Perry & Co. Realtor Gina Cornelison didn’t have to wait long to bring her Denver seller a full-price offer:  7 showings in 7 days with a contract on the 8th.  She credits her quick sale to responsive sellers willing to listen to her advice about recent comparables, preparing the house for sale and a realistic pricing strategy.

She first met with her sellers in April 2009 and walked through the house like a buyer.  She told them what needed to be done prior to listing the house in today’s market where buyers are expecting a lot of value.  Her list of “to dos” included:

• replacing  kitchen countertops
• replacing  kitchen floor
• overhauling the bathroom
• dipping, stripping and re-hanging the doors
• thorough cleaning and strategically placed candles to rid the home of it’s “old house” odor
• staging – removing the too-big furniture and replacing with smaller, cozier furniture that enhanced the room sizes and showcased the style of home.
• creating fabulous curb appeal by painting the front porch, front door and porch swing and adding pots of flowers.

Her sellers went to work and Gina helped, including adding pieces of her own furniture when they got to the staging phase of preparing the home for market. 

“I gave them an ‘if you do this, then we’ll price it at that’ kind of advice and showed them the comps,“ Gina said.  The sellers choose not to put in granite countertops because they didn’t want to replace the appliances.  “Granite countertops would have looked strange without new appliances so they put in tile countertops to update the kitchen and it worked great,” says Gina.  Gina priced the house based on their updates a bit higher than the sellers thought it should be, but she felt strongly that the house could sell at the price she recommended.  The house went on the market on July 31, 2009. 

One of the biggest things on Gina’s “to do” list was to create curb appeal.  “With the new paint and the potted flowers the house looked fresh and cute from the outside,” she says, and that brought buyers in.  Plus, Gina recounted that her sellers edged the grass and watered the flowers every day even though they had moved out by the time it was ready for market.   When they asked what else they could do, Gina told them they could turn on lights and music and light the candles before showings.  Her sellers took that advice for every showing and it paid off:  7 showings in 7 days with a full-price offer on the 8th day. 

Today more than ever with limited inventory and buyers looking for deals, sellers need Realtors who can advise them on how to prepare their home for sale, help them price it for their neighborhood and then market the home to the right buyers.   While Gina credits her sellers for their willingness to take her advice, they were lucky to have selected a Realtor who was honest about what their home needed prior to listing and a Realtor with the knowledge about the neighborhood and conviction about her pricing strategy.   Plus, Gina used some of her own furniture for staging!  Would your Realtor do that for you?
 

Written by Perry & Co. Marketing Director Lorrie Grillo