Staging your home is an important part of selling your home quickly and for a higher price point. By “staging,” we mean setting up your home in a way that shows off its best features, minimizes its flaws, and generally makes it look as good as it possibly can – just like putting makeup on before going on a big date!

Need help staging your home? The Packer Group’s professional home staging coordinator would love to help you set your home up for sales success. Get in touch with her now by clicking here.

Here are 10 tips for staging your home for quick-sale success

1. De-personalize – Removing knick-knacks and personal items from the home that are “taste specific” helps potential buyers better visualize their own belongings in the home. Begin packing and storing items throughout the home that aren’t used frequently, are non-seasonal, or will not be needed during the selling process. This helps rooms & closets appear larger, which buyers prefer to see.
2. Put away personal photos- Remove personal photos throughout the home so that buyers can more easily visualize themselves living in the home. Buyers will have difficulty imagining themselves living in the home if they see photos of your family throughout. Removing family portraits, signs with your last name, and identifying items that include information such as your children’s school, sports team, or college, should be done for personal safety reasons as well.
3. Replace photos with mirrors – If your budget and the design of your house allows, replace the photos you took off the wall with mirrors. People actually “seeing” themselves in a home makes them more likely to form an emotional connection with the place, therefore upping their chance of putting in an offer.

Tip: If your home décor is dated, our professional home stager can update it in a flash – and you won’t have to buy a thing. Click here for more details.

4. Clear off your counters – Kitchen & bathroom counter tops should be clear of all personal items. Leave 1-2 small appliances that are used frequently on kitchen counters, and remove all other items. You want both your kitchen and bathroom countertops to look as clean and large as possible, so buyers can imagine where THEIR belongings will go.
5. Let your rooms serve their purpose – Let’s say you use your breakfast nook for an office. When buyers walk into your house, do they want to think about work? Or do they want to imagine leisurely breakfasts on Sunday mornings? Do your best to make sure every room in your house is set up to serve its intended purpose, which will give your home a sense of abundance, not scarcity of space.
6. Let there be light – Maximize the light in your home by changing out old or low-wattage bulbs, taking screens off your windows, cleaning your windows, cleaning light fixtures, and trimming bushes and trees outside that are blocking appealing natural light. Add lamps and spotlighting where possible.
7. Cleanliness is next to Sold-liness – Clean EVERYTHING. Think 5-star hotel clean. Pay special attention to caulk and grout in your bathroom, seams around toilets and sinks, light fixtures, fans… you know, the stuff that usually gets forgotten about. Consider hiring a professional cleaning person to do a thorough deep cleaning of your home prior to listing it on the market.
8. Put on your paint clothes – Not only does it smell clean, but a fresh coat of paint gives any room an instant facelift without a lot of time/money. If you have bright or bold colors in your home, now is the time to paint over them with neutral tones that everyone can agree on. This isn’t an attack on your personal style or color preferences. It is all about appealing to the broadest base of people.
9. Freshen your floors – Buyers know that replacing flooring is time consuming and expensive, so make sure your floors look the best they possibly can! Get your carpet professionally cleaned (smells great, too), have your wood floors refinished, and make sure all tiles and grout are clean and in good shape.
10. Boost curb appeal – The outside of your home is your “first impression” to prospective buyers – so make it count! Make sure your plant beds are weeded, your sidewalk is swept/shoveled, and any clutter/trash cans/garden tools are put away. Adding a wreath to the front door and clean welcome mat can give buyers a great first impression.

The Packer Group’s professional stager would love to help!

Whether you just need a little advice or have a full-on, five-alarm staging emergency, our professional home staging coordinator would love to give you a hand! Just give us a call today at (734) 335-0416 to speak to her now!

No matter what you’re selling – toothpaste, tomatoes, or townhomes – choosing the right price is key to getting your product off the shelves. Determining a home’s best asking price is more than just picking a number that sounds good. That’s why we have tried-and-true real estate pricing strategies designed to get our clients the best possible sale price for their homes.

Up-to-the-minute market analysis

When The Packer Group signs on to sell a home, the very first thing we do is conduct a comprehensive market analysis, or CMA. Understanding where the market is right at the moment you put your home up for sale is the key to crafting an accurate price.

Looking at your particular house and situation, we analyze historic trends, recent sales and properties similar to yours that are currently on the market. These three factors give us a great foundation to work with when calculating the perfect price for your home.

Overpricing is a losing proposition

Everyone wants to get the best possible price for their home, but we always advise against overpricing. Putting an overly ambitious price on your home not only scares off potential buyers, but it can severely limit the “fresh-on-market” momentum that can get your home sold quickly … and usually at a higher price than if it languishes on the market for months.

