Home Work!

When getting ready to sell a home, whether a small studio or a rambling townhouse, there is a list of universal things that can help you get the most bang for your buck. One must have a goal in mind, does this sale need to take you to the next level of home ownership or do you just need to move on after surviving a tumultuous break-up. This mental categorization will help you prioritize what to spend and where to spend it, and ultimately prepare your home for the market.

Now it is time to deal with that “other woman” in your life… “the house.” First, we have to play up her assets -- does she have shapely bayed out windows? Are there long lovely columns…does she have beautiful stain glass, lovely wood floors, stately moldings? All these architectural details are what make your home desirable and what attracted you to her in the first place. Make sure you get a little physical and place the furniture in just the right way to play up her features, and remove all of those extraneous pieces, here is where “less is more.” Use visual ploys to expand space, for example “enlarge a bathroom by installing a mirror opposite the medicine chest or visually increase the closet size by thinning out and organizing the clothes. Open out the size of other rooms, e.g. with mirrors at ends of hallways, in corners and adjacent to windows…allowing natural light to reflect and comfort. You may have to make simple lifestyle changes in order to streamline your look and make your home more profitable, and why not?

Color color color? Well, no matter how much this seasons trends dictate color, here is where color will not help. Often due to its myriad of colors, buyers can not see themselves in that particular home. So, when selling a home, a neutral wall is usually best! There are exceptions to this rule however, like a wonderfully dramatic accent wall, but neutrals such as taupe and eggshell white, act as an expander of rooms. Clearing the visual palette. Be careful here, white is often more appealing in apartments than throughout an entire house, which can become sterile and soulless.

And finally, the way you live in your house and the way you sell your house are two different things. The scooters in the hallway, the cereal boxes on top of the fridge, the old dried flowers that we displayed before Martha Stewart went to “camp cupcake”, go bye-bye. Yes, we must eliminate a homes multipurpose messiness so the buyers can see its true character and take-away a clear concise picture of possibilities! You want your rooms to say, “you’re home” (bake bread or brew tea), and your home to sparkle and shine (replace bulb wattage and clean windows.) You never know…your prospective buyers just may arrive hungry, thirsty, and wearing a mean pair of “white gloves!"

Currently with the Corcoran Group, Nichole R. Thompson-Adams has been a real estate broker for 11 years. The combination of Nichole's two passions, acting and real estate has manifested a new television show D.I.G.S that will be premiering on NYCtv, Spring 2008. For a free consultation, Nichole can be reached at 718.210.4046 or 917.548.6196. Email NTA@corcoran.com.