Planning To Sell Your Honolulu Home Part Nine-Courageous Person

July 28th, 2009 categories: For Sellers

Sorry for the long lay-off on completing my twelve part series on preparing to sell your Honolulu home. This installment threshes out number nine on the list.

9. Ask a courageous person to visit your home and be brutally honest about the good, the bad and the ugly parts of your home.

Note the use of the word courageous! I say this because it takes courage to walk into somebody else’s home and tell the truth about how it looks, feels and smells. This is important because the longer you live in a home, the more numb you can become to its’ small problems. This person will literally sniff out the things a qualified buyer may sense when they visit for the first time. Here is what you want your “secret shopper” to look for.

1. Areas that need cleaning. The longer you look at your home, the more likely you are to miss details that might need additional cleaning. A new pair of eyes will help find what you have missed.
2. Areas that are cluttered. Have them look for too many family photos, stuffed animals, perfume bottles, slippers at the front door, or toys piled in the corner. Pay special attention to too much furniture in the home.
3. Conflicts. Ask them to point out conflicting colors, wallpaper, clashing furniture, etc.
4. Repairs. This includes small things like broken or missing handles, cabinet doors out of alignment, scuffed molding, a crack in a window or even old termite damage. The point is to find potential repair issues in advance.
5. Unsightly views. Take them into each room and be sure they look out each window. They may see something in the view plane that could be disconcerting to a buyer. This gives you the option to correct it or manage it in an alternative manner.
6. Smells. Like a car (preferably a new one), every home has its own odor. Some smells are good and many can be bad. Animals, spices, babies, flowers, neighboring homes, wind direction and many more things can add smells to a home. By bringing in an independent and honest nose, you have the opportunity to change the smell of your home. A strong smell can be more off putting than most any problem in a house, early identification of an offending smell let’s a seller manage one of the biggest deal killers in real estate.

SEARCH FOR YOUR HONOLULU HOME

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