Selling Your Lake Stevens Home?

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Want to maximize the sales price?

But don't have a bunch of extra cash (or time) to get your house ready for sale?

Besides the Persinger Group basics of home selling preparation:

(That You Can Find Inside My Book, SOLD: What to expect when selling)

Rule of Three

The golden rule of home staging is three items per surface, whether it's a wall, tabletop or mantel. Quantity takes up space and remember more space, easier sale. The rule of three applies to small rooms, as well, while larger rooms may get six pieces — four chairs, a table and a lamp in a dining room, for example. If de-cluttering seems like an overwhelming task, just remember two things. First, reducing clutter makes each room easier to clean. And you will have to keep your house in “show-ready” condition and do a quick clean quite often while on the market. Plus, in no time at all, you’ll be moving. The more you clean out or pack now, the easier it will be to pack up for the move after your house sells.

Half The Closet

Storage is something every home buyer is looking for and can never have enough of. Take half the stuff out of your closets and then neatly organize what’s left in there. Buyers will snoop, so be sure to keep your closets (and cabinets) clean and tidy.

Getting OCD

An easy way to remember the preparation process when selling your home is to remember OCD.

O - organize

C - clean

D - declutter

Here Are The 5 Quick Home Staging Tips For Under $50

Starting Outside

Home Staging Tip #1: Buy A New Welcome Mat

First impressions matter. And even though you might enter through the garage, home buyers will be entering through the front door.

It's crucial to make sure your front door, your front porch and entrance area looks clean and inviting.

A quick, affordable way to prepare your front door area for sale is by getting a new welcome mat.

Not only will the welcome mat add a fresh touch to the entrance it will also have a function as people come and go from your house during showings. 

You've spent all this time and money to clean the house, floors and carpet and now you're going to have more "guests" in a short period of time than you do in a normal year. 

Make sure the welcome mat is not overly creative or clever. It doesn't need to say, "Wipe Your Paws," or anything like that. 

Keep it clean. Simple. Modern. And matches the design and feel of the home. 

 Going Inside 

Home Staging Tip #2: Depersonalize Pictures. Replace with Neutral Art.

A mindset to develop (as I talk about in my book SOLD: What to expect when selling ) is that the home is not yours any more. Not just when the home has sold and you turn over the keys. But at the moment you decide to sell it. 

So don't stress about depersonalizing the home. It brings you a great return in the end. 

Start by removing your teenage daughter's poster of Justin Bieber from her bedroom. Remove any partisan items like political posters, flags, books or magazines. Take down any pictures of the family. 

Home buyers want a fantasy of imagining themselves in a home and how their life looks there. When there are pictures of you, your kids and the family vacations up everywhere you destroy their fantasy.

Replace all those pictures with simple landscape scenes or modern pops of shapes and color.  

You can find pictures at places like Target, or hobby stores, or even garage sales. You might even want to DIY.

Here is a little decorating my wife did in our guest bathroom. She found some old magazines, cut out a couple of pages and framed them. It's as simple as that. 

Home Staging Tip #3: Strategically Use Mirrors.  

The beauty of using mirrors when staging your home for sale:

First, mirrors add extra light to a dark room.

And they make a small room appear larger.

You can even use mirrors as wall art to go along with Home Staging Tip #2. 

Or use a full length mirror with a chunky frame to modernize the look of a room and bring more light to it. 

Home Staging Tip #4: White Linens In The Bathroom

If you have your toiletries are scattered across the counter...

If your shower curtain has mermaid on it, or a sports logo...

If your towels are mismatched...

Clean up, organize and give a luxury spa feel to your bathrooms with a few simple tricks.

Use white towels, white hand towels and white wash clothes.

Also add a candle and soaps that match in color for a little pop. 

Home Staging Tip #5: Set The Tables

Again, many buyers are looking at your home for sale and imagining their life in it. Part of that is entertaining. Maybe during the holidays, children's birthdays or just the house warming party.

To help this imagination took root, set the stage for them.

On your dining room table, lay out some plates (maybe the china you never use), cloth napkins and wineglasses. Have a beautiful center piece of fresh flowers. 

As for a kitchen island or breakfast table, match some coffee mugs, bowls and a basket of fruit. 

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For more info on preparing your home for sale:

Request a FREE COPY of SOLD: What To Expect When Selling 

From author, speaker and a licensed real estate broker with KW Western Realty.

Darin Persinger wrote SOLD: What To Expect When Selling with one purpose: To help you sell your home for maximum dollar.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE COPY 

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Ever since moving to the Puget Sound area in 2008, I had been living in an apartment or condo.

