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!

As of 11/21/09 the Mary-Jane Stanton RePage is ranked at 2,045 with 70 points.
The monthly top RePage owner will receive a cash prize. Help this agent by bookmarking this site and posting it to blogs and other Web pages and encourage others to visit.

Local Information for Rye, NY

Latitude: 40.970451 -- Longitude: -73.688435

Other Area Cities: Rye Ardsley Valhalla Tuckahoe Sleepy Hollow Scarsdale Rye Brook White Plains Mamaroneck Greenville Harrison Hartsdale Irvington Larchmont Mount Vernon Pelham Manor Port Chester Tarrytown Dobbs Ferry

Enter our Photo Sweepstakes and Win $200 for your Rye photos!

To see random photos for other cities Click Here.

Submit your photos of Rye and become eligible to win $200. Click Here for details.

Rye is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is separate from the Town of Rye (which despite its name, is larger than the city). The population was 14,955 at the 2000 census. Rye houses the home and burial place of John Jay, a Founding Father and the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Original milestones, fixed in 1763 by Benjamin Franklin along the Boston Post Road during his term as Postmaster General still mark the 24th, 25th, and 26th miles from New York City. Playland, a historic amusement park and designated National Historic Landmark, is located in Rye. Playland features one of the oldest wooden roller coasters in the northeast, the Dragon Coaster. The oldest house in the town, the Timothy Knapp House, is owned by the Rye Historical Society and dates in its original version to around 1667. The Historical Society also owns a former inn/tavern built in 1730, the Square House, which it operates as a museum. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

New York 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Rye	New York	United States
Population	14,955	18,976,457	281,421,906
Median age	38.1	35.9	35.3
Median age for Male	37.3	34.5	34
Median age for Female	38.7	37.2	36.5
Households	5,377	7,056,860	105,480,101
Household population	14,950	18,395,996	273,643,273
Average household size	2.78	2.61	2.59
Families	4,027	4,639,387	71,787,347
Average family size	3.26	3.22	3.14
Housing units	5,559	7,679,307	115,904,641
Occupied units	5,377	7,056,860	105,480,101
Vacant units	182	622,447	10,424,540

Visit US Census