In the latest episode of the Stephen Cooley Real Estate Show, Stephen talks to one of our agents, a Rock Hill native, Nate Mallard about the small things you can do to sell your house faster.
Tip #1: One of the best tips is going around the block in your car, pull up to your house like your potential buyer and look at it with the fresh set of eyes and see – “Do I need to get my siding pressure wash? Is that flower bed burned out? Is the grass grown over on the walkway to the front door?”. That’s the kind of stuff that makes that first impression which is very important.
Tip #2: People use all their senses when they buy a home and sometimes the biggest sense they use is smell. The best smell is the clean, so pay a lot of attention to the smells inside your home.
Tip #3: Get your air conditioner sorted, so the house is cool and also that’s going to be at the top of the mind when buyers are getting out of the car and walking in the heat to the house. If they walk in and they feel like the AC’s not working, they’re wondering what else is wrong with your house.
For more great tips on selling your house fast watch the full episode below:
STEPHEN: Hello, I’m Stephen Cooley and welcome to the Stephen Cooley Real Estate Show. I’m very excited to have back on the show Nate Mallard.
NATE: Good morning.
STEPHEN: As everyone knows Nate’s one of the agents here on the Stephen Cooley real estate group and a Rock Hill native.
NATE: Yes, sir
STEPHEN: So always giving that great local advice and you can say you’ve lived here your whole life and choose to still live here.
NATE: That’s right. I love Rock Hill.
STEPHEN: Yeah. It’s great for out-of-towners especially to work with someone that knows who’s local and knows everything about the city.
NATE: Yeah, I’ve been here all my life except for a few years on Charleston for school and a couple years afterwards so, I’ve been here, seen Rock Hill grow and still growing right now.
STEPHEN: It’s changed a lot in your lifetime.
NATE: Yes, it has.
STEPHEN: So today, Nate works with a lot of buyers and sellers too and you go in a lot of houses. And so I know when you walk in the house with a buyer, Nate, you see things that if the seller would have just done them, they would have probably gotten more money for the home, they would have sold their home faster, probably gotten a better buyer. So I asked Nate to come on the today’s show and just tell us some of those things you see, Nate, when you walk in a home that’s just probably killing the sale, that if the listing agent would have told the seller to do these things, and most of them minor, they would have gotten a buyer for the house.
NATE: Right, yeah, absolutely. I was showing five houses last night, you know, it’s summertime here in South Carolina, so it’s blazing hot and, you know, the first thing you want to do is go around the block in your car pull up to your house like your potential buyer and look at it with that fresh set of eyes and see – Do I need to get my siding pressure wash as it got some, you know, growth on it anything like that, is that flower bed burned out – it hasn’t been watered in two months, so I need to pull these flowers up put some fresh ones in, you know, just make sure that curb appeal really pops because that’s the first thing when a buyer pulls up to the front yard and walking in, you know, is the grass grown over on the walkway to the front door – that’s the kind of stuff that makes that first impression. That’s so important to buyers.
STEPHEN: Yeah, Nate, I’ve always said usually a home looks its best when it’s brand-new because the bushes are so small and if you ride by your home. Most homes have lots of great architectural details on their home, you’ve got peaks and valleys and beautiful trimmings around windows and shutters and all that and they’re blocked by bushes. So most bushes and trees get too big. The best looking that a home looks is really nothing in the front yard but some small bushes under the window.
NATE: Right, so I’m just really love pretty landscaping, you know, small flowers on the walkway or something. Nothing that’s going to, like you said, take away from any architectural features of the house.
STEPHEN: Absolutely. What about when you get inside the home? What are some things that you’re seeing that if the sellers would have done it, the buyers would about the house.
NATE: Yes, so, you know, summertime here too. We got people coming and going to the swimming pool, you got kids going to summer camp, baseball games, soccer games, school’s out, so the kids are home. It’s really a great idea just to get you a big rubbermaid tub or something and put it right there that the back door where you guys are coming to going instead of dedicated time just to dump everything in there every day to go through put it in a special place so you don’t have buyers walking into your house that are seeing your summertime clutter and stuff and just making sure that house looks top-notch keeping it clean so when they walk in they’re not walking into a you know, dirty baseball cleats right there at the front door.
