When selling your home, there are some things you need to remember to make sure that no one is inconvenienced or that your house is perfectly ready to be sold anytime! When on sale, the number one priority is for your house to be ALWAYS available for show. While this may seem to be inconvenient for you at times, you will be able to show your house to a lot of prospects and, thus, will enable you to sell your house faster.

Most real estate agents will call hours beforehand when showing your house to prospective buyers. However inconvenient it may be for you, the best decision would be to allow the agents show the house to the prospects as planned. Refusing might only lead you to lose a prospective buyer.

Here are other reminders for you when selling your home:

1. It’s Best Not To Be Home.

The prospective buyers will not be comfortable viewing your home when you’re around. They will feel like intruders. They may also not be up to being critical of the house because of the your presence.

If you cannot leave the premises, do your best to not intervene with the agent and guests. Try to remain out of sight. You can answer any inquiries from the agent or guests, but only when asked.

2. Turn On All the Lights In and Out Of the House.

Even if it’s broad daylight, turning on all the lights in and out of your house is recommended. The lights will help brighten up areas in your house which cannot be reached by natural sunlight. It will also prevent harsh shadows and will make your house more cheerful and bright to look at.

3. No Scented Sprays or Artificial Fragrances!

You never know if the guests are allergic to certain scents or fragrances. It may also offend others. If you want a pleasant smell around your house, opt for something natural. Or you can have a potpourri pot. You can also try turning on your stove burner or oven for a moment and putting a drop of vanilla extract on it.

4. Keep Your Pets Controlled Or Take Them With You.

To let the agents freely take the prospective buyers on a tour around your home, it is best for you to take your pets with you outdoors. It is not recommended for pets to go running around the property. Some prospects may not be too keen on having pets, or may be allergic.

It is also better to have a notice put up. If you cannot take your pets with you, keep them in safely penned area on your backyard. For household pets, you can put them in a room and put a sign on the door stating about the pets.

5. Keep Everything Tidy and Clean.

Make sure to empty your trash bins every time prospects come. Go through the bedrooms and see to it that the beds are made, and the curtains are well placed. Papers and scatters should be picked up and stacked neatly where it belongs. Do not leave empty glasses, saucers, or any unnecessary stuff around the house. The house has to be freshly dusted and swept or vacuumed. It is important for the house to be clean and to present it with a positive atmosphere.

The buyers from today’s housing market can be described as more choosy and picky when they choose a property. This means that selling a house in today’s property is done with more caution and with a more detailed outlook.

Three factors determine what makes a good house to live in. Buyer usually take these into consideration when choosing a house that they would like to buy and live in.

Location: Location is the first thing that the buyers think of. They decide on an area of the town that would be most ideal for them to live in and start from there. If the property you’re selling is in this kind of area, chances are you’ll have many prospects to sell the house to.

Price: Price is always an issue in any market. Buyers always look for properties that are accessible and ideal while at the same time affordable for their pockets. Considering the price is especially essential today because of the recession and the ups and downs of the housing market.

Presentation: This automatically includes repair and staging the house. Buyers won’t just choose a property over location and price. Buyers today are picky; they will choose a house that they see and feel is right for them. With this in mind, you have to present the house you’re selling in a simple yet affecting manner. You have to present the house in a way that the buyers will be able to see its fine points and potential.

Staging a home also has its challenges. People may look at it as decorating the home to attract buyers, but there is actually a difference between staging and decorating. Staging focuses more on depersonalizing the home and in selling the space rather than the personality that the previous owners of the home had put into it. Staging dwells more on making a clear flow what the home can offer. Decorating, on the other hand, is personal, and ‘personal’ is not something that staging creates; ‘personal’ is what staging makes a path for.

There are four challenges in staging that home stagers may encounter:

1. The owners would rather have the decorations as it is. Nothing changes and nothing moves out of the room.

There are just some sellers who want the properties to be sold as is and you as the stager cannot force them to change it. About the only thing that you can do at this point is to show them the value of having to change things. Do not leave it to their imaginations. It is important that they see it for themselves. You can try to convince them by citing your experiences as an example and showing the sellers some of your previous projects.

2. Another challenge is when the house has already been listed for many months before the seller calls for a stager.

This becomes a problem because this means that many prospective buyers have already been to the property and has seen the house. It would have already been too late for these buyers to see the potential of the property. The house should be staged before it is listed. It may hove lost its selling momentum already when a stager is called months after it was on the market.