Also, believe it or not, we’ve found that sellers who overprice their homes initially end up dropping their prices by a larger percentage than those who price their home accurately in the first place.

Even if you get a buyer who is willing to pay that high price, you may run into problems during the appraisal process. If your home doesn’t appraise for the amount the buyer needs to borrow, it can be a real headache for all involved – even kill the deal altogether.

Multiple offer heaven

When your home is priced accurately, you’re more likely to get more interest and even generate a multiple-offer situation – which is the real estate equivalent of heaven. When you have multiple buyers jockeying to score your house, you hold all the cards. Buyers who know they’ve got lots of competition will be a lot more willing to do things like forgo inspections and appraisal contingencies. They just want your house – and they’ll often do whatever it takes to get it, which makes your life MUCH easier.

Plus, with multiple offers, if your initial accepted offer falls through, you have fallback options that keep you from starting back at square one.

Need Help Pricing Your Home?

At The Packer Group, we understand the nuances of home pricing in and around the Detroit metro area, and we’d love to make sure you get top dollar for your home. Give us a call today at 734-707-7992 to get started!

Getting ready to sell your home? Whether you’re trading up, downsizing, moving away, or just cashing out on your investment – selling your home is an exciting time.

Selling your home can be a bit stressful as well. You have a lot to do to get your home ready, get it on the market, and get it sold … as quickly and for as much money as possible.

We here at The Packer Group put together this handy cheat sheet to help you understand the steps of the home sales process, including what your responsibilities are and which tasks are taken care of by your Realtor.

Step 1 – Determine your timeline for selling

Take a look at your motivation for selling, as well as at your financial picture. How long can you afford to wait for your house to sell? If you need to sell quickly, you may need to start with a lower price. If you time isn’t really an issue, then a fair market price may be worth the wait.

Step 2 – Fix and Fancy

Now it’s time to get your home ready to go on the market. Paint over ugly colors or damaged paint. Get your floors professionally cleaned. Wash windows and light fixtures. Make sure your landscaping is clean and looks as good as possible. Pressure wash your driveways, sidewalks, and the outside of your house. Make any repairs you’ve been putting off. You definitely don’t want a prospective buyer walking away because they’re overly suspicious of a leaky faucet.

Check out our guides about staging and boosting curb appeal for more tips on how to make your house look its best for its big debut.

Step 3 – Choose a Realtor

Working with an experienced Realtor from The Packer Group takes a load of responsibilities off your plate during the home-sales process. Selling your home can be very much like a full-time job, and you probably don’t have time to take on another one. That’s what your Realtor is for!

Your Realtor will help you set a price for your home, research your competitors and the overall market in your area, suggest improvements that can help your house command a larger price, market and show your home, deal with the mountains of paperwork and legal stuff, and so much more.

All of our Realtors have years of experience in the industry and professional support team backing them up. Friendly, knowledgeable, and easy to work with, all our Realtors are famous for making the home-sale process as stress-free as possible.

As an added bonus of working with a Realtor from The Packer Group, we provide professional photography of your home at no cost to you. The difference between professional photos and “cell phone specials” can mean less time on market and higher offers.

Step 4 – List and Show

Now that you’ve signed with a Realtor from The Packer Group, you’ll decide on a price and officially list your home. Your Realtor will handle the showings, marketing, and most of what goes on in this period. What you need to do is keep your home as clean and organized as possible – buyers might show up at any minute! Also, have a plan in place to take a short leave from your house at a moment’s notice when people want to tour your home.

Step 5 – Accept an offer

Most of the time, the offers you’ll get for your home aren’t from The Godfather (you know, the kind you can’t refuse), so you’ll most likely have to negotiate with the potential buyers. Your Realtor will help you determine what you can negotiate on other than price, like closing costs, repairs, throwing in a home warranty, and more. Negotiations will go back and forth between your Realtor and the buyer’s Realtor until a deal is reached.

Step 6 – Escrow

After the buyer’s offer has been accepted, your home goes into escrow while the buyers climb their mountain of paperwork. At this stage, be prepared to cooperate with the buyer’s home inspector and appraiser and provide mortgage, insurance, and other documentation as needed.

Step 7 – Closing and Getting the “Big Check”

At closing, you’ll sign your name about a million times and get a “big check” for whatever is left over after your current mortgage is paid off (if applicable). Go celebrate! Take your Realtor out for ice cream!

We’d love to help you sell your home

The Packer Group’s team of experienced Realtors would love to help you sell your home, or to answer any questions you might have. Give us a call today at 734-707-7992.