Patch Blog: Why Fix It Up If You Are Just Going To Sell It?

Would you put your car up for sale without a thorough wash and detail?

Most homeowners mistakenly think buyers will be able to visualize themselves living in their home with their stuff. Wrong! 90 percent of buyers cannot see beyond what is there.

A move-in condition home has a greater value to buyers and will sell at a higher price. “Today’s Market” and “HomeGain” (real estate research companies) say that homes that have been cleaned up, painted and updated allow the seller to realize a 100 percent or more return on the cost of any of those improvements. Guess which improvement is one of the tops in returning 586 percent of your investment? 

Staging.

Today, buyers are reluctant to purchase a neglected property because they must do costly repairs immediately.  Also, they no longer have financial resources like equity lines to use to do this.

So if 94 percent of prepped/staged homes sell on average in 29 days or less, when the average days on market for a home to sell is 90, and these homes sell on average for 7 percent more, what should you do?