The Top 5 Reasons to Sell Your Wichita Home This Fall

Here in Wichita, people buy homes all year long. Today, I’ll go over the top five reasons to sell your home this fall.

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Why should you list your home during the fall? Here are the top five reasons:

1. There is less competition in the fall. Most people think that spring is the best time to list their home, but the reality is that people in Wichita buy homes all year long. By listing in the fall, you will face less competition, which may mean a better sales price.

2. Buyers are more serious in the fall. In the spring and summer, there are a lot of looky-loos out there who are “just looking” at open houses. They waste your time and your Realtor’s time. In the fall, people are serious because they really want to get into a home before the weather gets really cold.

3. The fall is prime time for curb appeal. The leaves are turning colors and it is truly beautiful outside, which is great for your curb appeal.

4. You will get more attention from your agent. Since most people buy and sell in the spring, your agent won’t be as busy. They will be more available to help you work on things during the fall.

5. You will move in cooler weather. Who really wants to move when it’s 98 degrees out and the humidity is at 100%? A lot of people like moving in the fall because of the cool, crisp weather.

Fall is prime time for curb appeal.

As you can see, there are many advantages to selling your home during the fall. If you have any questions about preparing your home for the market or about real estate in general, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

The 30-Second Rule All Home Sellers Should Know

Buyers decide whether or not they want to purchase a home within the first 30 seconds of going into that property. I have a few 30-second tips to make your home appeal to buyers.

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The 30-second rule is something I tell all of my clients about when they’re planning to sell their home. What is the 30-second rule?

Research has found that buyers decide whether or not they want to purchase a home within the first 30 seconds of going into that property. What can you do to make your home more appealing to buyers? Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes.

Park your car in the driveway, not the garage, and walk up the sidewalk to your house. Do you see gaps in the sidewalk that could be a tripping hazard? If so, you need to fix that. If you have overgrown weeds pouring over to the sidewalk, pull them. 

Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes.

As you approach your front door, check out the steps. Are there cracks in any of them? Is your doorbell clean? Don't forget to also check out your patio or porch. Is there a bird’s nest hanging over your patio? If so, get rid of the nest. If the birds made a mess on your porch, you need to power wash the porch. You can also power wash your front door. We can even lend you a power washer.

These are very simple things that people usually don’t think about when preparing their home for the market. These 30-second tips will make a big difference in how buyers will perceive your home.

If you have any other questions about getting your home ready for the market, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

5 Tips for the Perfect Home Staging

Staging your home before listing it is very important, and we have five essential tips for staging it correctly.

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Here are the top five things homeowners should do in terms of staging their home before listing it:

1. Allow in as much light as you can: Pull open all the blinds and make sure all the lights are on. Shadows can make a room look smaller. The more natural light you can feature, the better.
2. Make sure the interior is not overcrowded: Consider simplifying the layout by removing some of the furniture. You don’t want to give off the impression that the house is being lived in.
3. Properly arrange the furniture: Avoid setting furniture pieces against the walls. While this may seem like an obvious trick to make a space look bigger, it actually has the opposite effect. It’s always better to group them together.
4. Consider window treatments: For example, make sure the curtains are touching the ground. If they aren’t, it can make the ceiling seem lower and the room smaller.
5. Declutter and simplify: Take everything off the countertops and clear away the face of your refrigerator. You want people to be looking at the house, not your belongings.

Staging your home properly can make a huge difference in determining its saleability. Along with staging, professional photography also greatly improves your home’s aesthetic appeal.

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The more natural light you can let in, the better.

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If you have any questions about home staging, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to helping you in any way we can.

Our 7-Step Open House Is More Effective in Wichita

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There are a couple of different ways to hold an open house here in Wichita.

One is the basic way - put a sign in the yard and hold the house open. However, if you really want to knock it out of the park and get crowds of up to 70 people through your house, we like to go a step beyond. In fact, we do seven levels.

• Level 1: Sign in the yard.
• Level 2: Balloons on the sign the day of, to make it stand out.
• Level 3: Lots of directional signs, with balloons. We want people to find your house!
• Level 4: Fliers. We put e-fliers on our website, on our Facebook page, and send one to everyone we can.
• Level 5: We invite the neighbors personally by knocking on their doors before the Open House.
• Level 6: We get on the phone Thursdays and Fridays before the Open House to invite the neighbors.
• Level 7: We have multiple Open Houses in the neighborhood as much as possible as well, so we can invite people to multiple Open Houses. This gets more people interested in the neighborhood, and in turn, your house.

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We knock it out of the park with our Open Houses!

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We want to do EVERYTHING we can to sell your home for the most money possible. Taking your Open House to the 7th level ensures we get the most possible traffic to your Open House! If you're interested in selling or just learning more about the benefits of our process, please feel free to reach out to us.

Four Things to Know About Selling Your Wichita Home

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Today we are going to give you four great tips to help you sell your house this spring. A lot of people are going to list their homes when the spring season hits, so you’ve got to do your best to stand out. Here’s how you do it.

