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 Berlin, MD

Latitude: 38.331075 -- Longitude: -75.21395

Other Area Cities: Berlin Ocean City St Martin West Ocean City Salisbury

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The town of Berlin had its start around the 1790s, part of the Burley Plantation, a 300-acre land grant dating back to 1677. The name Berlin is believed to be derived from a contraction of "Burleigh Inn", a tavern located at the crossroads of the Philadelphia Post Road (now South Main Street) and Sinepuxent Road (Tripoli Street). This may be why the correct pronunciation of the town's name is BURL-un, not BER-LIN, nor ber-LIN. Unfortunately, many people are moving to the area and consistently mispronounce its name. Almost always local people, born and raised there, will pronounce it correctly. Berlin incorporated as a town in 1868. In the early 21st century, Berlin was known as a rest stop for travelers on their way to the coastal resort of Ocean City as well as a stop for tourists who enjoyed hunting and fishing on the lower Eastern Shore of Maryland. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Maryland 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Berlin	Maryland	United States
Population	3,491	5,296,486	281,421,906
Median age	38.3	36	35.3
Median age for Male	35.5	34.9	34
Median age for Female	40.3	37	36.5
Households	1,347	1,980,859	105,480,101
Household population	3,307	5,162,430	273,643,273
Average household size	2.46	2.61	2.59
Families	881	1,359,318	71,787,347
Average family size	3.01	3.13	3.14
Housing units	1,427	2,145,283	115,904,641
Occupied units	1,347	1,980,859	105,480,101
Vacant units	80	164,424	10,424,540

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