Web Tips Entries

Many people keep asking us questions about this topic and we thought we would give you a few tips that could potentially sell your home quickly. At this point in time there is an influx in the amount of houses for sale. Many people are no longer able to afford their houses due to the constant increase of the cost of living. In addition, salaries are not increasing at the same rate. Therefore, it is inevitable that the housing market will be shot.

So on to the meat. The first thing that a potential home buyer will do is take a look at your house and compare it to the price. You obviously need to make a good impression, otherwise the buyer will just glance at the next property. As humans, we tend to lean towards visually appealing things. Therefore, we need to cater to that when we are selling anything. The idea is simple: just pick up any magazine and you will notice they never have models with a broken nose or rotted teeth on the cover. Why? Well, it's because people like looking at beautiful things, including models and HOUSES in this case!!! So coming back to the topic, you need to make your home, apartment, condo, or whatever you are selling look good from the first time that the potential buyer looks at it. We cant stress this enough: CURB APPEAL!!!

OK. You are probably convinced by now that the first look is the one that will leave that long lasting impression, so lets get to work. First things first, some of these items may require you to put some investment into your home, but believe us it will make a difference to the potential buyer choosing your house over your neighbors.

The First Look

Cut the Grass!!! It sounds rather dumb but you would be amazed as to what a difference this makes. Cutting the grass is one of those quick cheap and easy ways to make your house look good, plus your neighbors will love you for it. If your windows are old, replace them or fix them to make them look good. Do you have missing roof tiles? Get them fixed! Nice plants will definitely give you a boost, so go to your local gardening shop and get yourself some potted plants. They are cheap and will go a long way to give you curb appeal. If your front door gets sun at any time of the day odds are it is faded and needs some help. Paint, stain, or replace your front door and update the hardware if necessary. Paint your house. Old dirty paint is a no-no. At least pressure wash it to get the dirt marks off the walls but be careful if you are doing this as some pressure washers can literally peel off the paint and then you will be forced to paint. Yards are a plus but only when they are clean so make sure you pick up all your yard tools and kids' toys. This also means that if you have a pool you want it to be clean and blue, not dirty and green.


Moving Indoors

If you have a dog or any type of pet and you are having an open house soon, we suggest taking them to the sitters for a while because pets can have a negative effect if they just happen to smell up the place. Pets, all kinds and shapes, are smelly no matter how you put it. Although cute and cuddly, people will catch the smell as they walk onto your property and it will be a huge turnoff. We would suggest taking the pets somewhere safe for a while so that you can get the pet smell out of the home. Just before you open the doors to your open house, bake a fresh batch of cookies and offer them to your guests. Cookies give a homey sense to your property, but be careful not to burn them or you can just imagine what that will do. A safer alternative is to go to your local grocery store and get yourself a pleasant but not too strong air freshener for every room. We can't prove that this trick works, but hey what the heck, you want to sell your house so you need to try anything. Some of the houses we visited had large aquariums that couldn't be moved easily so our advice here is just make sure that the aquarium is clean and equipped with a good stock of fish. Also make sure the glass is clean as they tend to get dirty very quickly. If you are selling with a Realtor ignore what I said about the cookies just go on a vacation or something!!! Buyers will feel more inclined to ask questions if there is no owner around. It makes them feel more comfortable and that is what you are looking for. Be careful to keep your valuables out of sight.

De-clutter your home or apartment, as having too many things in your property gives the feeling of lack of space. Even if you are lacking closet space you need to make your buyer feel like there is ample space in the home. If you have a good friend with an empty garage, guess what, USE IT! When you walk into a house with clutter it makes a big difference on that first impression. Clean the rooms and if you notice something that is obviously broken then fix it.

We often get the question of whether or not the rooms should be furnished, and that is a biggie. We feel that having furniture in the rooms is a plus because potential buyers like to see the room set up and imagine their own furniture in the rooms. Empty rooms overwhelm buyers and make it hard for them to visualize. Just make sure there is not too much furniture. If you can't walk in the room comfortably it will deter the buyer. You need to make the room feel big even if it's not, so keep that in mind.

If you have 678 frames with pictures of your family around the house get a really big box and put in 675 of them inside. Take them to your friends garage along with the rest of your stuff. Remove the clutter!!! Having family pictures is good however, because it gives a pleasant feeling to families looking to buy a home.

Is your kitchen or bathroom outdated?