3. Some rooms in the house may give headaches to stagers because they are cramped and stuff are all cluttered around.

In staging, showing lots of space while emphasizing the good points in the room is what matters most. The clutter has to be sorted out and removed. You can use some of the furniture and things (lamps, desks, chairs, etc.) to highlight the main purpose of the room and to focus on its finer points. But always remember that space is important to give the buyers an idea of what they may want to add to it when the property becomes theirs.

Multifunction rooms are another headache. These rooms often give a confused layout and can leave people wondering what they’re supposed to do with so much space. Where would their couch go? What about the dining table?… Multifunction rooms are even more confusing for the buyers when it is vacant. This is why stagers must make use of furnitures and designs to show buyers the possibilities in using the rooms. They can set the couch here and position the table there to give the buyer an idea of how to bring out the beauty and flow of the room.

4. A home with nothing in it is also a challenge for home stagers.

In staging a home, you need to bring out a feeling or an impression from the buyers when they see the house. Showing them a bare and lifeless home is not going to achieve this goal. Vacant homes only give confusion to the buyers. They will wonder what they can do with this room or if they need to have that room. To give some life and feeling into the room, you may need to rent some furniture. Get only those that are important. Remember to focus on selling the home and space and not the furniture.

You have your house plan, your choices of paint and tools, and a picture in your head. You have the expenses figured out.. or so you think. The financial aspect of remodeling your home may seem simple. But there are more to consider when financing a remodeling project.

First, ask yourself: Is the home improvement for your own benefit or is it to help you sell the property?

This question is important because you will be remodeling the house with either your family’s needs or the next occupant’s needs as basis. The changes of the house should naturally be for the good of whoever will use the house after the remodeling. If the purpose of remodeling your house is to make it better for you and your family to live in, then by all means remodel the home however you want. But if your goal is to make a higher sales price for the house, then don’t be too specific on the remodeling. Compare the property with those in the neighborhood first. If your home improvement plans will bring the house to the neighborhood’s level, the sales price can be increased. Being too different from the neighborhood (like having the only swimming pool or being covered with so many tall bushes), on the other hand, might only put off buyers.

In remodeling the house for the buyers, you might want to stay safe. Tastes vary for every person and the buyers may not like how you remodeled it. They might want to have their own decorations on the house when they move in. Staying simple is sometimes the better decision.

How To Pay For Your Remodeling Project

There are many options on how to pay for your remodeling project. You may be able to spend less than the normal amount, or you may be able to deduct the interest from your income taxes.

The simplest option in financing your remodeling project is to use an unsecured loan. This type of loan, however, is only best when your remodeling project costs under $10, 000. The loan costs won’t be associated with other types of loans, but the interest rate would be higher.

Opting for the home equity line of credit is also a plan. If your house is worth more than your current mortgage you can borrow against that amount. You can borrow the money in stages if you want, and no interest will be charged until you actually borrow the money. You are expected to pay the closing costs to set up the loan, though.

One disadvantage of getting a home equity line of credit is that the interest rates vary and they may go up. Another downside is that you have to be prepared to pay the entire loan immediately if the lender tells you to.

Another option is having a ’second mortgage.’ The second mortgage is similar to the home equity loan in terms of having to borrow equity in your home. But a second mortgage has a fixed interest rate and is for a fixed period of time only.

For major projects, you can try to refinance your first mortgage. Using this option, you will be facing an interest rate lower than your existing mortgage, though you’ll still have to settle the closing costs. The interest can actually be deductible so ask for assistance from your tax advisor when refinancing your first mortgage.

401k or 403b retirement plans are also alternatives in financing your remodeling project. With the 401k or 403b, you’ll be able to avoid most closing costs. But you will only have a short amount of time to pay it back, so it would be best to use this loan only on smaller projects.

One last option is to borrow borrow from your contractor. This is actually the most costly of the loan options. Interest rates of this loan can be as high as 20% or more.

For everyone of these options, you are sure to find both advantages and disadvantages, Finance isn’t such a simple thing, especially where loans are concerned. Since loans are usually needed in remodeling a home, you should try look into the costs more closely and pick the best option for your remodeling project.