1.  Step up your curb appeal.
Winter has come and gone, and spring is here! To get that fresh curb appeal, make sure those flower beds are cleaned up, swept up, and there aren’t a lot of leaves everywhere. You want your home to look more inviting.

2. Fix it, don’t forget it.
Be proactive with your needs and make the easy fixes that you know will come up in an inspection.

3. Market it like you mean it.
With the influx of new listings, you want to do everything you can to make your home stand out.

4. Take the 30-second test.
This one is my favorite. Buyers are going to make up their mind on whether they want to buy a home or not in the first 30 seconds of walking through the door. This is the most important part of the showing, and needs to be great. 

There you have it, our four top tips for selling a home this spring in Wichita. If you have any questions for us, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We would be glad to help out!

How to Find Out What Your Home Is Worth in Wichita

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Knowing what your home is worth is important for a multitude of reasons. Perhaps you need to analyze your assets, or you’re trying to sell your home. These are all instances where you need to find your home value.

Today I’ll share five ways in which you can pinpoint your home’s value.

1. Look at what similar homes in your area are selling for, and take into account the upgrades on each home. 
2. Have a real estate professional run a comparative market analysis (CMA) on your home to determine the value.
3. If your home has a lot of unique features, then you may need to hire an appraiser to come and evaluate your property more closely. 
4. Analyze your competition, consumption, and condition. These three C’s will determine your final sale price.
5. Make a list of everything that you’ve updated in your home. Hand this sheet to your real estate professional when they’re running a CMA and have them adjust the price for the upgrades that you have.

 
If you have any questions or concerns about this, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

Questions You Should Be Asking A Realtor Before You Hire

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Today we are excited to talk about the top 12 questions you should be asking any potential Realtor before deciding to hire them to sell your home. Most people know that it’s important to interview different agents when you are selling, which is good. However, many people don’t know what specific questions to ask. Today, we are going to give you 12 great questions that you can ask a Realtor before hiring them. These questions come straight from the National Association of Realtors.

If you’d like to view the document in its entirety, click here. However, we’re going to give you all 12 right now. Here they are:

1. How long have you been in residential real estate?
2. What professional training have you had?
3. How many homes did you sell last year?
4. How many days does it take you to sell a home on average? How does that compare to the overall market?
5. How close to the initial asking price of the homes you sold were the final sales prices?
6. What types of specific marketing systems and approaches will you use to sell my home?
7. Will you represent me exclusively in the transaction?
8. Can you recommend service providers who can help with the process such as mortgage brokers, home repair services, and others?
9. What type of support and supervision does your brokerage office provide to the seller?
10. What is your business philosophy?
11. How will you keep me informed of how things are proceeding throughout the selling process?
12. Ask for the names of past clients and referrals and talk to the people who have worked with them.
 

Another thing you should let your agent know about are your preferred methods of communication, and make sure they are able to do that. Communication is key in this process.

If you have any questions for us, feel free to give us a call or send a quick email. We would love to hear from you!

Don't Miss these Twelve Home Selling Tips

Want to sell your home? Get a FREE home value report.  

Want to buy a home? Search all homes for sale.

My clients in Wichita are always asking me what they can do to prepare for a home sale. There are hundreds and hundreds of potential things you could do before a sale, but today I've selected the twelve most important steps for you. This comes from one of our brochures, and we'd be happy to send you one!

1. Wash your windows. This makes a huge difference, as it lets more natural light into your home. Buyers adore well-lit homes. 
2. Change the light bulbs. The brighter the bulb, the better.
3. Wash your light fixtures. These rarely get any attention, but buyers will notice if they're dirty.
4. Remove all magnets and calendars from the refrigerator. Buyers want to see your home and appliances, not the clutter surrounding them. Clutter detracts attention away from your beautiful home.
5. Walk in through the front door of your home. You probably never walk in through the front door of your home, but buyers will, so it needs to look nice and clean.
6. Don't use artificial scents during a showing. A lot of people are allergic to these things. Although they smell nice, not everyone likes the smell and some people will think that you're hiding something unpleasant.
7. Clean your floors and woodwork. This is just like washing your light fixtures.
8. Dust like you've never dusted before! Reach crevices you've never dusted before.
9. Clean and repaint your front door. Be sure that your doorbell is in proper working order!
10. Get a Swiffer and clear off dust from your ceilings and your fans. Buyers will notice if you have not already.
11. Clean your stainless steel appliances. Hide those fingerprints!
12. Get rid of pet stains and odors. We love our pets, but potential buyers do not. Some people are afraid of or allergic to animals, so do whatever you can to make sure your animals are not around during a showing. It's best to make it appear that you don't even own animals.

 
Just remember that a buyer has already made up their mind 30 seconds after walking into a home. This means that your home has to look absolutely perfect!

To view and print our brochure, click here!