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 Clinton Township, MI

Latitude: 42.466086 -- Longitude: -82.946417

Other Area Cities: Grosse Pointe Eastpointe Grosse Pointe Farms Grosse Pointe Park Grosse Pointe Woods Saint Clair Shores

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The community was first settled by Irish and German immigrants in the 1830s. In October 1897, a Post Office was established there with the name of "Half-way", as it was near the halfway point of the stage run between downtown Detroit and the Macomb County seat at Mount Clemens. It incorporated as the village of Halfway in December 1924 and reincorporated as the City of East Detroit in January 1929. The city changed its name to "Eastpointe" after a vote in 1992; the name change had been proposed to reduce its association with the adjacent city of Detroit, and the "-pointe" is intended to associate the city with the exclusive communities of the Grosse Pointes. One effect of changing the city's name was a dramatic rise in property values. Prior to 1924, the majority of the city was part of Erin Township. The school district that serves most of the city was unaffected by the municipal name change, and still uses the name East Detroit Public Schools. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Michigan 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Eastpointe	Michigan	United States
Population	34,077	9,938,444	281,421,906
Median age	36.6	35.5	35.3
Median age for Male	35.1	34.3	34
Median age for Female	38.5	36.6	36.5
Households	13,595	3,785,661	105,480,101
Household population	33,998	9,688,555	273,643,273
Average household size	2.5	2.56	2.59
Families	8,961	2,575,699	71,787,347
Average family size	3.11	3.1	3.14
Housing units	13,965	4,234,279	115,904,641
Occupied units	13,595	3,785,661	105,480,101
Vacant units	370	448,618	10,424,540

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