Presale Secrets
Have you decided to sell or exchange the apartment? Then we offer you some recommendations – how to make your object as attractive as possible to the buyer, among others. In the conditions of a slight drop in demand, which replaced the two-year excitement, this is especially true.
How to make the exchange of housing through the sale of especially profitable? The formula is simple: sell as expensive as possible, and buy as cheap as possible. Only in both parts of this formula is the word “possible.” The degree of permissibility in this case is dictated to us by the market, where now there is some stagnation, diplomatically called stabilization. And so that the buyer, with all the wealth of choice, wants to pay the “maximum allowable” amount exactly for your property, you must correctly prepare the object for sale.
The role of the presentation of products and products for their profitable implementation in the consumer market, we have long been able to evaluate. Products in torn and dirty packaging, household appliances in a case with cracks and scratches are not very attractive even with a substantial discount. And they “leave” only with a more than impressive reduction in prices. But when it comes to real estate, many clients vehemently resist the realtors’ urgent recommendations to take care of beauty in the apartment being sold (exchanged). And they refuse to understand how a favorable first impression is significant for a potential buyer, how important it is to file a product with a person.
Who needs this?
An inner voice whispers to inert citizens: “And who needs it and why? A new owner will come in – let him do everything as he likes! ”In fact, the joy of other people’s tastes often covers his own laziness. The “excursion period”, when buyers go to the shows rather briskly, but then fall into thoughtfulness and dissolve into the unknown, drags on. Individual individuals begin to bargain strenuously, arrogantly declaring: “Yes, there is one repair for many thousands of dollars!”
The reason we prefer to see is not that we dismissed the advice of a specialist: it’s clear that a realtor simply advertises our object poorly, leads the wrong customers … In fact, your agent can do everything very correctly, simply in response to our furious resistance to his recommendations, he “washed his hands.” Since they did not want to listen to his advice, it means that you are hopeless and everything will be as it will … And there will most likely be a price reduction. Therefore, let’s immediately overcome inertia and, if possible, do our best to sell real estate faster and more successfully.
From the point of view of the buyer, the apartments are divided into three main categories: “killed”, where everything needs to be changed and reconstructed, “dilapidated”, into which you cannot move without preliminary cosmetic repairs, as well as the “moved and live” type. The latter are bought quickly, willingly, without bargaining. For an apartment to be liked, it must give the impression of being spacious, comfortable and clean. Let’s start with the most simple, but very important – with the struggle for visual space.
Do you need a little blood?
To begin with, it’s worth arranging an “Italian New Year” – getting rid of things that have been accumulating for decades on the principle of “what if someday they will come in handy”. Having survived the era of total deficit, we are all a little bit of a bump … But what has not so long ago been proudly called acquired good has already migrated to the category of old junk. Therefore, we will urgently inspect mezzanines, wall cabinets, loggias. We will make several flights to the garbage chute, and on the vacant seat we will attach suitcases, rolls, and packages scattered around the corners, without which we can not do without in a new place. We’ll take something to the cottage, send it to the commission room or present it to the neighbors.
In an apartment cleared of rubbish, it is worth doing rearrangement of furniture in some rooms. In serial apartments, the living room – the largest (17-18 m) room – most often has an elongated shape. Plus a classic setting: on one side there is a “wall”, opposite a sofa or “three”.
The “rich” carpet on the wall crowns the composition of upholstered furniture. As a means of noise and heat insulation, it is, of course, not bad, but only its rich color and bright large pattern create an undesirable optical effect: a wall with a carpet “runs into” the viewer, further narrowing the space, and visually reduces the room. As a result, the room, which is a completely tolerable rectangle, takes on a car-like appearance. How to fight?
Carpets will have to be abandoned – put in the pantry until better times. We accelerate the “wall” in the corners or take out a couple of sections and rearrange them to another wall, making a niche in the solid furniture space. We place a mirror in it, a reproduction of the landscape with a perspective – something where the eye rushes and “falls through”, optically removing the plane of the wall. Similarly, we “scatter” upholstered furniture around the room so that it does not stand in line. You will see, you will like the result. And you use the same principle of arrangement in the new apartment – it is unlikely that all the rooms will be square there.
