As you know, I love, love to blog about how to make your home sparkle and shine when selling it. After all, you only get one chance to make a first impression, and so a buyer’s first visit to your house is crucial. With my past posts, I have focused more on the interior of the home and less on the exterior. So now it’s time to focus on the outside, and making your exterior as show ready as it can possibly be. Here are a few tips to keep in mind, and they can be used to your advantage primarily in the Spring market, summer months and early fall when the weather in Weston, Wellesley and Wayland is more cooperative and conducive to external beauty:

• Fill your planters with flowers to add color and appeal – I can always tell which homes are on the market as I walk toward the front door and see the gorgeous planters filled with a cornucopia of plantings and flowers. Once I see these beautiful displays, I immediately think I am in for a treat when I enter the home, assuming that the inside will mirror the outside. You can bet that buyers will jump to similar favorable conclusions.
• Do your spring or fall clean-up – This is important, especially after a long winter of snow, wind, ice and branches, sticks and leaves everywhere. It shows care, maintenance and attention to detail – all things that are high on buyers’ priority lists for home buying.
• Keep your grass trimmed and looking healthy – Again this sets a positive first impression as buyers approach your home. On the other hand, grass that hasn’t been mowed or that is mostly brown instead of mostly green may indicate to buyers that you do not adequately maintain or care about the look of your property.
• Make sure the exterior paint looks fresh and clean – You may not have to repaint the entire exterior of your home, but do make sure there isn’t peeling paint or signs that the house is in imminent need of painting. Sometimes this can be as easy as a little touch-up painting.
• Clean your gutters – Buyers frequently notice when gutters are filled to the rim with debris. Their first thought could very well be that you aren’t adequately maintaining your house, and their second thought will likely be about the possible moisture problems resulting from the clogged gutters.
• Inspect and remove traces of exterior pests and their damage - By this I mean rid your home of bee’s nests, woodpecker damage and ant hills/farms, for example. Your home’s exterior – void of these yucky insects and their potentially damaging effects – will look aesthetically pleasing, cared for and well maintained. Plus you won’t run the risk of scaring away certain buyers, who are skittish about pests.
• Display your outdoor furniture, fire pits and the like – Outdoor entertaining is BIG these days. So put out those colorful pillows, chairs and couches, and show people how pretty and nice it would be to have dinner on your patio or entertain there.
• Open the pool and/or resurface the tennis court – If you are lucky enough to have a pool and/or tennis court on your property, make sure that these amenities are in tip-top shape too.

These are just a few thoughts on making your home’s exterior sparkle and shine so that your buyer’s first impression is an extremely favorable one. What are your thoughts? Have you focused on certain aspects of your home’s exterior or done work to the outside that have helped successfully sell your home? I can’t wait to hear….

For more information on this or on the real estate market in Weston, Wellesley, Wayland and the surrounding towns, please contact me, Lisa Curlett (781-267-2844 or www.homesalesbylisa.com), to answer any questions or for a complimentary home appraisal.

I was talking with a client about just this question the other day.  She was curious whether having a lockbox on her door was in the best interest of selling her home.  Before answering the question, though, we need some background information….  A lockbox is an apparatus that a listing agent can place on the door of a home (with the seller’s permission) that houses a key to the property inside the apparatus.  A buyer’s agent, who wants to show the property, can use an electronic device (or a code) to access the key.  It usually happens that if a lockbox is on the door of the property, the listing agent is not there to show the property.  And this means that the listing agent is also not there to meet the buyer, answer any of the buyer’s questions, give a history of the house, gauge the reaction of the buyer to the home, etc.  Lockboxes are used regularly in such towns as Natick, Framingham, Sudbury and Wayland, especially for homes with lower price points.

On the other hand, lockboxes are rarely used in the towns of Weston, Wellesley, Dover and Lincoln.  The practice in these towns is to show a home through accompanied showings.  As you might guess, an accompanied showing is when the listing broker is there at the home to take the buyer through the home.  This way, the listing agent can answer any questions the buyer may have, give the history of any renovations or upgrades to the home, meet the buyer, get a sense of him/her and then communicate all of this information plus more to the seller.

So going back to the question at hand – Should I use a lockbox when selling my home? – my answer is No. I feel strongly that it is in your best interest as a seller to have accompanied showings rather than to use a lock box on the front door.  When you put a lock box on the front door and the listing agent is not there to show your house, I believe that you lose a tremendous opportunity to learn about the profile of and feedback from the buyer, which is valuable information to have especially from a pricing and marketing perspective.  Additionally, without the listing agent giving the buyer a professional “tour” of the home and answering any questions, your house isn’t necessarily portrayed in the best light.  In other words, marketing your home also includes showing your home, and you should capitalize on the vital service that listing agents provide to their seller clients through accompanied showings.

