That TV’s too big: Rules for selling in a down market

It’s not easy selling a home in today’s down residential market. Just scroll through this blog and you’ll read post after post on slowing home sales and dropping asking prices. So it’s especially important today to give your home every possible advantage when you put it on the market.

I’ve covered residential real estate for more than 10 years. Here are some suggestions I’ve gleamed from real estate agents for giving your home at least a fighting chance of selling.

1. Your TV shouldn’t be bigger than your couch: I know people love gigantic TVs. But when a buyer walks in, the TV shouldn’t stretch from one end of the living room to the next. That says just two things: First, the living room is too small. Secondly, the people who live here watch too much TV.

2. Put away your framed photographs of Dick Cheney: You may be an ardent fan of the current presidential administration. That’s fine. But your potential buyers may hate all things Bush with a passion. Stow your personal items. You don’t want to give buyers any reason to remember your home in a negative light. This goes for all personal items, by the way, not just political ones. You may like roosters, say, and decorate each room with roster prints, statues and bowls. Your buyers, though, may remember your house as that one cluttered with all that rooster junk.

3. Take that barking dog out of the basement: Nothing says “Get out!” like a crated dog barking in the basement. You’d be surprised how many times I’ve encountered this. You step into a house and instantly hear the dog downstairs barking. There’ll be a handwritten sign on the closed basement door warning you not to let the dog out of its crate. Like that would happen in a million years. Again, potential buyers, even if they have dogs of their own, aren’t going to remember your house in a favorable light if Fido spent their entire tour wishing he could get at their throats.

4. Cook that fish after the buyers have left: This should be obvious, but it often isn’t. Do not, under any circumstances, cook anything that doesn’t smell like apples or cinnamon before potential buyers show up. You don’t want the odors of salmon, turnips or greasy hamburger meat wafting through the air as potential buyers tour  your newly remodeled kitchen.

5. Don’t be there when the buyers are: This is crucial. Plan to be away when real estate agents are showing possible buyers through your home. Nothing makes a buyer more uncomfortable than a homeowner hanging around. After all, they can’t openly mock your cluttered bathroom if you’re standing over their shoulder, can they? Remember, buyers are envisioning how your house would look once it becomes their house. They can’t do this if you’re hanging around. So scram.

There you have it, some free advice. Don’t feel like following these simple rules? Then expect your house to sit on the market even longer.