Thinking about selling your home? As real estate agents, the condition we find homes in when we are showing them to clients never ceases to amaze us.

Although you want your home as clean and neat as possible when showing it, most potential buyers will overlook a dirty dish in the sink, a magazine on the coffee table, or a dirty outfit on the floor of the closet knowing that you may not have had a lot of time to do last minute cleaning before they arrived. However a sink overflowing with dirty dishes, three foot high stacks of old magazines in the middle of the living room, and a pile of dirty clothes on top of an unmade bed are a totally different subject.

If cleanliness isn’t your strong point, hire a cleaning service to come in and clean your home prior to listing. The $50-100 you will pay will generally be cheaper than paying your mortgage, utilities, and insurance an extra 2-3 months if potential buyers are turned off by your house keeping.

If your home has problems- like stained carpets, water damaged basements, or strong pet odors- address these problems before you list. It’s easy to ignore problems you’ve lived with for years or say, “it’ll be the next guy’s problem.” However most buyers will avoid buying homes they perceive as having significant work that needs done, and it’s not uncommon for tours to be cut short by foul smells or superficial problems that could have been easily addressed prior to listing. To put it in other terms, it’s not the “next guys problem” if you can’t find a next guy to buy your home!

In regards to carpeting, if you have carpeting that is worn out, out of date, stained or has “pet smells,” consider replacing it before you list your home. I have a carpeting supplier that I have worked with which jokingly refers to one of their carpets as “relocation tan”- i.e. it looks good, is a neutral color, and is cheap to install- making it ideal for the person trying to sell their home. (I used it when I was selling my own home!)

If you are worried that the new carpeting could get damaged or destroyed before you move out- because of messy movers, clumsy children, or a problem pet, offer a carpet allowance to replace the carpeting after close. Then have the existing carpeting professionally cleaned and deodorized to minimize the problem as much as possible. Air the room out if weather permits, and spend the $5 on an air freshener to mask any lingering smells (but make sure the new smell isn’t more overpowering than the one you are trying to mask). By addressing your home’s problems upfront, you can minimize the damage they do to you in the eyes of potential buyers.

The basement, particularly an unfinished one, can often be the kiss of death to a home sale. Because it may be the least used or lived in space in the home, it is often overlooked by sellers when they prepare their home for sale. Yet nervous buyers will often times scrutinize over any tiny problem they may see- and an unfinished basement is the ideal place to find those problems. If your basement has cracks, water damage, mold, or other major issues, repair them before listing your home for sale. No one except an investor looking to buy a home at 20-50% below value wants to deal with major problems. Do you want to take 20-50% less than your home is really worth?

If your basement was originally a finished basement prior to suffering water damage or other problems, make sure to restore it to a finished condition again. I recently saw a fantastic home that set unsold for over six months because of this very reason. Despite the fact that the home’s basement had been structurally repaired by experts, the drywall and flooring had never been restored- leaving a lasting reminder to the home’s former problems—problems which scared off dozens of potential buyers. Remember, basements that show signs of past damage will make a buyer conclude that it’s prone to future damage.

On the other side of this subject, I recently toured a small 1950’s home that had just been professionally rehabbed by an investor. Because the home was small even by area standards, the investor spent a few hundred dollars on carpeting, paint and cheap ceiling tiles to take an unused and unfinished basement and make it a large family or game room. What had been an ugly, unfinished and unused basement for 50 years was now a highlight of the home. From a resale perspective, the “perceived” living space was significantly increased to make the small home seem significantly larger. As I watched potential buyers tour the home, it was money well spent. The few hundred dollars spent on converting the basement to livable space will bring back this savvy investor thousands upon resale.

Preparing Your Home

When I go on a listing call to potentially list a home for sale, one of the things we discuss is how to prepare the home for show- both as an overall strategy as well as how to put together a, “people will be here in 30 minutes” plan of attack. (We've written more on this subject on our blog at: http://www.stlagent.com.)

Remember, when you list your home for sale you are basically putting out a blanket invitation for anyone who wants to see your home to come and see it. Unfortunately, it also means you have to work on the buyer’s schedule- and that means having the home ready to show on a moments notice. For every restriction you place on showing your home (i.e. no showings until after noon, no weekend showings, etc), there is a potential buyer who will decide to skip seeing your home. So, welcome to life in a “fishbowl!”

