Selling Your Home in Minnesota? Partner with the Top Realtor for Maximum Returns

Outstanding Curb Appeal Can Sell Your Home

Make That Home Sale with Curb Appeal

When you sell, curb appeal is the first impression your home will make on a buyer.  Do it right, and you could end up with an offer, just like that! Do it wrong, and a potential buyer may decide not to walk through your front door.  So when evaluating your curb appeal as you prepare to sell your home, be critical because I promise you that buyers will be.

Pretend you are a buyer. Take a look around the outside of your house and yard. Now ask yourself, if you were buying today would the exterior of your home inspire you to take a look inside?  If the answer is anything less than, “I can’t wait to see the inside of this house” then you have a bit of work to do. Here are a few steps that will send your curb appeal rating meter over the top. 

Clean Up

Just as you do inside your home, you should “pick up” in the front and backyard, porch and deck. You want it clean and tidy. Remove any remaining dead leaves, branches, and other debris from the previous season. Oil stains on the driveway or garage should be cleaned up. Organize the garage. Power wash your siding. Clean the gutters. Wash the windows, so the sunshine sparkles off the surface of the glass. Wash all the light fixtures on your house and garage.  Don’t overlook the door knockers and knobs. Polish them up!  

Refresh, Repair or Replace

As you go through the cleanup process, make a note of any items that need attention. Decide if all that is required is a facelift, some rehabilitation or the situation is hopeless and you need to invest in a replacement. Here are some common areas to evaluate and issues you want to address.

  • Check the roof for loose or broken shingles
  • Make sure the flashing isn’t bent, shows gaps or other issues that might lead to leaks
  • Repair or replace torn screens or cracked panes of glass
  • Look...

Stage Your Home to Impress Buyers

The Argument for Staging

Once you have organized your home and removed its clutter, it’s time to talk about staging.  In a 2017 study conducted by NAR, the National Association of Realtors, 58% of agents surveyed said staging increases the selling price of the home as much as 20%. In this same profile, we find that 39% of agents believe staged properties sell significantly faster than those not staged. Additionally, 77% of buyers found it easier to visualize a staged property as their new home. 

Keep in mind that the objective of sellers is to prepare their home so buyers will envision themselves living there. If a buyer cannot make a personal and emotional attachment to your property, they are not going to make an offer. You want your buyers to fall in love with your house. Staging can go a long way towards making that happen.

Staging Choices 

You have a few options when you stage a home. If the house is empty, hiring a professional stager is plan A. This is the best and easiest way to get your home looking its beautiful and stylish best. All the photos in this post are from a staged home we sold in St. Louis Park. See what I mean?

If plan A and your budget are not on the same playing field, go to plan B and rent furnishings. Rental companies can provide everything you need to stage your home and deliver them as well.

It is not necessary to buy or rent new furniture either. You can use what you have now to stage your home. Your listing agent can give you some suggestions or recommend someone to help. Many professional stagers will tour your home and guide you for a consulting fee of about $250-$300. You can also connect with your old friend Google and research DIY home staging tips, like this article for instance.

Staging Tips

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Sell Your Home Like a Boss

Tips to Control Stress When Selling Your Home

When you sell a home, the experience has the inherent potential to be stressful. Not only is the rhythm of your daily life at the mercy of showings, but your home has to look tip-top for potential buyers.  Your privacy is held hostage to strangers opening closets and drawers as they snoop into your nooks and crannies. Yikes!  That is enough to get the calmest nerves twitching. There are many moving parts to the sale of a house. There are many individuals involved in that sale. Any of these or a combination of several can become the stress source for the homeowner. These are factors the seller has no control over, zip, zero, none! However, there are many aspects of the home-selling process where the property owner can have power over the outcome. Making better decisions at the beginning of the process increases the likelihood of having a superior selling experience. Since I have sat in the seller seat myself on a few occasions, I have gathered some morsels of wisdom on the subject. Since I love to share, as one seller to another, here are my best tips for a successful home sale.

Hire A Great Real Estate Agent

There are a few different ways people go about finding a real estate agent when they sell a home. Some seek recommendations from family and friends. That is one way to do it, but that doesn’t always work out to be the best method alone. Listen to recommendations by all means then go online and research those agents.

See if they have a robust online presence. Hopefully, the agent will have a website and an active blog with well-written informative information for both home buyers and sellers. The online posts will often also tell you how well they know the area, especially the community where you live. Check out their...