5 Tips To Sell Your Home for Top Dollar

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I have five tips I wanted to share with you, on how to sell your home fast and for top dollar in the Capital District.

1. Landscaping. It’s important to really look hard at this; many times I see overgrown bushes that need to be trimmed or even dead bushes that need to be removed, for example. Give your home some color with flowers, planted either on the lawn or in hanging baskets. Grass should obviously stay mowed.

2. Curb appeal. Keep walkways clear, house numbers painted, house paint looking fresh, and your mailbox looking new. Buyers can get that first impression and know whether they’re going to like a home or not within a few seconds. 

3. Lighting. Open up the curtains for natural light and paint dark rooms a light, neutral color. Make sure all rooms - bathrooms especially - have all their bulbs and are the same kind.

4. Cleanliness. Keep everything dust-free, especially this time of year with pollen left over. Also make sure your windows are clean, including the front and back door, especially if you have pets. Some people take the time to do power washing but leave the outside of the windows dirty. Don’t overlook it. Make sure carpets are clean and stain-free, and if the stains can’t be removed, you may want to replace it. Otherwise, you can seek out a professional carpet cleaner to really make them shine. Keeping mirrors clean should also go without saying.

5. Decluttering. You should declutter your closets by 50% so that they don’t look overstuffed. Make sure boxes are stowed away and nicely organized in the garage or basement, not in a closet or within the home. You also want to clear your kitchen table and countertops. Remove or box up all the countertop things like knife butcher blocks, toaster ovens, and microwaves to leave it bare and open to make them look usable as workspace. Too much clutter won’t allow them to look beyond it. The same goes with bathrooms; remove knickknacks and supplies.

Hopefully, you find these tips useful. If you or anyone you know could use them, please pass these tips along! If you have questions for me, give me a call on my cell phone or visit my website.

The Capital District Market at a Glance

Looking for a Capital District home? Click here for a full Home Search 

Selling Your Capital District home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

I wanted to give a quick update on some of the housing stats for the first half of 2016 here in the Capital District. It's was a very busy first quarter of 2016, and the second followed just as strongly.

Coming into the middle of June, we show that the number of homes available for sale actually decreased by nearly 16%, shrinking inventory and creating more demand. Pending sales rose more than 16%, which is good because more homes are selling. As a result, closed sales are up 17.5% from this time last year.

You’d think the average sales price all over the Capital District would increase, but it actually fell by 2.2% over last year. Then again, there are certain pockets like Saratoga County, which is up about $10,000, in average sales price. Likewise, months supply of inventory is another number we like to watch, and it’s down 28.2% - that’s a huge number. We’re down about 6.4 months of inventory throughout the entire capital district. Again, this varies by area.

Percentage of original list price to sale price ratio is about 93.6%, which is something we’ll probably see start to increase as more and more multiple offers come in. If you find yourself in one of these multiple offer situations, don’t throw out a lowball offer. Do your research and find out what homes in the area are selling for so you can act quick. I recently had a buyer who just came onto the market and only saw two properties, but the second was exactly what they wanted. Someone told them they had to go out and see seven or eight homes before they actually put an offer on a home, and they ended up losing the home because an offer came in and was accepted in the meantime.

Finally, remember that mortgage interest rates are still very low. There are some rumors that these interest rates could rise in the third or fourth quarter, so you might want to take advantage now.

Thanks for tuning in today. If you have any questions for me, please feel free to give me a call or send me an email.