Selling your house with a realtor can be a lot. Realtors have different strategies and sales pitches but there are some fundamentals that we all follow! In this post, I am going to go over all the things your realtor SHOULD be doing to get your house ready for 1st pictures 2nd showings. I’ll start with a pre-pictures checklist. After that, I’ll talk about some important, lesser known, more Edmonton specific tasks your realtor should be doing. If you’ve met with a realtor and you don’t get the sense they’re providing these features, I’ll even offer some tips on how what to ask them. Let’s get right into it!
Before Photos
Pictures are a big deal. A good percentage of people will be deciding whether or not to view your house depending on the listing photos. So what are some things you should do before the Photographer shows up?
Curb Appeal
I’ll start with the basics: make sure your front lawn is incredibly well watered and cut! Pictures are all about color, having a lush green front lawn is a major selling point. If your realtor hasn’t brought it up already, you should ask about lawn care or landscaping service. Secondly, making sure all your shrubs etc. are pruned, with fallen branches removed is a big deal.
Pressure Washing
Other than your garden, I would HIGHLY recommend pressure washing services. You can have your windows plus vinyl siding pressure washed inexpensively or you can do it yourself! Along with your house, any driveways or walkways will really benefit from being pressure washed.
Drapes
Drapes/window coverings shouldn’t be visible from outside. When the photographer shows up, make sure the drapes are not down on any rooms. Along with this, every light should be on!
Your Front Entrance
Front steps, door and mailbox. I notice when listing my clients homes sometimes they have rusty mailboxes, dirty doors, or wooden front steps in need of a paint job. First impressions are everything, and your front entrance is your properties first impression! If you want to learn more, I talk about curb appeal here!
Your Homes Interior
In this section I am only going to talk about your interior in regard to pictures. For pictures, dust doesn’t matter that much, nor does some paint blemishes. My first recommendation for preparing your house for pictures is to DECLUTTER. Often times, we use spaces in our house for more than one purpose. Your bedroom may have your bed, but it may also have a craft station, or even a workout bike. I recommend removing any furniture or clutter that isn’t a part of each rooms primary purpose! A kitchen should only include kitchen items, a bedroom, living room – likewise.
Lighting can make or break photos. I highly suggest replacing all your lights with warm light, light bulbs (2.7-3k Lumens). They may not give off as much light as you prefer but they look great for photos!
My last recommendation for the interior before photos is to not just clean but clean strategically! Focus on items in your house that you can get a shine from if scrubbed well. This included your stainless steel appliances, windows, and ceramic items like toilets, and lastly counter tops / floors! Don’t worry about dust, odor or dirt, just focus on making the items in your home that are supposed to shine, shine!
After Photos
So you now officially have a solid deck of photos, and your realtor is preparing your listing. So what could possibly be stopping you from selling?? In this section I’ll go over a few things your realtor should include in the listing.
Location and Neighborhood
Somewhere in your deck of photos should be at least 4-5 photos of neighborhood features. A nearby grocery store, green space, park or desirable shopping centre / school. These are very important as people often times consider location just as seriously as the house itself. Your realtor should capture drone shots or google images showing your homes exact location in the neighborhood. In my low commission listing plan and my fast selling listing plan, I offer drone shots, as I think neighborhood location is very important.
Disclosures
Has your agent talked to you about your Real Property Report? I explain RPR’s in more detail in a previous blog post, but it’s essentially your properties lot measurements, with City of Edmonton approval. If you have this document, that’s great you should advertise it, if you don’t you should tell people you don’t have it. Your realtor should advertise your property with ‘title insurance in lieu of an RPR’.
Other disclosures you want to tell people about before they see your house, are any defects. If you’ve got a crack in the foundation, broken dishwasher, or anything in between. If people are aware of the issues before hand then they will consider it an aspect of your current listing price. This will make your sale process much smoother.
Conclusion
There are a lot of small steps your realtor needs to take in order to launch a desirable listing. Not only must you have great pictures but you must set expectations for potential buyers and have all their questions answered before they even ask! If you can present your house in such a way, you will have no trouble selling no matter the market.
Thank you for reading! If you have any additional questions you can call, text or email me: 780-902-1856 Logap@logicrealty.ca
