NurtureSource Designs

Get FlashTo fully enjoy our Web site, you'll need to install or upgrade Macromedia Flash Player.
It's free! Get Flash!'For most home sellers, the primary objective is to get the best price within the shortest time. In my experience, the goal is best accomplished by addressing three questions:
1) How do you prepare your home for sale?
2) When is the best time to sell? and
3) How do you select a real estate agent?Preparing your home for sale begins with an understanding of what buyers want. Most buyers want a home that is 'turn-key' ready. That means one they can move into with minimal disruption and feels quickly like home. Urban homes represent a retreat from a busy world, a safe, comfortable space for self and family. You need to make sure that the house you are selling evokes that feeling in potential buyers.Marketing homes for sale has evolved to new dimensions within the Bay Area. Gone are the days of empty houses and 'fixer' signs out front. Today's most marketable home is the one which looks immediately livable yet not too occupied. It's a home that is clean, fully finished, and furnished just enough to invite the potential buyer's imagination without raising fears of having to do extensive renovation like interior painting, floor refinishing, new landscaping, kitchen or bathroom renovation and lighting replacement. This is where professional staging can help sell your home more quickly and at the best price.When is the best time to sell? Conventional realtor wisdom says not to sell prior to or during certain holidays - New Years, Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, from Thanksgiving to Christmas or during the end-of-summer vacation period. However, my experience has been that a well-prepared home will sell at any time if marketed properly regardless of holidays, vacations or even economic forecast gurus predicting pending housing busts.This brings us to the third question - how to find the right real estate agent? The key here is to list your home with an agent experienced in the art of marketing well-prepared homes. Finding this sort of agent may take some time and effort, but is well worth this investment. It may mean you attending Sunday open houses in your area, paying attention to a home's preparation and talking to the on-site listing agent. If the house is clearly prepared in a way that pleases you, makes you want to live there, and doesn't have you thinking about all the work involved in getting it ready to spend a comfortable night, then the agent is worth interviewing. Not all real estate agents pay attention to these things, so choose wisely.Whatever the reasons for selling your home - job relocation, relationship changes, being near a certain school, -- for most people the primary objective is to get the best price within the shortest reasonable time. Addressing the above three questions will help guide you to achieve that goal. Your home is important both financially and emotionally, and selling it deserves your best effort.The media love to tell us about the real estate market -- housing bubbles inflating and just-about-to-burst looming market corrections, seasonal cycles, up and down trends -- but usually leave out the simple essentials of selling a home anywhere, even in the Bay Area. Those essentials are: prepare well, present well, and price well.Preparing a home well means minimizing Section One structural problems such as pests, foundation defects, roof issues, outdated furnaces and decking dry rot. Correcting such problems usually requires the services of a reliable contractor. Presenting a home well means maximizing the aesthetic elements, both interior and exterior, such as material quality, colors, space planning utilization, circulation flow, landscaping, furnishing and decoration. These elements are best addressed by a good designer or stager experienced specifically in preparing homes for sale.Today's serious buyers are noting all these elements as they examine the home you are selling, and neglecting any of them may cost you the best buyer at the best price, which brings me to the third element. It is generally not helpful to compare today's home prices to those of last year or several years ago, since this only distorts expectations, both yours and the potential buyer. It is much wiser to rely on the knowledge of an experienced listing agent in pricing your home, someone who regularly follows market trends, knows local neighborhoods, is skilled in marketing and in locating buyers, and has seen what really sells in the current market. Today's buyers, especially in the Bay Area, are sophisticated, take their time buying, and want a home that will not require further large structural or aesthetic investments, we call it 'turn-key.' They also tend to be aware of their budget limitations and don't jump into unwise financial obligations (nor do their lenders let them).In my experience, the well-prepared, well-presented, and thoughtfully (well) priced home sells quickly and to the satisfaction of all parties, especially in today's real estate market.Gary Faber is owner of NurtureSource Designs LLC, a Berkeley-based, design marketing company that helps Bay Area homeowners prepare and present their homes for sale. Gary has lived in the Bay Area for over 20 years and has both an M.B.A. in real estate & finance and experience in residential real estate development.

site by cheathamlane