Sellers — When Your Agent Suggests You Paint — Paint! (See Photos)

Let’s do the math on this $2.7 million dollar home that may not have gotten the highest sale value … because of Paint? Staging? Hmmm let’s take a look.

This was a GORGEOUS listing on a corner lot in a highly desirable neighborhood .. immaculately maintained with large rooms, rear courtyard with pool, spa and grill, game room, fireplaces… all the things buyers seek and it was uploaded onto MLS with professional photography and a SMARTePLAN.

It went on the market at $2.7-ish when inventory was 3.9 months and average days-on-market was 38 days for that neighborhood.

This is the same neighborhood where in the same time period three homes with SMARTePLANS sold at 5, 8 and 22 days on market respectively.

This one went through 4 price drops, was 160 days on market and sold 15% less than its first price drop.

Texas is a non-disclosure state so I cannot tell you the sale price — but do the math and plug in some numbers. If the first price drop from the list price was 2%, 5% or 10% .. then the sale was 17%, 20% or 25% from where they listed … after 160 days on the market.

It was taken off the market, updated (painted / staged) and sold in 15 days.

But the sale price/list price ratio isn’t the only “cost” … figure the taxes, insurance, utilities (to fill a pool and spa) and all these other incremental expenses you are incurring waiting for it to sell … and the time spent fretting and anxious and keeping your home “show ready” for nearly 6 months?? Owch… owch…owch.

So if you’re thinking “Hey, I’ve lived here and it’s a good house and let’s just put it on the market and see if it sells…” you are setting yourself up for failure.

Review the photos and see the difference for yourself.

Trust your agent’s / stager’s expertise and knowledge in your marketspace. If they are suggesting painting, staging or decluttering — DO IT!

The last thing you want is your buyer walking around the home thinking they’re going to need a truckload of Kilz® before they can move in.

Everything they see that they like — is immediately countered by the little repeating soundtrack in their heads reminding them continuously of the need to paint. So the conversation running inside their heads is going something like this:

“Man! I LOVE this kitchen, all new appliances! .. but I’m going to have to paint everything first.”

“We’ve always DREAMED of a backyard like this with a pool and spa .. but we’re going to have to paint the whole inside of the house first– what a mess … we’re not going to be able to enjoy this backyard for months… certainly not before school starts.”

“Wow! Look at the size of this Game Room .. plenty of room for the pool table and it opens right onto the pool … but oh geez .. we’re going to have to paint the whole flippin’ house before we move in.”

So what they say out loud is ….

“NEXT!!!!”

And they turn to their agent and say “Do you have other houses in this neighborhood that we can see that we don’t have to paint?” ….. and they’re GONE.

Think long and hard before you buy-in to the thinking that you don’t need to prepare your home for sale.

LISTEN to the advice you are being given.

It’s certainly worth thinking about the sort of things you need to do in order to get top dollar for your home … nobody wants to be the house that languishes on the market while everything around them is selling. Be smart.

Thanks for Stopping By,

Judith, The SMARTePLAN Lady

Photos: TK IMages in Houston, Texas Tel: 713 545 9177 | tkimages@tkimages.com |http://www.tkimages.com/

SMARTePLANS® is the premier marketing system for luxury homes featuring online easy-to-read pictographic floor plan pictorials, where the photographs launch from inside the floor plan … NOW all the photos make sense! 55% of SMARTePLANS® sold OVER list price in 2014 – so SMARTePLANS® is very effective at selling high end luxury properties. You can seamlessly click around the property, viewing the photos in relationship to the pictographic floor plan drawing. This is not a video … you choose what you want to view … or not. [TIP: Hold down your CTRL key and roll your mouse wheel to quickly zoom in and out of the drawing — no detail is too small to see!] The compilation above is the original creative work and copyrighted property of SMARTePLANS®. You may link to it; but it may not be copied, nor reproduced in any form or format in whole or in part without the express written permission of Judith Sinnard.