Selling Your Home - Why Should Buyers Choose Yours?

November 20, 2008

Assuming certain factors are the same - such as location, amenities, approximate price range, features - what would entice a buyer to put an offer on your house instead of another in your subdivision?

It’s been my experience that most buyers lack imagination when it comes to looking at properties. They are effected by your decorating, your taste and how your home makes them feel. Only about 20% can detach themselves from your decorations and imagine their home in its place.

So how do you appeal to the 80% of buyers who want to walk into your house and feel at home?

The first step is to de-clutter your home. Any clutter translates into a read-between-the-lines detractor of “not enough storage space”. If you truly don’t have enough storage space for all of your possessions, treasured though they may be, then rent a small storage space. Go through your home and remove everything except the most flattering and visually appealing items. Your home does not want to look bare, but it needs to give the impressions of elegance and space.

The next step is to take care of any maintenance issues before you put the home on the market. You may be temped to say, “I’ll fix anything their home inspector finds”, but in my experience, your initial offer will be lower (or even non-existent) if the impression the buyers get is that you have not taken care of the home. So replace rotten wood, fix and paint damaged or grubby walls, replace torn or damaged flooring, service HVAC units before you call your real estate agent.

The final step is to thoroughly clean the home. Hire someone to help you do a deep spring cleaning - clean baseboards, polish mirrors, shampoo carpets. Make your home sparkle. Buyers will notice on a subconscious level that the home is clean. Why do you think new homes are so attractive to buyers? It’s because no-one’s dirt is there - it’s virgin and pristine.

Once you have listed the home, keep it clean and tidy. Make beds and put away dishes before you leave in the morning. So often I’ve tried to make appointments to show a home, and the seller has said that we’ll have to come back another day because they left the home in a mess that day. Normally there is no “another day”. So if there is a day you’ve had to run out in a hurry, take a deep breath and let it be shown anyway and hope that the buyers are the 20% that can imagine the dishes in their right place!

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Local Information for North Miami Beach, FL

Latitude: 25.930171 -- Longitude: -80.16978

Other Area Cities: North Miami Beach Aventura Biscayne Gardens Carol Hialeah Miami Miami Beach North Miami Hollywood Opa-Locka Pinewood Park Sunny Isles Beach Uleta Ives Estates

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Attractions in vicinity of North Miami Beach include a line of popular ocean beaches. Haulover Park, operated by Miami-Dade County Parks and Recreation, has a well known clothing optional beach. North Miami Beach also has an authentic Medieval Spanish monastery. This stone building around a patio, the cloisters of the Monastery of St. Bernard de Clairvaux, was built in Sacramenia, Segovia, Spain in the 12th century. It was purchased by William Randolph Hearst in the 1920s, dismantled and shipped to the United States, and reassembled after Hearst's death in North Miami Beach in the 1950s. It is a tourism attraction and a popular spot for weddings. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Florida 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	North Miami Beach	Florida	United States
Population	40,786	15,982,378	281,421,906
Median age	34.5	38.7	35.3
Median age for Male	32.8	37.3	34
Median age for Female	35.9	40.1	36.5
Households	13,987	6,337,929	105,480,101
Household population	40,360	15,593,433	273,643,273
Average household size	2.89	2.46	2.59
Families	9,803	4,210,760	71,787,347
Average family size	3.44	2.98	3.14
Housing units	15,350	7,302,947	115,904,641
Occupied units	13,987	6,337,929	105,480,101
Vacant units	1,363	965,018	10,424,540

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