Gone are the days when you can place a home on the Multiple Listing Service in ‘as-is' condition, receive multiple offers, and sell your home for thousands over list price after being on the market for a few days.  Today, the advantage lies with the buyers far more than the sellers.  However, with a bit of strategy you as a seller can reclaim some of this advantage.

The rule is quite simple - don't serve refreshments the day after the party.  You want your home in the best possible condition when the most important buyers are viewing your home.  Who are the most important buyers?  They are the first ones to view your home.

If these buyers do not like your home, in the vast majority of cases they will not be back.  This means that subsequent visits will be by three other types of buyers.

1. Buyers who come later.  These are buyers who are just starting their searches.  Your house is one on a long list they are likely looking at.  In addition, they are unlikely to pay list price because your home has been on the market for awhile.
2. ‘Old buyers' who weren't interested at first, but thought they would check it out after exhausting the rest of their search.  These buyers are quite picky and if they eliminated your home already once without seeing it, they are unlikely to change their minds when they see it.
3. ‘Old buyers' who are looking for a deal.  These are buyers who initially determined your home to be too expensive, but after it has been on the market for awhile feel you are more willing to negotiate.

Notice the common areas here.  If your home stays on the market for some time, very few buyers will offer list price.  This is still the rule if you reduce the price of your home.  If you reduce your home from say $560,000 to $500,000 - buyers do not see " a $560k house selling at $500k".  They instead see a "$500k house that has been on the market for x months".  This means they are unlikely to pay $500,000 because the home has been on the market for some time.

From homes that I have seen sell in this market, there are two types.

1. Homes that sell within a week or two at full or above list price. ( And yes it still hapens. I had 2 multiple offer situations last month. By the way won both of them for my clients)
2. Homes that stay on the market for months and sell significantly below list price

You obviously want your home to be in the first category.  In order to do this, you must convince the prospective buyers that see your home in the first week to put an offer.  The following is how this is done.  Note that if you hire a full service agent they will guide you step by step through this and do a good deal of the work for you.

First, the house must look immaculate.  If something is broken in the house, fix it.  If the house has not been painted for some time, repaint.  Clean your hardwood floors and your carpet.  Add fine touches to your home that will shine through - such as molding and door hardware.

Secondly, the home must be staged.  Typically I will either hire a professional stager to bring in furniture or I will work around what you have.  Typically this means removing a lot of clutter.  Most homes will require that some things go into storage.  I will often hang neutral paintings on your walls and add more photogenic pillows and blankets where necessary.

The above effort takes a lot of time.  I myself generally spend 50-80 hours per listing before it goes on the market. And the sellers spend a great deal of their own time cleaning and removing clutter.  Very often I will hire professional cleaners to get the house in pristine state.

Once the house looks perfect, I bring in a professional photographer.  Professional photography is key to bringing in as many buyers as possible.  They do not want to see narrow dark pictures as are typical with many listings.  They want to see clear and wide shots that truly show them the house.  Professional photos will bring more buyers to your house, and the staging will help push them to buy it.

Finally, the house must be priced correctly.  If the house is priced too high, many prospective buyers will either not look at it or not place an offer.  This typically involves physically driving to comparable properties to see how your property compares to others.  It is often not sufficient to see pictures - you need to see, feel and smell your competition the same way your buyers will - with their eyes, hand and feet.

In today's market, you can still sell a property for a decent price quickly, but you must take more care than in the past. 

You will see me say this often, but three things that will sell your home are

1) PRESENTAION. 2) PROMOTION. 3) PRICE