G
ood housekeeping is important for the value of your probably biggest asset, your home. Take this advice literally: keep your house in order, in good shape, and in good repair. When I go to list a house one of the situations I often encounter is deferred maintenance. We all have those honey- do lists (or we make sure our husbands have one), fixing the sagging door of a cabinet in the kitchen, repair the hole in the sheet rock that playing indoor soccer left in a child’s room, rake the ancient leaves from two seasons ago, replace the cracked outlet plate, take care of the moss on the roof… the list is endless and interestingly never shrinks. Whenever some items are crossed off, your house will make sure you are not running out of projects and decide to point out to you that the gutters are full of leaves by dumping a small but cold amount of water down your neck when you struggle to open the front door with an armful of groceries. The really critical time to have the list crossed off completely is when you decide to sell. The better your house presents itself on this “first date” with potential buyers, the better the offers and the shorter your time on the market will be. Statistically you get the highest offers in the first 2 weeks on the market, so make those first showings count!
It is understandable that fixing a lot of deferred maintenance can seem daunting. So where to start? Invest in a pre-sale professional inspection. A licensed independent inspector will look over every nook and cranny, your roof, your crawlspace, your siding. He will find dry rot, leaks and malfunctions. Armed with the report I recommend fixing as much as possible. Any buyer will surely have an inspection performed as well and what is not fixed will come up again, most likely prompting a repair request. So why not work proactively to make your transaction so much smoother? Another area to tend to is cosmetics. Your house is on a date. But a bow on it and don’t forget the mascara and the lipstick (not the one on the pig, the one that enhances already lovely features)! You never get a second chance at first impressions so work on landscaping, a clean entrance (the cob webs around the front light – or a new front light), a clean or even freshly painted front door, all this tells a buyer “welcome, this house is well taken care of, inside and out”. A professional stager then can greatly help you sprucing up the interior if needed. The stager can provide valuable advice about current tastes, how to make small changes with big effect and how to arrange furniture in a way that compliments your floor plan in the
Love to Live Here Annette Sievert
best possible manner. De-clutter! Remember, you are moving, there is no reason to insist on keeping all your trinkets on display, your buyer has his own and wants to imagine his in your house, give him the space! And then don’t forget that our strongest sense is smell! Doggie or Kittie odor, cooking with curry, old carpeting, all these and more can put a buyer so off that they do not even look at the rest of the house. Be self-critical, just because you don’t mind or do not notice anymore, does not mean you are not losing a potential sale. There are great odor treatments out there, Edel Designs in Albany has a new one that works wonders. With all these measures you dramatically increase your chances to accomplish what you want, sell, fast and for a good price! Corvallis has a great and stable real estate market. Our current inventory is low, especially compared to the past few years, prices are increasing and there are lots of good buyers . So take the plunge, get ready and list that house of yours, the time is right! Corvallis has not only not lost a lot of value since 2008, it also is well under way to a great recovery, so money in our real estate market is well invested. Another reason why I love to live here!
Thank you to my great clients for making 2012 an amazing year for me.
Annette Sievert “Have Expectations”
www.willametteliving.com
B R O K E R
C. 541-207-5551 ASievert@valleybrokers.com www.valleybrokers.com/asievert Willamette Living Magazine
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