Delicious Real Estate

Selling your Columbus Area Home? Do This!

December 30th, 2009 Categories: Real Estate, agents-why delicious?, buyers, sellers
Buyers like peace of mind. Give it to them.

Buyers like peace of mind. Give it to them.

>>improvement list for your for sale Columbus home <<

Your home is for sale. You want to make a good impression on would-be buyers and stand apart from the crowd. You want to convey as much meaningful information as possible without getting emotional and you want buyers to know that your house is better/more sound/more improved than the rest of the homes for sale in Columbus, Ohio.

Do this. Make a list of improvements you’ve done to your home since you’ve owned it. Put the big improvements at the top. Don’t be shy, put the associated price tag. Buyers want to buy your home for the least amount of money possible and when they see the money you’ve put into your home, they’re less likely to hold your list price against you. Better yet, they’re going to feel great about purchasing your home because they know when the roof was put on, when the air conditioning unit was installed, when you updated the electric lines to that portion of the house and they know you paid real money for it. Even if your cousing Larry did the improvements, you paid him money and you should document it.

You don’t have to have receipts, just a line item list like this one goes a long way to putting the buyer at ease. Especially if you haven’t been in your home long and especially if your asking more than the competition because, darn it, your home is better. Prove it.

By providing the actual costs you go a long way toward transparency and peace of mind.  I’ve seen lists like this go as far as to include things like light-switch plates which may be a little too detailed.

As a bonus for buyers, especially first time Columbus home buyers, the price list gives them a real world estimate to use when they’re looking at other homes that need these same improvements. They have no idea how much these things cost and now you’ve given them one.  In most cases, they’d rather buy the house with the improvements already done—especially for about the same price.

Have questions about selling your Columbus house or which Columbus Realtors go the extra mile? call me at 614-940-9100 or email me.

  1. Dave

    In every home we’ve been in, we keep a 3 ring (how primitive is that) indexed by year with all our, what we call ‘capital’ jobs.

    It’s for us to keep track of the major (>$1,000 or so) maintainance/improvements. This book provides a nice document to support the bullet points on the listing and we give it to the new residents so they can call the same contractors if they choose.

  2. Joe Peffer

    love that idea-so will the eventual buyers, your agent and their agent.

  3. Anne

    I’ve just been stuffing everything into the folder we got when we bought our house.
    I suppose I need a better system….

  4. Joe Peffer

    I think the key is to simply have a system. A folder system works and probably all you’ll ever need.

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