Tips for selling your house

I am not an expert but here are a few things I learned:



Tips for selling and buying from our experience:

• NEVER EVER sign a contract for selling or buying before your solicitor has read it and approved it. The agent selling our house is outstanding, the agent of the house we want to buy is ... less than outstanding. After we signed the contract, our solicitor said there were a few things hidden, which were crucial. Learn from our real estate mistakes. 
• Invest in styling. Guaranteed price hike if buyers can imagine themselves living in your house and they will if what you present looks really good. I have a friend who has an eye for this thing. I invited her over and told her to give it to me straight. She did. It has paid off - 8 offers on the first weekend.
• De-clutter! I've looked at a lot of photos of homes presented for selling and been to a few open homes. The one thing that really devalues the visual presentation of a home is clutter. For the purpose of increasing the perceived value of your home, if it does not fit, hide it. Same for photos. Same for decorations on the shelves, same for a lot of little things that take attention away from the bigger, more important things.
• Make sure your house is clean when people come to look at it. I've been crawling around, mopping every weekend since we put the house on the market. And I say it is worth it. I've been to homes for sale that have not been cleaned and instead of being interested in it, I want to leave as soon as I can.
• Find a good agent. Totally worth the time spent in research. Our agent is AMAZING. This house is on the (very) cheap side on the scale of real estate and yet she had 4 people working here during the open house. Even a guy holding an umbrella over people's heads while they were coming in on a rainy day - I was speechless!!!!
• Pray over it all. I am a Christian and I believe that God has totally been in it when we bought this house and in the process of selling. It's important to say thank you and it has give me peace in some very, very stressful situations.