Sunday, November 30, 2014

Preparing Your Home for Sale - Pay Now or Pay Later.

Home sellers should not expect buyers to do the things they have failed to do for freeThere is a cost to deferred maintenance and neglect

Many maintenance items are simple but when selling they can become distractions and turn off prospective buyers.  More importantly, many of these maintenance items are inexpensive.  What are some of these simple items?
  • Missing down spouts on gutters 
  • Clogged gutters 
  • Broken window pane 
  • Lighting additions with exposed electrical tape connections  
  • Missing bolts where pool enclosures meet the decking 
  • Torn screening  
  • Heating element on the range that needs replacing  
  • Broken sprinkler heads  
  • GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) replaced with non-GFCI outlets  
  • Pool lights that are out 
  • Repair deteriorated exterior door framing.
The most important reason to deal with these maintenance items when you prepare your home for the market is this:  Prospective buyers will want to add the costs of these items up and subtract them from any offer price or walk away from the deal entirely.

Better yet... get a pre-listing property inspection done and get a jump on the items that will show up (they always do!).

Ready to sell your Melbourne, Florida home?  Call me at 321-693-3850 or send me an email.