There are some people who argue that a lockbox makes a home much more accessible to buyers and their agents, which in turn facilitates/increases the number of showings and foot traffic through your property.  But I don’t see it this way.  Even if there is a lockbox on the front door, the buyer’s agent still needs to make an appointment with the listing agent to show the house; otherwise it could turn into a free-for-all.  You then might ask, “What if the listing agent has a scheduling conflict and can’t be there to show the house when the buyer wants to see it?  In this case, it seems that the lockbox would come in very handy.”  But even in these instances, there are solutions.  Either the listing agent can find an associate to cover the showing or the two agents can find another mutually-agreeable time to show the property.  So in essence, the bottom line of having a lockbox on the front door of your home means the listing agent is not there to showcase your property and provide you with valuable and essential market information.  And this to me is a tremendous disservice to you as the seller.

But these are just my thoughts – what are yours?  Have you ever sold a home and used a lockbox?  Or did you opt for accompanied showings?  I can’t wait to hear….

This is a question that I get asked quite frequently….  Usually it’s more along the lines of, “I’m not supposed to be here when you’re showing my house, right?”  And the answer is “YES, that’s right.”  Now before I explain, there are times when there are extenuating circumstances, and you just can’t leave your house.  For example, if you are injured and can’t easily leave your home or if the showing is confirmed at the very last minute, and you have already scheduled a conference call and you have to be in front of your home computer.  In those situations, it is fine for you to stay.  But it is always much preferred if you, as the seller, aren’t there during the showings.  This way the buyers feel relaxed, and they can think, act and speak without restraint and constraints.  Furthermore your not being there allows them the freedom to better imagine possibly living in your home one day.  If you are there, it puts them on edge – they very well may become more preoccupied with the fact that you are there than really looking closely at your house and determining if it’s the right one for them.

Another question is, “Can my dog be there when you show the house?”  That is a question that you can better answer than we can.  Is your dog friendly?  Will he become agitated when strangers come into the home?  Will he jump up on the buyers?  (As an aside, cats are a bit different because they usually hide in the house and are never seen during showings anyway.)  Generally it’s better if dogs (and possibly other pets depending on the type) aren’t there or if they’re put into a crate.  Again, it’s a distraction for the buyers, especially if the dog gets out of the house when the buyers are entering and runs away or if he growls, jumps on or looks menacingly at the buyers.  If any of these situations happen, the buyers will likely remember the dog more than the house.  And it probably won’t be a positive memory.

“What about my housekeeper?  Can she be there?”  This is okay, but again, the bottom line is that it’s better that the house be empty so the buyer has the freedom to explore it and is not distracted from the house by the other people or animals in it.  But of all, the housekeeper being there is probably the most innocuous.

And remember – as much as possible – try to accommodate every showing that you can.  Often a showing time may not ideally fit into your schedule, but be as flexible as you can.  If you say “No” to the showing, it often turns out that the buyer will not schedule another time to see it.  The buyer might decide that, after thinking about it, the street is too busy…or that the living area of the house is not large enough.  Now you’ve lost your chance to have this buyer see your house – the buyer has already eliminated your home, sight unseen.  It’s better to “strike while the iron is hot” as they say – so do whatever you can to facilitate any potential buyer’s viewing of your home.  And we all know that the more buyers that come through your house, the better the odds that one of them will fall in love with it and buy it.

Finally, when it comes to the inspection, it’s also best not to be there.  In fact, it’s much more imperative not to be there during the inspection than during a showing.  The home inspection process often constitutes a home sale getting closer to the finish line – assuming that no major, earth-shattering issues arise.  This is the time for the buyers to learn more about your home, which theoretically is about to become their home.  It also allows them another opportunity – and a lengthy one at that as most home inspections last approximately three hours – to further envision themselves living there one day.  If you are there, it can be extremely awkward – mostly for the buyers but also for the inspector too.  This has only happened to me once, and it was a situation in which the seller was also the listing agent.  But even then it was awkward for everyone involved….

So I’m curious to hear your thoughts.  Have you wrestled with these questions as a seller?  And/or have you had any of these scenarios happen as a buyer?  I can’t wait to hear….