STEPHEN: Absolutely. And I’ve always said, Nate, people use all their senses when they buy a home and sometimes the biggest sense, they use is smell and all these homes when we cook and we do laundry and we’ve got kids and pets and families living there..Every home creates a smell and I’ve always said for selling your home the best smell is that clean smell that you smell at your grandma’s house. That’s a good Texas ammonia, the home is clean, that clean smell. The worst smell is some decorative candle that smells like coffee, and you’ve got it burning in the bathroom and it’s just creating even a smell that you normally wouldn’t want to smell in a bedroom or a bathroom. So pay a lot of attention to the smells inside your home. Probably when it’s on the market, that’s not a time to do a massive cooking of cabbage, fish fries and things like that. So just keep that in mind when you’re looking at homes too.
It is hot – yesterday was 98 degrees here. It’s so important that the house’s being cool and refreshing.
NATE: Yes, it is. I walked into a house yesterday and the air conditioner was out and it was getting evening sun right on the front of it and we stayed in there for maybe three minutes because it was just so hot so you’re not even going to let the buyers get a good look at your house that they are so uncomfortable in the house. So it’s very important to just call a local HVAC professional, get a pre inspection, get your unit serviced – normally runs about a hundred dollars to get them to come out and clean it. They let you know if there’s anything else going on just so the house is nice and cool and also that’s going to be at the top of the mind when they’re getting out of the car and walking in the heat to the house. If they walk in and they feel like the AC’s not working they’re wondering what else is wrong with your house here.
STEPHEN: Absolutely, and, you know, a lot of times homes there’s a difference in temperature throughout the house and that can be a negative too. A lot of homes are warmer upstairs, especially if they have only one unit or if there’s a room you don’t use much and you’ve got the vents closed that can be a big negative when you walk in and it’s suddenly 98 degrees in that room or downstairs at 70 and upstairs it’s 85. They’re looking for the temperatures to kind of stay constant. Things you can do easily to make sure that happens and one is ceiling fans.
NATE: Absolutely, in a bonus room over a garage maybe it doesn’t have a ton of insulation on top of it because that roof goes all the way up or the you know ceiling goes all the way up to the top of the rafters, think about putting a ceiling fan in that room. And that’s going to lower your energy bills, too, while your house is on the market, and it’s also, like you said, it’s not gonna have that “Wow, what’s wrong in this room? Why is it so hot in here?”. And also think about maybe putting if you have a house that you know faces west and you get in that afternoon, heavy sun maybe getting some of that 3M. They make a nice UV protection that you can put on some of those windows and bonus rooms that will help keep the sun out, keep a little cooler in there.
STEPHEN: And I can remember when master bathrooms got very popular and then kitchens got very popular, they’re both very popular now, outdoor living space it’s the number one thing people are looking for and there’s minor things you can do to make your backyard look more inviting. Let’s talk about that.
NATE: Yeah, absolutely so the outdoor space people want that in the summertime, they wanna see themselves having a barbecue. So you know, go by the dollar store, pick up some decorative pillows some of them just to make it look inviting, any old furniture you might have out there – give it a coat of you know rust-oleum spray paint or something on there and just make it pop and look inviting. Even stage a little picnic if it’s going to be a nice day. You know put out some placemats and stuff and try to tie it in with any indoor space too if you have a nice French door that goes out you know, make it look good for them so it’s inviting and they think about living that summer lifestyle out there.
STEPHEN: Absolutely. I was in a home yesterday and they used their screen porch as a storage. I said let’s turn this into another room for the house, and the house will sell, so they’re doing that today and we’re going on the market tomorrow. Nate, great information. That’s not all the information that we have for sellers, but that’s the start. Nate if people are interested in selling their home or buying a home let’s tell them how to reach Nate Mallard.
NATE: Absolutely, you can call a 803-985-1240 here to reach me at the office. Go to my website Nate.StevenCooley.com or send me an email at Nate@StevenCooley.com
STEPHEN: Nate Mallard local resident of Rock Hill and real estate expert. Thanks for being on the show today.
We’ve got beautiful homes for selling in your area, please stay tuned. We’ll be right back.
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