You will have to make a decision here. Kitchens and bathrooms are the selling points for most houses. If the kitchen or bathrooms do not look good, it will make it very hard to sell. We might suggest tearing it down completely, but understand that you are probably on a money crunch. Since these are expensive, you might consider resurfacing your cabinets and installing new hardware. Make sure all your appliances are working because if they are serious buyers they just might ask you if they work properly. De-clutter the kitchen, as women spend lots of time here and married couples usually have the woman decide if the house is a keeper. Although, the man does have the last words "Yes, Dear".

Lets move on to your wallet.

Be realistic. Imagine two identical houses for sale next to each other. House A is $400,000 and House B is $375,000. If you were a buyer would you even consider House A? Probably not. Why would you pay $25,000 more for the same thing? It's insane! Well, that's exactly how your buyers will think, so do your homework. Go around the neighborhood and see what the asking price is for comparable properties and adjust your price accordingly. Selling too high will never get a new buyer through the door. The lower your price, the more foot traffic you will get, guaranteed.

Stop, take a deep breath. You have just made your house marketable. Hurry up and get a friend with a fancy camera and take some pictures of everything!!! The front of the house, the yard, the rooms, the bathrooms... You get the PICTURE! Anyway, you will need to get these pictures in your computer for marketing.

Advertise

Our last bit of advice is to market your property. If nobody knows you are selling, no one will go take a look at it. There are hundreds of places to advertise. Make flyer's and post them in supermarkets. They usually have a little board towards the front of the store to allow customers to post flyer's such as this. Newspapers will often allow you to post properties for free or for a small fee. Finally, there is the internet. More and more people look for houses on the internet everyday before even stepping outside. Gas is expensive and the internet doesn't require any, so looking for a property on the internet is usually the first step for a potential buyer.

Post your property on the internet wherever you can. There are many sites such as this one that will allow you to post your property for free with many pictures. Take a look at our sample listing, or post your property free on Service Villa Homes.

Your customer is always interested in a good deal. Studies have shown that individuals are more willing to buy a product or service if they are getting a discount or a better deal. "Coupons are one of the most effective ways to encourage a consumer to try a new item. They also get the consumers who already use a certain product to keep buying it" explains Diana Wheeler. Some have speculated that with the advent of the internet that the use of coupons would diminish, but the opposite is true.

Kori Rodley Irons from Associated Content says "the availability of coupons on the internet has grown dramatically" mostly due to consumers becoming increasingly net-savvy. She adds that "[coupons] can be a relatively inexpensive and productive use of marketing efforts, and generate sales. Perhaps you might start with a coupon on your own website to gauge response or try some of your established marketing venues."



Service Villa allows each company to post a number of money-saving coupons depending on which membership they have. Basic members can post one coupon, extended members can post up to three and featured members can post up to five. Best of all, the cost of posting a coupon in your listing is included in your membership - there is no extra fee of any kind.

By taking advantage of this free service, your company can explore with different incentives to see which one produces a better response and generates more revenue for your business. Not only that, but businesses that post coupons on Service Villa get more attention than those that do not.

In the browse and search results page, any business that posts a coupon will have a coupon icon displayed near their company description. This tells the user that this company can offer them a great deal. We've noticed that companies that have coupons generate more click-through (views) than those that do not offer them.


HOW TO POST YOUR OWN COUPONS
1. Login to your Service Villa control panel.
2. Under "EDIT YOUR LISTING", select "Your Listing Coupons".
3. Follow the simple directions on screen to add your coupon

Featured and extended listings are both eligible to display images in the company gallery. Think of this gallery of images as your personal product portfolio. This is your chance to stand out from the rest by showing potential customers how awesome your work is. It is a well known fact that listings with attractive imagery will generate more leads for a company. People want to see how good your work is even before placing a call. They know that business that are willing to show off their work usually DO good work.

Some advantages to adding images to you company gallery:
1. You'll be featured on the home page as a company who has an online portfolio. This will give your company further exposure.
2. Your listing will have an attractive photo icon on our search and browse pages letting companies know you have images. Again, this will increase click-thrus to your listing and increase business potential.
3. People are generally drawn to images on the web. Period.
4. Its included in your extended or featured account!

Here is how to add images to your company gallery:
1. Login to your account.
2. Select the listing you wish to upload images for.
3. Click on your company gallery and follow the on-screen explanations.

Some companies doing it right:
1. Go-Go Studio in Tallahassee, FL
2. Interior Universe in Miami, FL
3. Art Design LLC, in Miami, FL

Remember, featured listings can post up to 20 images and extended listings can post up to 5 images, so upload as many images as you can.

You'll be surprised what 5 minutes in uploading images can do for your business.