By Susan Peters, Guest Blogger
Susan Peters has more than 20 years experience selling real estate in the greater Seattle area. Like many realtors nationwide, she has developed an interest in helping seniors and their families market their home. Here is a true success story.
My clients were recently faced with the challenge of placing their parents in an assisted living facility and selling their home. This is how we did it, step by step, in seven days. (From the time we listed it!)
1. The adult children moved their folks into the assisted living facility before they even talked about selling the house. This is the most important part! Having your house on the market is stressful for anyone, but there is nothing more distressing for elderly sellers than having strangers tromp through their house day in and day out.
2. We set a budget of $15,000 for improvements that would give the best return. This included: paint, refinishing hardwood floors, new sink and counter tops in the kitchen, some new lighting fixtures, and a ton of yard work.
3. After the work was done, I brought in furniture, artwork, and accessories and then staged the living daylights out of it!
4. Instead of using my traditional real estate sign, I had a custom sign made that mimicked my flyer. On Sunday afternoon, over 200 people came through my open house. By Sunday night, we had a full price offer and we closed in 30 days.
The photos above show the biggest improvement: painting out the fireplace. Lightening up the drab green wall color paint helped to wake up the entire room.
If you’d like to sell your parent’s home in seven days, give me a call!
The Better it Looks…The Better it Sells!
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