As a REALTOR®, communicating on a regular basis with the seller is a crucial component of the listing’s success. And, as I have so often found from experience, sellers who have mentally made the transition from “homeowner to home seller” have a much easier time accepting advice and feedback from their real estate agent realizing it as a means to an end: the sale of their home.
Such was the case for one of my listings (before and after pictures, below), a truly beautiful single family home that I sold back in early February, recently featured in the May, 2009 edition of REALTOR.org “Best Room Makeovers”.
Painted in a South-West Adobe orange color motif, many buyers just found the family room too loud for their tastes.
The seller originally gave me resistance about changing the color, but after reading the feedback I was sending him from buyers, he finally realized the family room needed to be re-painted. I suggested an off-white, neutral color. Up until that point, I was having nightmares about this room.
My advice: Re-Paint That Room and Let’s Get Your Beautiful Home Sold!
The cost in supplies and paint was under $200 and with a weekend’s worth of elbow grease by the seller (the seller truly did a fantastic job), the paint job made a world of difference and the home sold some time afterwards.
At work here was the basic fundamental economic principal of price vs. cost. Not doing the painting with a price $200.00 worth of paint and supplies, plus some personal time to remedy a situation could have cost the home seller an untold amount of additional time on the market with added carrying costs, a reduced sale price, plus the added stress from not selling.
Try the Home Sale Maximizer home improvement tool on HomeGain.
Interesting how that works sometimes. I had a seller once that was able to get offers once the yard was tended to a little more. It wasnt bad, just looked unused and untended. Once a weekend of light landscaping changes was done, and some flowers were planted for color the backyard was much more inviting.
May 13th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
It’s funny what we run into in the midst of our real estate transactions. I can be difficult to get a simple point across at times. Like you pointed out, sometimes a few dollars is all it takes to make a home sale.
May 14th, 2009 at 11:37 am
I had an investor that had a Royal Blue kitchen, and he just didn’t believe that that would stop it from selling. 30 days later he said OK, lets see if it works. We painted it Navajo White, and got a contract on it three days later. His next house he said paint it all now. We did and got a contract in two weeks. It works!
September 24th, 2009 at 9:22 am