While you’ve heard the ancient Real Estate axiom Location, Location, Location, Realtors often fail to stress the role condition plays in the marketplace.
Since location never changes, Realtors can use comparative market data to value a particular area. However, once a buyer opens the door to a location, a home’s value often circles around its condition.
Sellers want to hit the market with a home in optimal condition! To accomplish this, they should remedy maintenance issues, like peeling paint or stained carpeting, and declutter rooms with too much furniture, extraneous boxes, or open hobby or work stations. They should scour away pet and food odors, remove garbage, and keep the house as neat and clean as possible. A well decorated, decluttered, clean, neat, and odor-free home can raise a home’s value and produce a relatively quick sale.
While some maintenance issues cost money to remedy (replacing carpet, for example), cleaning and decluttering are relatively cheap. However, as Realtors, we’ve seen the benefits, but more often the detriments, of a house not ready for prime time.
Have a look at the great before and after photos above. The stager removed the coffee table to showcase more floor space in the living area, but otherwise, she simply uncluttered the rooms of toys, the laundry basket, the computer, a breakfast tray, etc. You’ll notice that the angle of the uncluttered photo eliminates the bookcases altogether. Hopefully, the stager organized the shelves as well, but a picture without the bookcases will draw in more buyers with its minimalist lines and comfortable breathing space.
Sellers often complain about the difficulties of living in a museum, and it’s true, keeping a house ready for lookers can get old. However, if a seller lists her home with a dedicated Realtor at a competitive price, doing her part to maximize the home’s condition can really pay off!
