By Mark Pruner
The spring real estate market officials starts next Monday, the week after the Super Bowl. So, should you be the first to list your house. Buyers are starting earlier every year and both buyers and sellers have the urge to beat the competition to the market. If the inventory in your micro-market is thin and buyers are active listing early is an excellent idea.
What should you do to maximize your chances of selling your house? The short answer is to make it look good to a buyer. Now while this rather flip comment is always true, it’s even more so in the early spring market, because it is harder to make a house look good. I took a walk around the office and got some ideas from my fellow agents; Peter Janis, Nancie Schwarzman, Spencer Sodokoff and Eric Jansen as to ways to market a house in the spring market.
Outside
Keeping the yard clean is a big chore in the late winter, but that is why doing so will make your house stand out from your competition. It also signals to buyers that if the yard is well taken care, the owners have also probably taken care of the house.
Power washing gets all of the dirt off your house that has accumulated over the winter particularly around the foundation and can really make a house shine, sometimes literally if the setting sun catches it just right. (The same setting sun may emphasize the dirt if you don’t power wash.)
Another way to make the property look neat and tidy is to add new mulch around the outside plantings. It gives the gardens a nice finished look.
Colorful plantings in pots can brighten up an entry. Ornamental kale in pots is much better than the allegedly eatable kale on a plate inside. (My wife disagrees on this point.)
Inside
Washing the windows is always a good idea. In early spring market, where showings are often done late in the day with the sun low in sky or in overcast conditions clean windows let in more light.
Turn up the heat and have a fire in the fireplace. Nothing says you’re home like walking into a nice warm house with a crackling fire. If the house is empty you might want to keep the heat up for the first couple of weeks when showings are the heaviest.
The buzz is that we are seeing more people from Westchester as buyers this year. Now it is a gross generalization, but Greenwich is a little more New Englandy and Westchester is a little more New York Cityish, so you might want to do some things that will make our influx of new buyers feel at home.
Value Pricing
Pricing your house close to what it sells for is always a good idea but can be vital in the early spring market. Fewer people are out than we see in March and April, so an overpriced house is likely to sit and then have to compete against the new inventory that is coming on every week. In a worst-case scenario, you get caught in a death spiral of price cuts and end up selling it for less months later than you would have had you value priced the house from the beginning.
Mark Pruner is an award-winning real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway. He can be reached at 203-969-7900 and mark@bhhsne.com
