Today I’m going to talk about updates and repairs for Sellers and how I can help. In this post, I will be sharing actual experiences I’ve had with Sellers where I sit down and walk them through the home selling process.
First Thing’s First
When advising Sellers it starts with a budget and a timeline. If we start with the timeline we learn how much we can truly achieve in the time we have available. The time you have to work on your home after work, on weekends, or whenever that is, we want to make sure the timeline aligns with our overall plan.
Once we have a timeline established, that flows into an actual budget. That’s how much money we can spend on repairs to get the house 100% ready. When we talk about budget and timeline, we are starting to develop the overall plan for the Home Buyer Experience that we want to create, for them to be attracted to your house through our digital marketing efforts.
Digital Marketing Wins
Our #1 goal is to bring Buyers into your home, so when they walk in they are excited and want to take action to purchase it. Last week I shared the importance of digital marketing and how it’s king right now. All Buyers start their search by looking online. They aren’t doing open houses or talking to salespeople like me. They’re doing their own research to find out what they are interested in and if it’s even possible for them to purchase a home.
When people start online we must make sure digital marketing creates an overall experience designed to attract Home Buyers online first, then get them to tour your home, and ultimately make an offer.
Top Updates for Your Home
If a Seller has owned a Denver Home for more than 4 years, they have over $100,000 in equity. More importantly, Sellers are now getting curious about what that money could do for their life. Right? That being said Sellers also don’t want to have a massive budget to do a time consuming remodel of their home.
So to be able to capture the upside with speed and execution, here are what most Sellers are doing to get top dollar for their home in the shortest period of time.
#1 Deferred Maintenance
The first priority is focusing on deferred maintenance. This is taking care of things like…caulking around the shower that has started to come up and it needs to be scraped and redone because of mildew. Another example would be paint touch-ups around the interior or exterior. This could also include raking river rocks that has moved after all the snow, raking up fall leaves, etc. Taking care of the regular maintenance required every single year to keep the house looking fresh and cared for. Deferred maintenance, that’s #1.
#2 Light Remodeling
Next on the list is basic remodeling. With this we really want to keep within the realm of small updates that make the most impact. Most importantly they don’t take a lot of time to complete. This would include things like all your smoke detectors. If they look yellow and haven’t been replaced for 5 or 10 years, replacing all of them is a minor cost and big impact.
Same thing for cabinet hardware, or doorknobs and hinges. Changing them out from brass to stainless steel or nickel makes a home really look nice for not a lot of money. Light remodeling includes all of the little things that really enhance the look and appearance of the house, like light fixtures, fans, etc.
You can expand the list to electrical outlet covers or dimmer switches. It can include anything that makes the home look more modern and Buyers will see attractive design versus work that they will need to do after closing. Thes little things go a long way because most buyers don’t want to do any work after they’ve closed! That’s why basic remodeling is super important.
The last item I will mention is interior paint. There are several approaches here, one would be to do paint touch-ups throughout the house. Like the doors, the trim, the walls. You can touch it up if it matches properly. It all requires a color that will support that.
Or consider doing different color walls or rooms. Whatever is going to create the most impact in your home based within your timeline. Because again, if we’re talking about an experience the homebuyer. They are going to walk in and if you’ve just painted, what’s it going to smell like, right? It’s going to smell like fresh paint! And people are going to be curious about what you did to the home. With all of these updates, we will be sure to highlight each one of them in our digital marketing. So it speaks to them in their online search first!
Let Me Help w/ ALL of This!
I want to encourage all the sellers to let me help you with this process. Everything is fully customizable based on your home budget and timeline. And when I sit down with You I want to talk about the things specific to your home. Maybe in the bathroom, there’s a countertop and a sink that don’t look right. If potential a Buyer won’t like it we can discuss replacing it. Especially if it would only cost $2000 to repair and fix. And that would be money you get back after the sale.
These are the kinds of things we can drill in by walking through the house together and I can offer my advice. I’m happy to share with Sellers the updates and repairs that will get you top dollar within the budget and timeline that you’re considering.
Next Week…
As we continue to build on attracting the ideal buyer into your home, we’ll be talking about staging and interior design. I’ll be excited to share what that means and how we’re going to take action! Have an awesome day and talk soon!
