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 Malverne, NY

Latitude: 40.658197 -- Longitude: -73.672784

Other Area Cities: Long Beach Flushing Whitestone Little Neck Fresh Meadows Rego Park Woodside Saint Albans Richmond Hill South Richmond Hill West Hempstead Rockville Centre South Ozone Park Hollis Jamaica Lynbrook Hicksville Baldwin Baldwin Harbor Amityville Oceanside Hewlett Inwood Lido Beach Lawrence Valley Stream Woodmere

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Lynbrook is a village in Nassau County, New York, USA . The population was 19,911 at the 2000 census, but was now recorded at 29,000 in 2006. Lynbrook's mascot is the Owl. The location of Lynbrook was originally called Pearsalls. The village was incorporated in 1911. The name "Lynbrook" is derived by dividing "Brooklyn" into its syllables and inverting them, a tribute to the original home of many of the town's turn-of-the-century residents. It is frequently called "Lynbrook, U.S.A.," in recognition of the fact that there is no other town in the United States with the same name. Atlantic Ave, looking north from the railroad, taken about 1915Lynbrook is part of the fourth congressional District (NY). Long Island Rail Road service to the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn is available at the Lynbrook station at Sunrise Highway and Peninsula Boulevard. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

New York 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Lynbrook	New York	United States
Population	19,911	18,976,457	281,421,906
Median age	39.7	35.9	35.3
Median age for Male	38.1	34.5	34
Median age for Female	41.1	37.2	36.5
Households	7,369	7,056,860	105,480,101
Household population	19,587	18,395,996	273,643,273
Average household size	2.66	2.61	2.59
Families	5,243	4,639,387	71,787,347
Average family size	3.2	3.22	3.14
Housing units	7,570	7,679,307	115,904,641
Occupied units	7,369	7,056,860	105,480,101
Vacant units	201	622,447	10,424,540

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