Thursday, July 13, 2006

Tips for Selling in a Cooling Market

A slower U.S. housing market means sellers can no longer bank on having their pick of offers for properties showing their age and the wear and tear of everyday living. Dressing up, or staging, a home with a thorough cleaning and decorator touches may be vital to luring increasingly fussy buyers.

Sellers work within a range of budgets as they prepare a property for sale, often from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Yet many critical fixes don't cost a dime.

"Walk through the house and remove all the clutter," says Rhonda Duffy, an agent for Rainmaker Realty in Atlanta. She reports four houses on the market for every one buyer in her area, plus slower activity in her firm's northern California, Washington D.C., and Florida offices.

"A living room should have a couch and chairs, a table, some plants and maybe a TV, not a 30-year life history," she says. "Clean out the closets and don't forget the garage."

Since similar houses that had routinely sold in weeks over the past few years may now be sitting on the market for several months, sellers are challenged over a longer time to keep their home free of the remnants of hectic family life.

At the least, agents recommend, stage the house for a series of high-quality photos to run on an Internet listing sight -- first impressions take on even greater importance these days. Then, keep copies of the photos accessible to would-be buyers as they walk through the house, says Duffy. Toys, piled-up mail and crowded countertops are likely to be forgiven if a buyer can see the home's full potential. Staging for photos can include moving a sofa away from a feature window and editing items on a fireplace mantel.


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