Tips for Ann Arbor Sellers in a Nervous Market

10 Steps to Sanity for Home Sellers in a Nervous Market that works in Ann Arbor, MI

RISMEDIA, Feb. 15, 2007-A. Sheila Anderson of OcalaResidential.com, Inc., licensed real estate broker, offers 10 tips to simplify selling a house in a nervous market. She is applying her experience to answering a question on the minds of many: being smart about buying or selling your house.

Perhaps you are facing a transfer, considering downsizing, or moving to a different area. Or you want the family and kids settled in time for the 2007-2008 school year.

Buyers and sellers may have the jitters from insurance, congestion, high taxes, declining real estate sales and fluctuating prices.

Whatever the case, housing prices remain near historical highs, if they are off a bit from last year's peaks and stay on the market longer.

"There's a lot more to selling your house than setting up a sign and waiting for buyers to come," Anderson says. "This is a business decision. Your goal is to make your experience as simple as possible-for you and the buyer."

The following 10 steps can get a seller started. It starts with attitude.

1. Detach emotionally from the property. Take the long view. Prepare for change. Simplify the surroundings. Wake up and pretend you are a guest in someone else's house. Make your bed in the morning. Put the dishes in the dishwasher right away. Distinguish your home from your house. Your home is in your memories and those of the family-a house is the bricks and mortar you are selling. This critical psychological step will make everything that follows easier.

2. Lose the clutter. Root out anything you don't need or use. Do it in steps. It will make moving day that much easier. As for non-priority items you wish to keep, put them in storage.

3. Present the front. Paint if needed. Trim the landscaping. Weed the grass. Plant some flowers. Clean out the side and rear yards. When you like what you see, take pictures.

4. Always be honest - with your buyer, and with the real estate broker. If there is a problem, tell them about it. They will be grateful for your candor and the deal will work more smoothly.

5. Make the house sparkle, especially the kitchen, bathrooms and your windows. Put jewelry, family pictures and personal mementos into storage, or in neatly stacked boxes in a corner of your garage.

6. Disappear when real estate agents show the property. Take a drive, go to a movie, or visit with friends when people are walking through the house. And take your animals with you. (Someone might have an allergy).

7. Get ready to show the house any time. Once it is on the market, it is always a good time to show the house - if you really want to sell it. That accidental visitor could well be your buyer.

8. Prepare a list of items the buyer might want to use - the lawnmower, the grill, the patio and porch furniture, the draperies. Mark them "for the buyer." It's a little touch, but a separate bill of sale can provide tax advantages for the buyer at closing time.

9. Keep your cool. Buyers and sellers both tend to go a little crazy during a sale. Don't get emotional; keep your sense of humor. This is a business transaction and is not personal. Some people will give you a low-ball offer. Don't get offended; give them a counter-offer you consider fair.

10. Consider getting out of the way at closing time. Let the broker and your attorney handle it.
The more professional and calm the deal stays, the better a shot you will have with the fewest surprises. For more reports and on line home evaluation, visit www.KathyToth.com

'as seen on www.rismedia.com, publishers of Real Estate magazine.'