You may have noticed that despite your efforts in improving your advertising campaign may not always produce good results in bringing you prospective buyers for your property. This isn’t really surprising. Advertisements — fliers, posters, etc. — do not guarantee to bring you buyers. Which is why you would have to put effort in personally engaging in many real estate transactions. One of which is research that would focus on finding signs of a motivated or prospective buyer.

This is not to say, of course, that you discard any advertising. Your advertisements and marketing strategies are still the gateways for you to find out if there are interested buyers out there for you. Efforts put in advertising and campaigns would not go to waste once the prospective buyers know of you.

The main thing to remember when you do your advertisements is to target your specific market. If it would be a waste of time and effort, and not to mention more costly, if you direct your ads to just anyone without even thinking if they are the people that you are looking for. When done properly, your ads will pay off and it is the prospective buyers themselves who will be coming to you, not you to them!

A proper strategy for advertising and marketing yourself would definitely be a factor in looking for prospective buyers. Flyers, brochures, and TV ads are still being used, but the most popular type of strategy employed by many real estate investors today is direct mailing campaigns. This type of marketing effort will allow you to directly narrow down prospective buyers and at the same time it is cost-efficient (see Direct Mailing Campaigns). Another marketing strategy of favored by many successful real estate investors is marketing themselves and their expertise online.

Putting Yourself In Your Buyer’s Shoes

One effective way to know how to meet a prospective buyer’s expectations in a property is to be one, or at least just think of yourself as one. Put yourself in the shoes of a buyer who wants a residential home. Then ask yourself what a residential home should have enough for you to want to buy it. Most usually, it would go down to three things:

• stability
• comfort
• accessible

The property has to be stable and well-repaired. No buyer would want a run-down property, or a house that looks like it can just go down the drain any minute. Check the property to make sure it meets your expectations (posing as a buyer) and make changes when needed.

Everyone also wants to own a house wherein they are comfortable. This would involve a proper staging and design from you. Keep the rehabbing simple and do not either overdo or underdo in the renovations.

Last is that the property has to be accessible for the buyer. A property in a good and clean neighborhood is a “yes.” Nobody would want a property standing solitary in a dark area.

With these three as your starting points, you will be able to find out what your property lacks and what not to put in the property. Always remember to be more customer-centered, meaning that you should put yourself in a buyer’s prospective to know what your property needs to be bought.

When selling a home after buying it, your primary focus would be how much your profit would be in the sale. So naturally you would want to raise the resale value of the house. In raising the resale value of the house, you look into the improvements you can make to make the raise possible.

You’re probably wondering what repairs and improvements to make that would surely increase the home’s resale value. The first part of the home that you should look into improving should be the kitchen! Nothing is more dramatic and noticeable to a buyer than a kitchen renovation.

Why the kitchen? The kitchen is like the social centerpoint of every family. This is where families get together and socialize with one another or with guests. It’s the one room wherein family members can completely gather around everyday!

So how do we start with the kitchen renovation? Here are some of the starting points:

Cabinets and Storage

Cabinets actually set the tone of mood of your kitchen. They determine how organized the workspace will be and will provide a clean look to the room. Closed storage is preferred; no glass doors or open shelves. Adding a little design (not too much; leave some designing for the buyers) and some fixtures can also liven things up.

Cabinets and storage are one of the biggest investment in a kitchen renovation, but they the most dividends.

Countertops

Countertops made of granite or marble are now popular because of their strength and aesthetic appearance.

Appliances

A fridge, a stove, and a dishwasher ought to do the trick! With these three already in the room, anyone can say that the kitchen is modernly redesigned already. Now if you opt for the appliances to be high-end and stainless-steel, not to mention energy-efficient, then your kitchen will definitely be seen as upgraded.

When looking for an alternative for a stainless steel finish, white remains the most popular. It exudes a clean and fresh feeling to the room. A white finish also costs less and can be as good as the stainless steel finish.

Flooring

What’s for the floor? What is popular right now is having light-tone wood and mahogany finishes, or bamboo or hardwood. These look great with white cabinets. If you’re worried about the tiles getting easily worn out and you’ve got heavy traffic in the kitchen, you can opt for oversized ceramic (or slate and limestone) floor tiles. Sheet vinyl flooring is a lower priced alternative. These two are definitely preferable to the peel-and-stick tiles.

