First impressions Count When Selling Your House

Poor street appeal can stop a house sale in its tracks. That all-important first impression is often the deciding point as to whether a prospective buyer walks through the gate, or drives off never to return.

Many home owners find it difficult to find faults in their own property and the problem is, real estate agents are often reluctant to point out the faults through fear of upsetting the vendor. Unfortunately this approach does no-one any favors.

My recommendation to home sellers is to critically eye your property and be upfront with your agent. Ask them to give you their honest opinion. Ask for a list of positives and negatives about the property and reassure the agent that you want honest and critical feedback. If the agent fails to criticize anything, then challenge the agent to be blatantly honest. However, in saying this you need to be prepared to accept any criticism and not punish or hold grudges against the agent for his/her honesty.

Also, take a stroll and take notes on how your property compares to others and what it would take to make your property stand out. You could take a friend with you to help point out a range of minor changes you could make to add up to a great first impression.

This approach to selling your home serves several purposes:

1. Encourages an honest upfront working relationship with your real estate agent.
2. It helps you identify the strengths and weakness of your property.
3. It helps your compare your property with others in a similar range.
4. It identifies problems that could possibly be remedied.5. It could reveal some positive ideas for improving the street appeal.
5. It prepares you for the likely feedback from buyers.

Remember, any criticism is not necessarily a criticism of you, it is simply an honest appraisal of the current situation. You can either ignore it, or do something about it to help sell your house.