirt. No nothin'. Like I said - my clients make their decisions in the first few seconds. That's the front of the home and maybe the first few steps inside. That's where perfection counts.

Wow - what a treatise. Enjoy!

Robert

[yellowsnow]

Good luck selling. You've gotten good advice. I hope it works for you!

[Hoosier]

Originally Posted by Robert P Stewart

I suppose it was only a matter of time before I chimed in. Robert

Thank you so very much for your words of wisdom. I was hoping you would chime in. From posts I've seen from you, you seem very wise in this area. I have thought about hiring someone to come in and tell me all the imperfections in the house so I can get it up to where it needs to be (is that staging too?). I really like the idea of staging the house...I've seen numerous shows and it seems to make it look so amazing. I hadn't thought about the refrigerator, so that's good to know. One question, I have a split level home and the entry is larger than the usual split level...which I love. However gramma and grampa used to live there and the walls are paneling that has been painted over. Should I tear the paneling down even though it's painted? Will that take away value from my home? Also, we have an ugly black iron railing from the 60s to go upstairs. Is it a dated look, or am I good to go? I've considered putting in an oak railing but it's spendy...plus I'd like to enjoy it. Any last thoughts? Thanks again for all of your advice, I greatly appreciate it!!

[Robert P Stewart]

I've got to admit that the long post was half me being helpful and half me blowing off steam.

Let's see - a good Realtor will be able to give you helpful, objective advice on imperfections and things that need to be fixed. So do and some do not. I sort of cringe when I visit someone's house and they've fixed it all up before they ever called me. Chances are, they spent alot of money that they will never get back. It's sad. Use your Realtor as a sounding board. They've (hopefully) seen thousands of homes and sold hundreds themselves. What better expert?

About staging. No one knows how to do it other than a stager. This is because the way you stage your house and the way you live in your house are two COMPLETELY different concepts. I use a staging company that does FANTASTIC work. When they're done, the home just feels - I don't know - like something I'd want to buy. And in this market when many homes are competing for the same buyer - the staged ones win. A couple of years ago? Staging was optional as far as I was concerned. Now? Mandatory. Staging is a bare bones service we provide because of the profligate competition out there. If my homes are on the market longer than 60 days, something isn't right.

Without seeing the paneling, it is a difficult call. But I will tell you that I haven't seen good paneling, painted or not, since... never. Is that the best use of your money? I'm not sure either. You'll want to assemble a list of things that need to be done, prioritize them, and do the most important ones first. For this point, I just don't know without seeing it. Now, as to the value it "takes" from your home. It doesn't. We're not talking dollars here, we're talking about how sellable the house is - again, two completely different concepts. The paneling makes your home less sellable, but doesn't necessarily impact its value.

Iron railing? Depending on the railing type - that may be the hottest thing. Wrought iron and antiqued metal finishes are back in style. Again, without seeing it, I'm not sure. Oak railings? Run. Fast. and far away.

Sidenote: I laughed so hard that I blew coffee out my nose when I was showing a very dated home to a client last week. It had that ugly, dark wood trim that was so beautiful in the early 80's. The client leans over to inspect the trim, taps it, and says, "Ah...vintage 1983 s$#twood. Twas a good year."

I laughed so hard I cried.

[Mumof3]

Hi Robert,

Sometimes though even paying loads of money out to a realtor doesn't guarantee a great job - I wish you were my realtor actually - You sound exactly what We need!!! - We are in California trying to sell our almost one year old home and the guy we have is from Coldwell Banker and He can't even take a decent digital picture of the house....on the website there is some fuzzy photos on there which I personally think is terrible - I have told him but He doesn't seem to think it matters too much!!!! He's getting 6% as well - He hasn't once mentioned the importance of staging our house which incidentally I have done myself as I am quite artistic and realise that decluttering and cleaning are pre-requisites for selling at a decent price and within a reasonable amount of time!! So He has done one open house and had someone through the door who said that they would put an offer in and then the following week told him that there was something they didn't like about the house - wouldn't you have thought that our guy would have found out what it was they didn't think was good?? Isn't that his job to give us good and bad feedback??? He just doesn't seem to have any common sense - I noticed how eager he was to sign us as We liked the fact that he can talk the talk but he also made sure it was a 6 month deal!!! 6 Months!!!! But now We feel he isn't giving us an adequate service - any suggestions???

By the way, We are looking at the Mahtomedi area and also Stillwater and White bear Lake - should have around $400K to spend that's if this realtor does his job - We need 3-4 beds and some land would be nice....