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 Ocean City, NJ

Latitude: 39.265371 -- Longitude: -74.593814

Other Area Cities: Ocean City Absecon Cedar Grove Egg Harbor City Linwood Margate City Middletown Northfield Pleasantville Somers Point Ventnor City

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Ocean City is a city in Cape May County, New Jersey, United States. It is the principal city of the 'Ocean City Metropolitan Statistical Area' which encompasses all of Cape May County. As of the United States 2000 Census, the city population was 15,378 in the winter months. In the summer months, the town's population can (and often does) swell over 110,000. Ocean City is known as a family seaside resort that has prohibited the sales of alcoholic beverages within its limits since the city's founding in 1879. Ocean City is a very popular vacation area in South Jersey. More families flock here than other New Jersey beaches because of its laws regarding the sale of alcohol. The Travel Channel rated Ocean City as the Best Family Beach of 2005. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

New Jersey 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Ocean City	New Jersey	United States
Population	15,378	8,414,350	281,421,906
Median age	47.8	36.7	35.3
Median age for Male	45.4	35.5	34
Median age for Female	50.3	38	36.5
Households	7,464	3,064,645	105,480,101
Household population	15,089	8,219,529	273,643,273
Average household size	2.02	2.68	2.59
Families	4,007	2,154,539	71,787,347
Average family size	2.71	3.21	3.14
Housing units	20,298	3,310,275	115,904,641
Occupied units	7,464	3,064,645	105,480,101
Vacant units	12,834	245,630	10,424,540

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