Lighting

Last but not least is the lighting in the kitchen. You’ll need three types of lighting: ambient, task, and accent lighting. Ambient lighting is used to cast over a general illumination around the room. Task lighting is used when doing chores like cooking. Accent lighting is used to create an attractive focal point in the room.

One of the practices or real estate investors in making a nice profit is to sell a property as quickly as possible. Time is very vital when selling a property. You incur costs and expenses when you hold a property, and the longer you hold it the more money you spend.

Real estate investors make it a point to sell properties fast and in less than a month. But how do you make this possible? One can’t just put a property on sale and leave it to  wishful thinking that someone will come across it and buy it.

When selling a property, one has to consider what the buyer would want in a property. Buyers have their standards. So as a seller you have to set some standards in your property in order for a buyer to consider it. You have to know how to sell your property. How can you get your money otherwise?

This is where staging and designing come into the picture. These days, buyers are very critical and careful in the houses that they are considering. Staging and designing a house is now crucial to every seller and real estate investor who wants to sell their house as fast as possible.

7 Rules In Staging and Designing

1. Know Your Customer

This is the number on rule: know your customer. It is prevalent in every business that the customer comes first when offering a product or service. It is the customer who will be the user of the product after all. In real estate, it’ll be the customer who’s going to be living in the house. So when you are planning to stage and design the house to be sold, always think of the customer — what he or she likes, if they have a pet, if they have kids, if they have a car, etc.

The important thing here is that you try to stage and design the house according to what your customer would want it to be. Knowing your customer will also help in building trust between the two of you, building a much more comfortable and easier buyer-and-seller relationship. Not to mention that once you’ve build trust with your customer, you’ll be getting referrals from them. This will help save you time, money, and effort in promoting and advertising yourself to others.

2. Don’t Overfix!

This is a crime that designers are prone to. Too much can really be too much. You should not overfix a house, basically because all you really need to do is to fix the house enough for it to be looking well and without problems. Further improvements to the house will be made by the customers when they have bought it and furnished it to their liking.

3. Don’t Underspend!

Underspending, or underfixing, is also a big no. Yes, it’s clever to have less expenses. But staging and designing a house has its factors to consider. In fixing the house, you also have to consider the neighborhood and the area wherein the house is located. You also have to see what the other houses. You have to make the property fit in with the type of surroundings and type of houses alongside it. Make them similar, yet also different.

Don’t make the house look so shabby, especially when the neighborhood and other houses beside it all look so lively. You have to make it comparable to the other houses. The customer might also think that you don’t really care about the property. Yes, you’re selling it, but customers would like to have the feeling that the property that they are buying has been well taken cared of. Fixing the property without underspending is also a sign to the customers that you are offering them a property that is worth their money.

4. Don’t Sell an Empty or Dirty House or a House In Rehab

When selling a property, you have to go by the assumption that the customer does not have the imagination of a designer. So selling empty houses, dirty houses, and houses in rehab is not a very good idea. These kinds of houses do not give what a customer would generally want to see — a theme, some warmth, some color, etc. If you want to have a property sold, it is important to have it imprinted on the minds of your customers. An empty house, or a dirty house, is definitely not that thing that you want to be remembered by the people you are selling to.

5. Don’t Overstuff the House

Overstuffing should not be done when designing a house for sale. You should also leave some room for the customer’s stuff. In inspecting a house they are considering to buy, they would also have thoughts on what to put and where to put it. Naturally, they would want a house wherein there are some spaces left for their things. Customers also like a place that has some room for lots of movement. Space is also something that you have to consider in staging and designing a house.

6. Work With the Experts

You would need some help in staging and designing the house, of course. Taking care of the plumbings and getting the kitchen and living room back into shape again is something not a single person can do. When faced with looking for people to help you with, also stick to the people who are an expert in these fields. Choose the people that you trust and you know can do a good job. Working with people who are not up to the tasks would be a waste of time and money if you need to do something all over again because of their mistake.

7. Bring Out Emotions!

One thing that will have your property remembered (and most probably be bought) is to give an effect to the customers. So producing in the customers emotions and positive feedback will help you sell the house quickly. Appealing to the customer’s emotions is the most effective strategy. Design the house in which the customer will have some nostalgic feeling, or wherein he or she will feel some warmth, and you have got yourself a deal!