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 Oklahoma City, OK

Latitude: 35.482309 -- Longitude: -97.534994

Other Area Cities: Oklahoma City Norman Choctaw Bethany Del City Edmond Midwest City Moore The Village Warr Acres

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Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is also the county seat of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. Oklahoma City was founded during the Land Run of 1889, first of five land runs in what became Oklahoma.By the time Oklahoma was admitted to the Union in 1907, Oklahoma City had already supplanted Guthrie, the territorial capital, as the population center and commercial hub of the new state. Soon after, the capital was moved from Guthrie to Oklahoma City.Oklahoma City Public Schools is the state's largest district and is one of the few urban districts in the nation with a growing enrollment, due largely to the so-called 'MAPS for KIDs' city-wide improvement plan. The Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics in Oklahoma City is home to the state's most gifted math and science pupils.Besides the skyscrapers that cluster in the city's central business district, one of the more prominent landmarks downtown is the Crystal Bridge. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Oklahoma 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Oklahoma City	Oklahoma	United States
Population	506,132	3,450,654	281,421,906
Median age	34	35.5	35.3
Median age for Male	32.7	33.9	34
Median age for Female	35.3	36.9	36.5
Households	204,434	1,342,293	105,480,101
Household population	492,999	3,338,279	273,643,273
Average household size	2.41	2.49	2.59
Families	129,360	921,750	71,787,347
Average family size	3.04	3.02	3.14
Housing units	228,149	1,514,400	115,904,641
Occupied units	204,434	1,342,293	105,480,101
Vacant units	23,715	172,107	10,424,540

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