THINKING OF LISTING?

Thinking of Listing? Nine Ways to Get Ready

The less time a home spends on the market, the more likely it is to sell at or above list price. That’s why our Top Agents recommend getting a property ready for marketing well before listing. Anyone who is even just starting to think about listing will benefit from some basic upkeep and pre-staging work. Even if you decide now is not the time to list, you’ll enjoy these simple improvements around the home.

With the right local resources, most pre-listing preparations take less than a week and will make the formal staging process simpler for all involved. Ask Top Agents in your area for referrals of local pros to hire. Once you’ve selected your Top Agent, keep yourself open to his or her opinion on other TLC to help decrease your home’s market time.

1. Inspection: The last thing a seller or buyer wants is a surprise at inspection. That’s why a complete inspection before listing is so valuable. Many necessary fixes, such as minor roof or appliance repairs, can be discovered and repaired in less than a week. If inspection uncovers a major issue, any Top Agent will tell you that this knowledge is power; disclosing and expecting to take responsibility will increase buyers’ trust without affecting market time.

2. De-Clutter: Take a little time to pack away surplus furniture items and extra knick-knacks, papers, books or occasional-use items throughout your house. Remember this may require boxing away video game supplies or packing up comfy throw pillows and blankets. Move these items temporarily into closets, the garage or attic with the assumption of possibly renting a storage unit just before listing.

3. Paint: Whole-house painting is likely not necessary, but consider touching up baseboard moldings and doorways and open wall spaces in high-use areas

4. Artwork and Decor: Take a neutral look at your décor. Better yet, ask a Top Agent to do so. Buyers should be able to picture themselves living in your home. While your Top Agent may not advise you to appear generic, you’ll likely need to thin out any shrine-like displays to family, hobbies or cultural interests.

5. Deep-Clean Housekeeping: After you’ve de-cluttered and touched up the paint, request a deep cleaning from your housekeeping service and weekly cleanings thereafter. Make sure they pay attention to details like dusting or vacuuming window treatments and lampshades or wiping smudges off door jams and baseboard moldings.

6. Carpets and Rugs: Bring in the pros, but don’t just clean the carpets. Because the cleaners will be moving furniture anyway, ask them stretch and tighten any buckled areas of carpeting. Doing so now saves the trouble of having to credit your buyer for this following final walk-through. Also consider removing small area rugs to let the beauty of your hardwood floors shine.

7. Look at the Loo: Buyers may not notice a brand-new toilet seat, but they will turn up their noses at the one with the broken hinges. Freshly replaced toilet seats, faucets or doorknobs in heavily trafficked bathrooms can go a long way in first impressions.

8. “Mow & Blow”: Consider buyers as guests you want to feel welcome as they ascend the front walk. If you don’t already have one, hire a weekly gardening service to keep up with the mowing, weeding, pruning and basic maintenance outside so you can focus on other things.

9. Staging: Once you’ve selected a staging professional for the finishing touches, ask them and your Top Agent for final recommendations on day-today upkeep, storage options and what-to-do (or what not to do) while your house is on the market.

BLAKE KESSNER

Knutson & Associates has been in Blake Kessner’s family for generations. The Real Estate Sales & Property Management company was founded by his grandmother in 1976, and his mother took over after she retired. After coming of age, Blake saw fit to trailblaze his own path, attending college in Seattle and climbing the ladder in the hotel management industry. But when the time came for his mom to retire, Blake was drawn back to Hawaii to pick up the torch. “My family has given me everything,” he says. “I couldn’t stay away from the business knowing that our legacy would not continue.”

Today, Blake is the Broker in Charge at Knutson & Associates, the longest standing property management company on the Kona Coast, where he services clients throughout the Big Island. From overseeing over 150 vacation, rental and investment properties to helping first time homebuyers, he possesses a diverse skill-set to assist any buyer or seller. “Our main focus is on maintaining a reputation for integrity,” he says. “Here, we’ve brought a corporate mindset to a boutique, family business.”

When listing a property, Blake, a fourth generation broker, combines his business background with his wealth of professional contacts to net his clients the best return on their investment. Always looking to go above and beyond the standard MLS tools, he utilizes his extensive referral networks and designations through NAR to connect clients with agents around the world. Elsewhere, he remains on the cutting edge of his industry, sharing his listings over a variety of social and digital media platforms. “I reach a global network—not just through marketing, but also through contacts we’ve built through 44 years of business,” he says.