Which was fine for my lifestyle at that time, but as Pearl, my French Bulldog, started getting older, I really wanted her to have a yard.

I talked with my wife, Katherine, about the importance of a yard for Pearl and why it meant so much to me.

So our home search started:

It wasn't about how many bedrooms, or baths or square feet. The home search was about a yard for Pearl.

In fact, that was the name of the saved search, here on PersingerGroup.com and the MLS. 

"A Yard For Pearl"

Yesterday I noticed a red bump on Pearls front left paw. I immediately took Pearl into the vet. 

The vet didn't give good news. 

They took some of the cells from the bump to send in for testing, but the vet gave me the bad news:

Cancer. 

The test was just to see how bad it was and what stage the cancer was in. 

When we came home, Pearl did what Pearl does. Pearl went in to her yard and found a spot in the sun. 

This Isn't A Sad Story

My wife told me she couldn't believe how calm I was being and that I seemed in good spirits. 

I explained to her that maybe as Pearl's last days come closer, I'll be sad, but I'm so happy and grateful for the time and adventures Pearl and I have had together. 

Pearl and I moved across the country together. It was a great road trip going from Wisconsin to Washington. 

And I was able to give Pearl her yard. 

Pearl's Yard

The home that Katherine and I bought is not our dream home.

It's not fancy. It's not extremely updated. 

It's a three bedroom, two bath home.

In reality, there are a quite a few things that we don't like about it. But what we love about it: It has a yard for Pearl. 

Experience has shown that the people who struggle with their home search are looking for a home that IS something. 

A home that IS 4 bedrooms. 

Or a home that IS updated. 

Or a home that IS located in the right place. 

Too many people have a wishlist of FEATURES that their home must have. And these people struggle to find a home and miss out on great deals, because a home is not something that just IS. 

But the people who end up finding a home, a home that they love, that is a great deal are looking for what the home DOES something. 

For example: We wanted a home that gave Pearl a yard. This meant she had a place to run, play and lay in the sun. And we got to watch her and enjoy her enjoying all those things. 

I don't love the home that Katherine and I bought because of the location, the number of bedrooms, or bathrooms or the size of the master suite.

I love the home because of what it DOES.

It gives Pearl a yard. And that yard DOES something for Pearl.

And seeing Pearl enjoy her yard and knowing that Pearl enjoys her yard DOES something for us.

If Katherine and I would have been caught up in the beds, baths, location thing we might still be looking for a home and I wouldn't have all these memories of Pearl enjoying her yard.

And those memories are what is making dealing with the reality of our current situation bearable. 

At Persinger Group we believe a home is where memories are created and memories are shared. 

Keep that in mind as you search for your home. Don't just look for what the home IS. Think about what you want this new home to do for you. Think about the stories you want to create and share there. 

Don't just search for what a home IS...

That IS 3 bedrooms...

That IS 2 baths...

That IS updated with a new modern kitchen...

That IS close to work...

Look for a home that DOES something. 

I'm glad we did. 

Lake Stevens Homeowner – I’m writing you this important article, just as our stock market has reached new heights and interest rates continue to be record lows.

As I’m sure you are aware, our Lake Stevens real estate market has seen some considerable changes over the past couple of years. Median home sale prices in Lake Stevens have gone from $225,000 in January 2013 to $297,500 in December 2014. *Data from NWMLS

So that means that home values in Lake Stevens have increased by 32.2% in the past two years!

If you’re thinking about making renovations to your Lake Stevens home, or possibly selling it in 2015, the first thing you’ll want to know is the current market value if it was up for sale today.

You’re invited to get a free home value report on our website that cross-references your home to comparable sales in your neighborhood to estimate a price your home would sell for if it were to go on the MLS today. Here’s the link to use the free home value report tool now: HomeValuesinLakeStevens.com

Enter your home address and you’ll get a suggested selling price specific to our Lake Stevens housing market.

Then simply confirm the stats and condition of your home. And finally enter your contact info for the Instant Value Report and you'll also be emailed the Home Selling Checklist. 

This Home Selling Checklist shows you 7 things you should know before listing your Lake Stevens home for sale... and WHY. (If you want to get Maximum Dollar when selling)

Your Home Selling Checklist has a boatload full of stats like:

• how many more clicks a listing with professional photos generates
• how many buyers will watch a video tour of the inside of a home
• and a Wall Street Journal report on how much of a gain in value the final sales price can be with the right pictures

If you have any questions about it, or if you do actually want to sell your Lake Stevens home this year, start by visiting HomeValuesinLakeStevens.com

JUST CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED!

You may be surprised what your home is really worth! 

Your friend in Lake Stevens real estate, 

Darin Persinger