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 Whitmore Lake, MI

Latitude: 42.418569 -- Longitude: -83.75612

Other Area Cities: Whitmore Lake Brighton Milford South Lyon Plymouth Northville

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Whitmore Lake is an unincorporated community in the U.S. state of Michigan. The community spans the boundary between Green Oak Township in Livingston County and Northfield Township in Washtenaw County. The United States Census Bureau has defined a Census-designated place (CDP) with this name for statistical purposes which has no legal status as an incorporated municipality. The population was 6,574 at the 2000 census. The community is located about nine miles (14.5 km) north of Ann Arbor and about six miles south of Brighton. It is situated around the shores of Whitmore Lake and the CDP also includes the area around the smaller Horseshoe Lake to the south, Lawton Lake to the east and Monahan Lake to the northeast. U.S. Highway 23 forms the western edge of much of the CDP for the 2000 census. The Whitmore Lake ZIP code, 48189, is also used by a wider area than that defined by the CDP, including Hamburg Township and a large part of Northfield Township. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Michigan 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Whitmore Lake	Michigan	United States
Population	6,574	9,938,444	281,421,906
Median age	33.9	35.5	35.3
Median age for Male	33.4	34.3	34
Median age for Female	34.5	36.6	36.5
Households	2,663	3,785,661	105,480,101
Household population	6,452	9,688,555	273,643,273
Average household size	2.42	2.56	2.59
Families	1,741	2,575,699	71,787,347
Average family size	2.94	3.1	3.14
Housing units	2,960	4,234,279	115,904,641
Occupied units	2,663	3,785,661	105,480,101
Vacant units	297	448,618	10,424,540

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