Happy Thanksgiving!

10 Tips for Prepping Your Home for Sale

Getting your house ready for sale can be difficult. It can be extremely difficult if it is your first time selling a house, so here are ten tips for prepping your house for sale.

1. Distance yourself from your home.
It is hard to emotional get over the fact that this house is not going to be your home. Try to start referring to it as the house, not my house. This will make it easier to consider offers realistically.

2. De-personalize your house
Get rid of personal pictures and important family items from the house. A buyer will be more likely to see themselves in a house that doesn't look like it belongs to a different person.

3. Clean up
Get rid of anything that isn't necessary in the house. Pull books from the bookshelves, pack up clothes that aren't seasonal instead of them hanging in the closet. This helps in the de-personalization of the house.

4. Rearrange closets and cabinets
We know it sounds hard, but try to make your house look like a catalog. Stack your dishes neatly, stack your spices neatly, arrange closets by color or in some system. A buyer seeing a well-organized kitchen will assume you take care of the rest of the house just as well.

5. Rent a storage unit
When pulling your books and clothes together, you're going to need somewhere to put them! 

6. Remove/Replace favorite items
Remove and replace any permanent fixtures or appliances you plan to take with you. If you really love your fridge, replace it. If your chandelier this is an heirloom, remove it before you show the house. You don't want a potential buyer to be excited about an item you are going to remove later.

7. Make minor repairs
There is no reason to have holes in a wall or a leaky sink when you show the house. Take care of the small things that often are ignored because they are small. The buyer won't ignore them!

8. Make the house sparkle
The house should be the cleanest it has ever been when you are attempting to sell it. Don't just sweep, mop too. Don't just clean the toilet, clean the showers and sinks. There is no excuse for trying to sell a dirty house.

9. Nitpick
Go into every room in the house and examine everything. Twice.

10. Check the exterior
Be sure to keep the lawn kept, paint anything that needs touched up, and clear the sidewalk/front yard of any debris. A buyer won't buy the house if they don't like the exterior appearance.


For more details for ideas on prepping a house for sale, check out Elizabeth Weintraub's article!

5 Real Estate Tips from Warren Buffet

I found this article about billionaire Warren Buffet and some of his wisdom when it comes to real estate. He had these tips when it comes to real estate.

1. The Basic Premise of Home Ownership - That Homes Increase In Value Over Time - Is Sound

2. Buy Low

3. Don't Wait Too Long To Take Advantage of Low Prices

4. The Smart Way to Own a Home Has 3 Elements: Fixed Mortgage, Affordable Payments, and Long-Term Hold

5. Buying Your "Dream Home" May Lead to Nightmares

For more on these tips visit this link for the whole article!