selling my house

**sommersa** · 02-02-2010, 09:28 PM

Its all coming together so fast! I will be putting my house on the market with a realtor the week of April 1st. In the meantime I will be cleaning, painting, and tidying up. My roomates are looking for new housing and their dogs will be at another home when it goes on the market. They may be gone by then as well. Im March my family is going to help me paint walls and clean. When should I contact a realtor? Beginning of March? Now? When roomates move out I will pry cancel my dish network, and maybe garbage service, I dont think I will need either. I wont be at this house very much, most likellly at my bfs house, which is where I am moving to. If i do have trash I can dump it at a gas station when i get gas or bring it to his place. It exciting tho, new adventure.

**MaryCarney** · 02-03-2010, 01:58 AM

Contact several realtors now, the one who teaches you the most about selling a house wins your business.

**wjcalderon** · 02-03-2010, 08:00 AM

I agree - you should contact realtors now.
They can walk thru your house and give you ideas of things you can do to make it more attractive to buyers.

**MaryCarney** · 02-03-2010, 09:12 AM

As someone who has spent the last two+ months looking for a house to buy, let me tell you a couple of things.
1. Be absolutely, positively CERTAIN that your house does not smell. That makes the WORST first impression. If you have a cat, or smoke, or whatever, ask a trusted friend to walk through your front door and tell you HONESTLY about this, then fix it. This is my #1 deal-killer, because a potential buyer cannot be sure that they will be able to rid the house of an odor if you haven't been able to.
2. De-junk - I looked a two identical houses, but I would have sworn one was several hundred square feet smaller because of all the clutter. DON'T stuff it in closets, either, 'cause that makes the closets look undersized. Buy some moving boxes and either rent a storage place, or stack your excess stuff neatly in the garage.
3. If it's winter, and you have unusual landscaping which is not evident try this - I left a note and a picture for people touring my home extolling my mini-orchard and listing all of the fruits planted out there (grapes, raspberries, blueberries, apples, rhubarb) My buyer's agent commented on what a good idea that was.
4. Watch some of those home staging shows on HGTV - I got so many great ideas from that. Little, inexpensive things which really made my home stand out.

Good luck!!!

**sommersa** · 02-03-2010, 01:19 PM

I dont have alot of choice for realtors, only two in our town. Small town. Beginning of March I will contact the one I bought the house from 2 years ago. In the mean time I will be doing a second coat of paint in the dining rm, and just general spring cleaning. During March my family will come and help me do second coats of paint in the living rm and heavy duty cleaning.