Montauk Pioneer - January 16, 2009 -

The housing crisis is one horrible experience for homeowners, but for those of you who are serious about selling your house, there are still buyers out there. There are a lot of buyers on the sidelines right now who are starting to feel a sense that the housing crisis is beginning to bottom out and they don't want to miss the opportunity to buy a home at a discount. Alternatively, sellers have been stuck with their homes on the market for such a long time that they have given up on presenting the home the way they should. In other words, the homes have not been staged for buyers correctly.

You absolutely need to stage your home if you want it to sell. This is true for any home in any market and it takes a bit of effort. But if you don't do it, your house will not sell in this market and if it is sold, it will not be sold at the price you aim for. So get back to basics and don't let your house go on the market staged in an unattractive way. Step one is to clean up the house, inside and out, all the way down to the little nooks and corners. You can do this yourself of course, but if you can't seem to make it happen, hire a cleaning service to do it for you.

If your television is outdated, meaning if you do not have a flat screen in your home and you are attempting to sell your house to a high end buyer, consider getting a flat screen television in your home, or removing your old television all together if you can't afford it. Also, if your furniture looks like it is out of that 70s show, might be a good time to get some replacements, not for the sake of your own creature comforts, but to attract the home to a buyer. Watch television shows about selling houses for good ideas on how to stage your home properly as well.

If you are a clutter freak, you are in trouble. Nobody wants to buy a home that has a living room full of a collection of old fish tanks that you have saved since adolescence. That might sound crazy, but you would be surprised what people keep in their home and expect buyers to overlook. Be hard on yourself when it comes to clutter, a buyer does not want to see it, and it will turn them off.

When a person buys a home, it is a major decision in their life and they don't want to buy into a home that portrays a sense of negativity. No matter how angry you are at your neighbors, no matter how much you hate principal of the school and no matter how badly you want to get the heck out of the area that you bought into, never, ever, ever portray to anybody, including your real estate agent that you are unhappy with your home. You should give reasons for selling that revolve around a need to move because of a new job location, a need to get a bigger house because you have a bigger family or a need to move because you want to be closer to a loved one. It is a big mistake to tell somebody that you want to move because you don't like the area anymore. Nobody want to buy a home that is presented with a sense of unhappiness. A potential buyer needs to accept the reasons why you are moving and feel that if they were in your situation, they would do the same thing, even though they still really loved living there.