Another Fixer-Upper Question

“We have a beat-up little rental house in Clairemont that we’d like to sell. What advice can you tell us about fixing it up?”

***ANSWER:
Ahhh, another fix-up question. Here are “Gary’s 7 Rules For Preparing Home For Sale”:

1. What you like in a home & what sells it are 2 different things! Unless you have an expert decorating eye, go neutral so you appeal to the widest spectrum of homebuyers.

2. Never leave anything to the buyer’s imagination
If your home has old, ugly, or torn carpet, put in new carpet. Just offering buyers a carpet credit appeals to logic and not emotions. And most people buy on emotion.

3. Estimate fix-up cost and time, then double it
I’m the survivor of two remodels that cost three times the estimate and took four times as long as planned.

4. Ask your agent for fix-up advice & insist he offend you at least once!
Many agents won’t offend their client because they’re too nice or fear losing their business. So they often say everything’s perfect when it’s anything but. (I once lost clients by suggesting they shampoo the carpet to get out the pet odor. Their response, “We don’t have any pets.” Ouch!)

5. Don’t bite off more than you can chew
Many homesellers say things like, “Yeah, I should be able to stucco the house, remodel the kitchen, and add a second bath…by a week from Monday.” Optimism has its place, but not here. Be realistic!

6. Don’t put your home on the market as a work in progress
Your home is gets the most lookers when it’s “the new home on the market.” They’ll remember it as it was and won’t come back to see if you’ve spiffed it up.

7. There’s more to life than money
You may be better off selling “as is” and not go through the hassle of a facelift. Sure, you may not squeeze out every last dollar, but there IS more to life than money.

These are my general rules. If you’d like to have me walk through and give you money-making tips specific to your home, call me at (858)457-KENT.
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