Things to think about:

Security- Like it or not, potential buyers are also complete strangers. Although a buyer’s real estate agent will be escorting buyers through your home, it’s impossible for them to watch their client’s every move- especially if it’s a

Breakage- More common than theft is the potential buyer who accidentally runs into something while gawking at your ceiling fixtures, or the one who gets curious and decides to pick up and examine something. If something is extremely breakable, pack it up or get it out of the house prior to your listing. My advise it to assume that at least one potential buyer will bring several hyperactive children with them who will want to run and touch everything in site. If the home has been “child proofed” with all breakables packed away safely, there will be nothing to worry about.

Distractions- While you’re packing away your valuables and breakable items, go ahead and pack up those “conversation piece” items as well. Preparing your home to show buyers is very different than preparing your home for a gathering of friends or family. Most buyers work on a time frame and only allocate so much time to any one home. What you absolutely do NOT want is for a buyer to enter your home and get so caught up looking at your wall of vacation photos, or autographed sports memorabilia, or anything else you own that is unique or interesting, that they forget to actually look at your home.

Uniqueness- I always tell first time home buyers that one of the most exciting benefits to owning your own home is personalizing it and making it unique to you. Unfortunately, those tailored personalizations will be a turn off to anyone whose taste is different than yours. I’ve seen otherwise great homes set on the market for months without so much as a warm lead because of pink carpet (throughout the entire home), excessive use of flowery wallpaper, and “interesting” paint color selections. I’m not saying every wall needs to be painted “Oyster White”, but sometimes toning things down will allow prospective buyers to imagine the home decorated with their personal tastes, and not yours.

Pets- There are so many problems pets create for someone trying to sell their home. (Having a house full of cats and dogs I know most of them firsthand!). First off, you’ll never sell your home if the seller is afraid to enter the front door.

If your dog is territorial, barks a lot, or is just unfriendly to strangers, you may wish to kennel him/her during the day when you are at work or come up with a plan on who will remove the pet from the home when a listing call comes in. Although this might seem like a lot of work, you are legally liable if your dog bites someone trying to tour your home- even if you have the dog tied up in the back yard with a big “Warning, Dog Bites” sign posted.

If your dog is friendly, you still might want to lock them outside (if your yard is fenced in) or put them in a garage. A lot of people flat out don’t like or are afraid of dogs, and you don’t want your potential buyers cutting their tour of your home short because of your dog. At the same time, even as a dog owner, I still don’t like being jumped on with muddy paws when I’m working with clients wearing dry clean only dress clothes.

This brings us to cats. I’ve been with people who have stopped three feet inside the front door of a home and refuse to go any further because of severe allergies to cats. Keeping your home clean and using a HEPPA filtered vacuum cleaner will at least reduce pet dander enough to let people with allergies tour your home. The litter box is another major problem. Cleaning the litter DAILY and taking extraordinary steps to mask litter box odor should be a priority when listing your home. I can’t stress enough that if the house smells like a dirty litter box, buyers will cut their tours of your home short.

Then there are “unique” pets- snakes, rats, birds, spiders, scorpions, iguanas, skunks, etc. If at all possible, get them out of the house before listing. Your potential buyer will either be terrified of them (and cut short their tour), or be fascinated by them (and forget to look at your house). Either way, nothing good comes of it.

Believe it or not, this is just the beginning on where to start when you are thinking about listing your home. The best place to go for “full-blown” advice is from someone who deals with moving on a regular basis i.e. your real estate agent. Before you list your home with an agent, solicit their advice on how to present your home for show. If this isn’t a part of their listing presentation to you, or they don’t appear to have a plan, find another agent ASAP. My experience is that a lot of agents really aren’t that good- however the ones who are will pay for themselves quickly. If you are thinking about selling your home yourself (and can take criticism), ask a neighbor, family member or coworker to come over and evaluate your home. Remember, it’s not about what you like or don’t like- it’s all about selling your home as quickly as possible for the most money you can get.

About The Author

Darin "Sid" Cameron and Kimberly Shallenberger-Cameron currently manage The STLagent Team of Real Estate Consultants in St Louis, MO. Their website is http://www.stlagent.com.

Together, they publish the St Louis Real Estate Blog, and also moderates the St Louis Community Forum Message Board at: http://www.stlagent.com/forum.

© STLagent.com 2005