Blake is just as comprehensive when assisting his buyers, offering them a hands-on advocate for their best interests throughout the transaction. Because of his strong property management experience and decades spent on the island, he empowers his clients with the knowledge and resources needed to make strong investments. “I don’t just talk the talk,” he says. “Whether I’m personally seeing to their home inspection or attending a listing appointment, I’m there for my clients—no matter what.” Moreover, Blake stays in contact with his clients well after closing to ensure they are satisfied in their new homes. Able to connect them with vendors, contractors, managers and other working professionals on the island, he remains an ongoing resource for all their needs.

Outside his career, Blake is tremendously active within the community he loves, participating in charitable initiatives and putting together fundraisers for local organizations such as Feed Kona Hawaii, which helps families in need. He is also a proud representative of gay entrepreneurs in Hawaii, standing for equality and serving an example for gay youth in his community. When he’s not assisting clients or giving back, Blake can be found exercising or spending a relaxing afternoon on the beach.

Going forward, Blake intends on building on his boutique model and growing his sales team. But through it all, he is focused on what matters most. “At Knutson and Associates, we’re all about the spirit of Aloha,” he says. “Looking at how far we’ve come, I know my grandmother can look down at me and feel proud of what I’ve brought to her legacy.”

To learn more about Blake Kessner please call 808-987-9295 email blakekessner@gmail.com, or visit www.konahawaiisales.com

CRYSTAL LONG & KELLY PARKER

For Crystal Long and Kelly Parker, sisters and co-owners of Carolina Realty Co. Southeast, real estate, like life, is all about family and community.

For clients, working with Crystal and Kelly is a great package deal, because as Crystal puts it, “When you hire me, you get Kelly too, and when you hire Kelly, you get me too.” Not surprisingly, the two sisters often hear that when clients come to work with them, “they feel like family,” and walking into the 1901 historical home Crystal and Kelly renovated into an office “feels like home.” All of this comes naturally to the two sisters because for them, “that person-to-person connection is the most important thing.”

The first step for each new listing is meeting the client and touring the property to complete an initial assessment. Then Crystal and Kelly return to their office to devise an individualized marketing strategy because “each home is different, each home needs something different, and each client is looking for something different.”

Crystal and Kelly are prepared to do whatever it takes to get a property ready for sale. Not only are they one of the only firms in the area to include staging, but they often go above and beyond—they’ve raked yards and cut grass, they’ve even “pressure-washed a house together.” Crystal and Kelly care about the people they work with and understand sometimes clients can’t do these things for themselves. When that happens, the two sisters are there to step in. They are also prepared to invest time and resources in marketing, hiring professional photographers, producing videos for YouTube, and purchasing ads on Facebook—and their properties get noticed—one of their recent Facebook posts garnered over 16,000 views. The result? The agency has a strong social media presence and clients become friends. Crystal and Kelly have received numerous glowing recommendations and 25% of their business is repeat/referrals. “People go out of their way to leave a kind word,” Crystal said, “and this means the world to us.” Crystal and Kelly keep a calendar and, like family, they send out anniversary cards, congratulating buyers on another year in their home. In addition, the sisters make a point of calling to check in with clients, past and present, offering service-oriented help like finding contractors or an electrician, asking “do you need anything at all?”

Giving back is important to Crystal and Kelly. One of their priorities is the Richmond County School District. Both former teachers, they remember dipping into their own pockets to purchase supplies, so they created a program last year called “Cash for Class,” and donated $100 from each commission earned to local teachers. They purchase meals to feed teachers and nurses. And when they heard students in grades 6-12 would all be moving to online learning, Crystal and Kelly held a drawing and gave away a brand new laptop computer to a lucky student.

Outside of work, the two sisters love the outdoors, gardening, going to the beach or the lake, and, of course, spending time with family and friends—a group that continues to grow.

Carolina Realty Co. Southeast currently represents clients in Richmond, Scotland, Moore, and Anson Counties, but plans for the future include hiring more agents and expanding their reach.

For more information, please visit https://carolinarealtycompany.com, call (910) 716-9000, or email crystallong.realtor@gmail.com