Do not be offended by a realtor, who, if you obviously can’t do the repair, insists on spring cleaning and a “small darn”. By this, he does not question your cleanliness at all. Just any housing, even very well-groomed, still loses its freshness over the years. We do not notice this, but the keen eye of the buyer is vigilant. To create a favorable overall impression, you should thoroughly wash the doors and windows, close with special, very inexpensive, overlays the places around the switches, glue the lagged corners of the wallpaper.
Plumbing will require special attention: there should not be the slightest yellowness on it, otherwise the buyer will immediately draw a far-reaching conclusion about the quality of water and the condition of the pipes. After washing the glass and tile to a mirror shine, feel free to screw powerful lamps.
In addition, during the period of showing the apartment, most of us become voluntary assistants of the janitor – special attention should be paid to the cleanliness of the entrance, stairs, lighting on the site. The theater begins with a wardrobe, and an apartment for a potential buyer – from the entrance to the entrance.
What repair is justified?
However, if the repair in the apartment was a long time ago, all of the above remains half measures. Pre-sale decoration does not require special expenses. The cost of “European-quality repair” in Khrushchev or “boat” to the seller will never be returned. But the forces and means invested in a refreshing “makeup” pay off several times and help save a lot of time. Of course, the need to give the apartment a marketable appearance due to repairs concerns only typical housing, as well as small one-two-bedroom apartments in the city center. A creditworthy buyer of large apartments still takes the “number of meters in a certain place”, despite their cosmetic condition.
So, if you are not a helpless senior citizen, urgently get down to business. We start from the ceilings. The gasified kitchen will have to work especially hard. The ceiling takes on a brownish-yellow hue in 2-3 years, even if there is a hood. Soot and soot must be removed before painting. In other cases, it is enough to go through a water-based paint or chalk in one or two layers. Typically, painted walls are well washed, and old wallpaper in the kitchen requires a mandatory replacement.
In the rooms, repair the cracks at the joints of the ceiling tiles, refresh the whitewash too – even if the ceilings look good so far, after plywooding the wallpaper, the contrast will be too obvious.
Why change the wallpaper? If they are old and dirty, then this is understandable. But sometimes it is desirable to replace even relatively new ones, if they are not entirely successful in terms of perception of the premises from the outside. Bright, large-patterned wallpapers of warm colors visually “pull together” the space, making a small room very tiny. Wallpaper saturated cold tones “eat” the light. The optimal, absolutely neutral option for every taste – unobtrusive strokes or weak stains on a white background. Such wallpapers give maximum light and space. Financial and time costs are minimal, and a positive perception of the buyer is provided for any taste preferences. Why, in any case, do not glue just plain white or light plain wallpaper without a picture, “like in the European standard”? In this case, the smallest defects of wall surfaces that abound in an ordinary apartment instantly come out.
Painting radiators (or simply batteries) and window frames also needs refreshing. More often it is enough to cover them in one layer, but on both sides, as well as between the frames, otherwise the entire repair will depreciate in the eyes of an attentive buyer. Floors are often not worth touching, as it is too expensive. If the parquet was varnished, restore the scratched places with its remnants – for sure somewhere in the mezzanine is not completely used up can. Linoleum floor can be ennobled with a special emulsion. Plinths play a special role: most often they need coloring or even replacement. Well, if the “sexual problem” is insoluble, you have to worry about the very “rich” carpet that we removed from the wall: let it help, lying on the floor. “In the vast majority of cases, a bathtub older than seven to eight years old needs restoration, but it’s by no means a“ replacement that costs a lot of money, ”as price-knocking shoppers say. Do not give them such a chance! Urgently call an enamel restoration specialist – just do not succumb to his campaign “pick a shade for your tile.” This is not always possible, and white classics will suit anyone. If there is no tile in the bathroom and toilet, and the walls are painted dark green, blue, brown – urgently change their color to lighter tones of a warm color. And your bathroom will sparkle!
Anyone who has not been in a building materials store for a long time after reading the recommendations will surely be horrified and exclaim: “These are great thousands!” Do not rush to conclusions. Having familiarized yourself with the prices of goods necessary for cosmetic repairs in the most ordinary store of building materials and household goods, which are many in each district, you will change your mind. The minimum required material costs will range from $ 50 to $ 100. And examples of how people, having decided on chores and some expenses, themselves tidied the apartments and paid back all the investments, making profitable sales and exchanges, are numerous and eloquent.