Posted on: Friday, March 7, 2003
REAL ESTATE
Books provide tips to give home sellers an edge
By Judy Rose
Knight Ridder News Service
Spring training has opened for the 2003 house-selling season.
If you plan to put a house on the market this year, it's time to fix up the place, to patch and paint the worn spots, and to move out a lot of clutter.
Two good new books can help point you toward changes worth your time and money and steer you from those that aren't. Both have ambitious titles.
The more realistic title is "50 Simple Steps You Can Take to Sell Your Home," by Ilyce Glink (Three Rivers Press, $14), with the subtitle "Faster and for More Money in Any Market." That goal sounds within reason.
The other is "Improve the Value of Your Home Up to $100,000" by Robert Irwin (Wiley, $14.95). Yeah, OK. We'll settle for less.
Both are a cut above the usual real estate book with concrete ideas. Still, you may react to some of the advice as you would to the friend who tells you spinach is stuck in your teeth.
"Oh, no!" may be your quick reaction. But your second one should be "Thank you." Some of the advice covers subjects your friends or real estate agent are too polite to bring up.
Take "50 Simple Steps" by Glink, a real estate columnist who also wrote the popular "100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask." In her chapter on pets, Glink writes: "All pet owners I know insist that their pets don't smell. Of course, that's not true."
So, she advises, invite a few objective people who don't smoke or have animals or infants at home to tell you what they smell and where it's coming from.
The chapter headings alone in Glink's book spell out good advice. For example, under "Five Rules Every Home Seller Should Live By," we find these wise admonitions:
• If you know something's broken, fix it.
Let's take "Don't be a pig."
"Greed is ugly," Glink writes. House sales die because otherwise reasonable sellers become obsessed, calculating over and over how much cash they'll pocket after expenses.
"They negotiate for every nickel and take a hard line on repairing or replacing items in the home inspector's report," she writes.
"They're so focused on the bottom line that the transaction becomes difficult for everyone."
There are deals that die because the seller won't do a minor repair or give a $200 credit because of the principle involved, Glink says. There are sellers who won't negotiate because they felt taken advantage of when they bought, and now it's their turn to dish it out.
From "Improve the Value of Your Home" by Irwin, another veteran real estate columnist and author, here's a sample of topics under "Simple Techniques That Bring Higher Prices and Sales":
• Cars have their place, but not in front.
Much advice in both books is especially good for today's leisurely house market. The seller does need to put his best house forward. Many of the ideas are concrete how-to advice.
For example, from Glink, if you keep things out on the counters in your kitchen, don't just clean and organize them. Take everything off the countertop — cookbooks, ripening fruits, stirring implements, hot pads, soaps, sponges and all small appliances. Wipe the counter clean and put back three or fewer items.
Irwin's book gives good ideas for improving your house even if you don't want to sell it.
For example, here are some topics under "Techniques for Making a Grand Entrance:"
• Redo your driveway.
Glick's "50 Simple Steps" goes well beyond telling you to clean up and fix up. She addresses many seller issues. For example:
Should you get ready to sell with a major renovation? No, it's not practical either emotionally or financially. Instead, do all the minor projects instead.
What if you're not getting offers? Give the buyer a break by paying closing costs or taxes, or you could offer a bonus to the selling agent.
Meanwhile, while you wait for a good offer to arrive, organize the papers you'll need for closing. Glink gives you the list.
Finally, a piece of advice, not from Glink or Irwin, but from friends who understood that they tended to be pack rats.
When they got their house ready to sell, they knew they'd never create the appearance of open space just by organizing what was in it. So they rented a trailer and a storage space. Then they hauled out
almost everything in their basement, half the clothes in their closets, a third of their furniture and accessories and all their boxes of miscellaneous stored stuff.
Their reward — a fairly easy sale to people who'd said, "Oh, look at all this closet space."
• Don't lie about what's wrong with your house.
• Don't think you can fool the home inspector.
• Choose a broker who matches your home-selling temperament.
• Don't be a pig when it comes to money.
• Give your house a friendly look.
• Fix that lawn.
• Add new outside lighting.
• Clear out the debris.
• Dump the old couches.
• Replace your home's jewelry (metal items around the front door).
• Mend your fences.
• Make over the front of your house.
• Add a tile entrance.
• Hang a fancy chandelier.
