Ken Montville -- the MD Suburbs of DC

Now that you've decided to put your home on the market and make the outside look great (curb appeal) and you've priced your home competitively so that you will attract the most buyers possible it's time to make the inside look great.

In the age of the Internet and with lots of people online looking at homes it is more important than ever to make sure your home looks like a page from a magazine. I know this is particularly hard if you have kids and/or pets but making your home look clean and attractive will help you sell your home faster and at a higher price. If you think about it, don't you feel more comfortable and relaxed in a place that's been spruced up whether it's a friend's home or a hotel.

The very first thing you need to do is de-clutter. Yeah, I know how all that stuff accumulated. I got it, too. But now that you're moving out it may be time to bite the bullet and throw away a bunch of stuff. If you absolutely have to keep it, get a storage facility somewhere and store it until you move into your new place. The idea is to create a feeling of openness and space. In fact, your mantra should be "Space Sells". A de-cluttered house can make even the smallest condo or townhouse look lots bigger and more inviting.

The next thing is to make sure everything is cleaned and sparkling. Get all the dishes out of the sink, empty the trash. wipe down the counters, vacuum the carpets (and have them steam cleaned while you're at it), paint if you haven't painted in years and generally make the place look like Martha Stewart came to visit.

This is the real deal with having to go through all this trouble to make your place look great: the frenzied Seller's market is over. Nowadays, buyers want a home that is in "move-in condition". This means they don't want to fix anything up, they don't want to paint or re-carpet or refinish the hardwood floor. They want the bathrooms to be clean and usable and the kitchen to be functional if not spectacular.

The people who buy your house want to move in, set up house and get on with their lives without a lot of additional cost.

It really seems like a fair trade. Your get the money and they get a nice home to live in. What a deal!

I just finished listening to almost an hour of discussion on the Kojo Nnamdi Show about the housing market in the DC Metro area. Fascinating stuff.

There was a lot of talk about the outer Virginia suburbs (Loudon and Prince William Counties) but there was a healthy dose of discussion about the ARMs that are about to re-set, living close-in to DC vs farther away, and a few call-ins from people who had great success stories about selling their homes in a relatively short period of time.

Guess what? The people who called in to say they sold their homes quickly (one used a Realtor, the other was a For Sale By Owner) attributed their success to price and condition.

It was a fairly wide ranging discussion about the DC area housing market with three reputable and competent experts.

If you missed it you can Click Here to get more info about how to listen to it.

A big part of what home owners can control when putting their home on the market is the over all condition of their home. Certainly, curb appeal -- how your home looks when you drive up to it -- is very important. The grass should be nicely mowed and any gardening or landscaping should look as nice as possible. Any major items should be stored away. These include things like toys, trash cans and recycling bins, tools and other big things that take away from the overall appearance of the house.

It's important to have good curb appeal for two reasons: 1) your house will look a lot nicer when photographs are taken for the Multiple Listing Service and 2) it'll look great when potential buyers drive up or drive by.

In today's market, lots of potential buyers are searching the Internet before they even call a professional Realtor or try to make an appointment to visit the inside of your home. Addresses are part of the total information package so potential buyers can easily drive by your home to see how it looks from the outside and to scope out the neighborhood.

Obviously, you can't do much about how your neighbors' homes look. You can do something about your home so it looks really nice and inviting. After all, you want the outside of your home to invite people to come inside to look around!

There's a nice website you can take a look at for tips and pointers -- the HGTV Curb Appeal page.

In my next post, I'll talk about the inside of you home and why it's important to have that looking good, too!