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Hello again. My name is Dave Panel, real estate broker here in Dallas Fort Worth. I want to go over a few tips that don't cost you a whole lot of money, but it's how to add value to your home before you put on the market. How do you add value if you plan to sell your property? Especially since we're moving into the holiday season where people assume there's a myth out there that your house will not sell in the holiday season. So, here we go.
So, tell you a quick story about a past client of mine, Clay and Deb. They were selling a house in Fort Worth, Texas, and they were thinking they had to do so much to get their house ready for the market. They already found another property. They didn't want to they already had the idea that they had to put money down on that new house that they wanted to buy. And they're ready to sell their house. And they didn't want to spend what they were thinking from other realtors telling them, $50,000 to get on the market. After I met them and saw the property, we just did a few tweaks. We we decluttered the house, took out some things that they were going to move with, we boxed some things up in the garage in the same size boxes so it's nice and organized. I had them broom sweep it, get it professional cleaned. Uh what else we do? We did some trim uh paint and cleaned up the lines so when someone walks in, you can see clean lines all throughout the house so it it presents better. And then we went over the comps. They weren't astronomically uh they weren't high on their their list price. We listed it very reasonably. Uh and they achieved a price of $18,000 more than what they expected. So they spent about $2,000 to get the house on the market. They made $18,000 more and then it was on the market far less time. So it cost them less money and time expense and losing that other property.
So, I'm going to give you in this video five good tips that you could get your house ready for the market and sell it for more money in less time.
So, my first tip on adding value to your home when you're going to sell it, I want you to consider the perspective of your buyer. I want you to really think about who your buyer is for your property. Is it going to be in the firsttime home buyer price range? Is it going to be in a dream neighborhood that you wanted into when you bought the house? Is it uh your final home that you've been in for 25 years and the neighborhood has changed? The prices have increased. So, it really outpaces the new firsttime home buyer or it it's really the the second home buyer what we call the remodeler. they go in and remodel the house or they're they're they're really more concerned with what the house looks like and how it feels and how long they're going to be there. And then their third home, they're going to be there for a lot longer cuz they're tired of moving. So, back to that, your perspective of your buyer, remember that they're going to see your house online first. Throughout my career, it's gone from 30% to 50% to 60%. Now, it's as high as 98% the buyers are going to find their house online first before a realtor sends it to them or a friend sends it to them. They're going to search for over 18 months looking at houses online. So, they're going to have an idea of where they want to live, what kind of house they want to buy. So, your first impression, all that what I just said, your first impression is going to be online before anybody steps a foot in your house. They're judging your photos. They're judging the presentation. So, adding value where it counts, adding value to a little bit of staging, adding value to the improving the curb appeal when people drive up, having the shrubs cut, having the mulch replaced, having the weeds pulled, maybe even specially, I say maybe, but especially painting the front door. A few hundred dollars here can create thousands of value for somebody's perspective when they get to your property so they don't turn around or drive off.
So my my next tip here is think about the feel that you're giving somebody that that comes into your space, your home. Think about that. Buyers need uh to picture theirelves living in your space. It's been your home for a number of years and now you're trying to sell it to one buyer. Remember, one buyer and you're hopefully trying to attract seven to 14 different people. Look at it, but you need one buyer. So, when you get ready, you want to remove access furniture. You want to remove some personal photos and items. You want to make sure the house smells right. Remember, you want to make it look like a model home, not a memory home for you. you're decide to sell it. Let's go ahead and get it ready as the business. Let's treat it like a business and let's sell the house and not keep your memory around in the house.
Tip number three, you want to make sure that the buyers feel comfortable when they get to your home. Yes, you made the house yours. You plan to live there forever. I get that. But most people live in their houses now less than 3 to seven years. So, let's think about when you're entertaining the idea of selling your house. You want to make sure that you have natural lighting through the windows, through bouncing off the walls, and the paint really does matter to have a neutral color. So, let's focus on if you're preparing for your house over the next 6 months and you're thinking, man, what should I do that's not going to cost a lot of money? Well, you know, you could paint a few key rooms like your kitchen, your living room, dining room, uh maybe a master bedroom. Definitely the bathrooms a more lighter neutral color. Another thing that I always recommend is that you swap out your yellowish light bulbs and get a very um like a soft white LED lights. That really helps um brighten up the area and make the space look larger. One thing that you could do when you show your property to potential buyers and you have all these different colors and and light bulbs going on, open up every blind and let all the natural light and colors in.
My number fourth tip is just to fix the small things around the house. Make sure you look under the sink, fix little faucets if there's little leaks in the shower if there's mold around the corners just from the daily use. Uh, look for little things that you could fix. I always recommend to the sellers that you disclose everything about a property. Anything that you failed to fix or if it's a problem in the property, just disclose it up front. Do a seller disclosure, get a seller inspection, a pre-insspection, and post everything online. So, when someone sees your property, you take the advice from the first part of this video. You do natural lighting, you do curb appeal, you do the best photography, you get the amount of buyers you need the in the property in the in the first 30 days. You got all these little other things fixed or disclosed online. And it's just going to help you uh not have issues after they do their inspection because they've already made aware of that. So, they're they're already comfortable. They thought about it a few days. Usually, if a buyer walks into a house, they make an offer because they love the property, then they do their inspection, and then it makes them have a little bit of buyer's remorse. Like, dang, I have one day to cancel this contract now because I spent 9 days inspecting it and figuring out what I don't like about the property. Now, I need to find an excuse to back out. So, don't give the buyer a reason to back out. Fix the small things. Spend a little bit of money up front. maybe get an inspection, disclose everything, and you're going to be much more successful.
So, my last and final tip for you, number five, is every room in your house should have a purpose. So, the family room, the dining room, the bedrooms, the master bedroom, the bathroom, the uh outdoor patio. Make sure it's just decluttered. Make sure you have a purpose. When someone walks into a room, let's let's show them what you or they could use that room for so that it's not wasted space. I always tell people to make sure that you declutter house and move things into the same size box. Home Depot sells them for $1.50 each. And you could put everything stacked real nice, not in front of the water heater or uh utilities, but stack them into a place in the garage that you get all the stuff that you're going to not use in the next 90 days of selling your property when you make that decision to sell. And then have each room in the house tell a story or a purpose of why and what you used it for and what they could use it for. That way, when they're walking through the house, they could envision themselves living there and understanding what they're going to use every room in the house for.
So, I hope you learned something in this video. Adding value to a home is not always about gutting a kitchen like you see on HD TV. It's about the little things, the the small uncomfortable things or the things that people buyers assume cost three or four times as much. So, we want to eliminate that. We want to tell them, disclose to them. And when you're ready, if you're thinking about selling a house in 18 months from now, two years from now, and you want to um jump on a Zoom call, it's free, no obligation. I'll walk you through what you could do to prepare yourself to sell in the summertime or sell now. I would love to talk to you. My name is Dave Penel, real estate broker here in Dallas Fort Worth, and I help sellers make smart moves and make more money. Thank you. Bye.