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 Roanoke, VA

Latitude: 37.276895 -- Longitude: -79.955711

Other Area Cities: Wirtz Roanoke Cave Spring Hollins Salem Vinton

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Roanoke (The Star City of the South) is an independent city located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The City of Roanoke is adjacent to, but politically separate from, Roanoke County. The name Roanoke is said to have originated from a Algonquin word for shell "money".[1] The town of Big Lick was chartered in 1874. It became the town of Roanoke in 1882 and the independent city of Roanoke two years later. Its location in the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains, in the middle of the Roanoke Valley between Maryland and Tennessee, made it the transportation hub of western Virginia and contributed to its rapid growth. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 94,911. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Virginia 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Roanoke	Virginia	United States
Population	94,911	7,078,515	281,421,906
Median age	37.6	35.7	35.3
Median age for Male	35.9	34.5	34
Median age for Female	39.4	36.8	36.5
Households	42,003	2,699,173	105,480,101
Household population	92,373	6,847,117	273,643,273
Average household size	2.2	2.54	2.59
Families	24,255	1,847,796	71,787,347
Average family size	2.86	3.04	3.14
Housing units	45,257	2,904,192	115,904,641
Occupied units	42,003	2,699,173	105,480,101
Vacant units	3,254	205,019	10,424,540

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