'Curb appeal' critical for home sales, experts say

By Alan J. Heavens
Knight Ridder News Service

If you are planning to sell anytime soon, it's time to get off the couch and get to it.

Usually, sellers get on the stick long before this, but with an uncertain economy, unconfident consumers, international turmoil and a harsher-than-normal winter, too many people have been hunkering down.

There have been signs, especially in some city neighborhoods, that home prices have been deflating slightly from pre-downturn peaks. But while some predict a bubble and others say no, if you need to sell, you might as well while mortgage interest rates remain low, thus helping both buyers and sellers.

It remains a sellers' market, but that does not mean you can get a million dollars for a tumbledown shack.

Location is still the No. 1 buyer motivation, followed by condition and cost. All need to be there to sell a house for a price that can equal or exceed what you are looking for.

First impressions, no matter what kind of market it is, can make or break a sale.

The professionals call this curb appeal. Research by the National Association of Realtors has shown that almost half of all house sales are decided at the curb.

"The idea is to make the exterior sparkle," said Bari Shor, an agent with Prudential Fox & Roach in Center City, Pa.

Sparkle can be achieved in a variety of ways. The most obvious is by cleaning, painting and landscaping.

Clean the mildew off porch surfaces and window frames, and paint them if they need it. Rake leaves and pick up papers. Polish the brass doorknobs until they glow. And make sure you wash the windows. There are firms that you can hire to do it, and by removing years of grime, you can fill the house with natural light.

The trick to getting your house ready for sale is to look at it first through a buyer's eyes.

Why? Well, in general, buyers do not see the house through the same eyes as the seller. The seller has years and memories tied up in the house. Buyers are looking for a sound structure at a good price. These days, especially, the typical buyer is interested in value.

Drive or walk around your neighborhood or community and take a good look at other houses, regardless of whether those houses are for sale. Go home, stand across the street, and look at your house and yard. What makes your house better or worse than the others?

Then accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, and do not mess with in-between.

If you improve the exterior, or "polish the apple," as some real estate agents put it, it could add as much as 10 percent to the sale price of your house.

After you take a look at your house, check out your neighbors'. Will they help sell your house or drive buyers elsewhere? If your neighbor tends to tinker with two or three old cars on his front lawn, someone might think twice about living next door.

There are two ways to handle the problem. You can appeal to your neighbor's better nature, telling him that cleaning up the yard will boost everyone's property values. Or you can make his life so miserable that he will clean the yard so you can sell the house and get out of his life for good.

Either way, you will win.

Who should do the work you need to get the house ready for sale?

Most real estate agents keep a list of plumbers, plasterers, painters and cleaning firms, in case their clients need them.

One thing agents do not tolerate is clutter.

Consultant Lauren Harper Haden calls this the "cut in half" concept, in which the agent tells the seller, diplomatically, of course, to get rid of at least half of the stuff in every room.

John Duffy of Duffy Real Estate in Narberth, Pa., and Wayne, Pa., recommends rearranging furniture or storing extra furniture to make the rooms look larger. Keep the beds made, and pick up clothes, toys and other stuff from the floor.

Haden also suggests:

• Clearing notes and magnets off the refrigerator, clearing the counters, and cleaning appliances; washing the exterior of the kitchen cabinets, touching up the finish, and maybe even putting on new knobs.

• Hiding the garbage cans and opening the floor space; reducing the number of knickknacks, paintings and wall hangings in the living room and dining rooms.

• Decluttering bookshelves.

Start with clean kitchen when showing a home

Don't cook foods such as cabbage, because the odor can linger. Any effort to hide the odor with air freshener might give the impression you are trying to hide something more serious, such as the smell of leaking pipes.

Turn off the television and turn on some easy-listening music.

If a room is dark, install more lighting.

Clean the closets. Older houses tend to have limited closet space; the more cluttered, the less space buyers think they have.

If you want to take something with you, such as a light fixture, remove it before the house is shown, otherwise, potential buyers may think it is included.

Buyers head for the kitchen first. A country kitchen or a combined kitchen-breakfast room-family room is a big seller in the suburbs. Updated kitchens in older houses also sell well, but they should retain some of their original charm.

Next on the list is the master bedroom. Bathrooms, too, should have enough sizzle to convince prospective buyers their search is over.

Lowest on the list of buyers' priorities: "Bedrooms two through four," where the children sleep.

Make sure your teenagers remove their posters from the walls. Young families do not seem to favor houses where there is an overwhelming presence of teenagers, agents say.

When your house is being shown, get the children to an off-premises baby sitter. The same goes for the dog and cat; exile the gerbil and hamster, which many people think are rats.

If you are there when your home is being shown, let the agent answer all the questions. Greet people and then excuse yourself.

If you are asked questions, answer them honestly.

And do not give in to the tendency to point out tiny imperfections.

— Knight Ridder News Service