Disconnect Your Emotions
When conversing with real estate agents, you will often
find that when they talk to you about buying real estate,
they will refer to your purchase as a "home."
Yet if you are selling property, they will often refer to
it as a "house." There is a reason for this. Buying
real estate is often an emotional decision, but when selling
real estate you need to remove emotion from the equation.
You need to think of your house as a marketable commodity.
Property. Real estate. Your goal is to get others to see
it as their potential home, not yours. If you do not consciously
make this decision, you can inadvertently create a situation
where it takes longer to sell your property.
The first step in getting your home ready to sell is to
"de-personalize" it.
Make Your Home "Anonymous"
If there is a new home sales tract near your home, go visit.
It doesn't matter what size the homes are. What you will
find are some wonderfully (but sparsely) furnished homes
that anyone could live in -- with the emphasis on "anyone."
They are anonymous. There may be a baseball glove in the
boy's room, but no family photos on the walls.
There may be "personality" - but no person.
The reason you want to make your home "anonymous"
is because you want buyers to view it as their potential
home. When a potential homebuyer sees your family photos
hanging on the wall, it puts your own brand on the home
and momentarily shatters their illusions about living in
the house themselves.
Put away family photos, sports trophies, collectible items,
knick-knacks, and souvenirs. Put them in a box. Rent a storage
area for a few months and put the box in the storage unit.
Do not just put the box in the attic, basement, garage
or a closet. Part of preparing a house for sale is to remove
"clutter," and that is the next step in preparing
your house for sale.
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copyright 2000 by Terry Light and
RealEstate ABC, revised 2002