The Emotional Buyer is Every Buyer

Posted on October 20, 2011 
Filed Under Listing and Selling Your Home | Leave a Comment

Most residential property is purchased by people who anticipate living in the home.  Unlike commercial purchases where the buyer is looking at the bottom line for profit, home buyers are going to be influences by their emtions in making the buying decision.  It will be their emotions that will affect their motivation to make the buy.  

How can a seller influence the emotions of Buyers to get them to the contract stage.  Of course the buying triangle of price, location and condition all play a role but after being happy about the price and location, the Buyer will now be looking at the condition of the home – does it suit their needs and do they WANT to live in the home.  Our five senses all play a significant role in how we feel.  They evoke emotions.  Sellers can ’awaken’ those senses.

Smell:  Nothing beats the smell of clean - no heavy perfumes, no room fresheners.  Sellers can consider a bowl of lavender in the bath area, the cedar blocks in the clothes closet and maybe a bowl of lemons in the kitchen.

Taste:   A Seller could leave some wrapped candy at the door or by the Feature Sheets.  However, there are some foods that make you salivate just from the smell when they are just out of the oven - like baking bread and apple pie. 

Sound:  The sounds of a school yard at recess, trains/planes and automobiles will distract and annoy a Buyer.  They do not realize that those sounds will disappear after they have lived in the home for awhile.  Sellers can play a soft background music playlist on the sound system .  In the exterior, nothing beats the sound of a trickling fountain.

Sight:  Well, we all know the horrors of clutter, bad wallpaper, too many pictures.  Minimal is best. 

Touch:  Every buyer I have ever taken through a home touches things – walls, railings, furniture.  We feel through our fingers and those feelings bring up good feelings when there is a variety of textures.  Of course, stay away from the feeling of crumbs and dirt on the floors – buyers are usually in their sox and this is just awful. 

When you go to sell, think of ways to appeal to Buyers senses.  You want those good feelings to turn into a motivation to buy. 

  Photo credit:  Lavender

Don’t Screen Out Ottawa Buyers

Posted on October 12, 2011 
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Yesterday was glorious with nice warm temperatures and hardly any wind.   The only sounds were the maple leaves drifting down from the trees and the honking of geese.   Oh darn, I digress. 

On our long list of things to do around the house, yesterday was the day we finally took down all the screens,  placed in the the back yard and one by one they were gently washed with a soft brush and a bit of dish soap and then hosed off.   While the screens were being washed, I washed all the windows.   Good for us.

What did we discover?   With all of the window blinds up and drapes pulled back, with all the screens off and windows cleaned – the house looked so bright that we almost needed sunglasses.   My husband must have commented on this four times during the day.   I told him that when the day comes for us to sell, we want the house looking the same way.   We will: 

It is amazing the amount of light that is reduced just by the screens on the windows (okay, and the dirt).

Photo credit: Snow on the window screen

Haunted House Sale

Posted on September 26, 2011 
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Halloween comes only once a year.Why would you leave squeaky doors and drafty windows for Buyers to see and experience the other 364 days?   If your doors slowly close themselves or don’t close even when you pull them shut, it will look like a haunting. This is likely a level problem and not the intervention of the spirit world.  Adjust the doors and seal the frames around the windows. If you think your home has shifted, you may want to get a structural engineer in to take a look and provide an assessment before your home is on the market.

I love homes that are decorated for the seasons.  However, when you home is for sale, it may be prudent to reduce your decorations to a door wreath and pumpkins or vases of seasonal greenery.  Leave the For Sale sign on your lawn as the most important decoration.     

Don’t frighten a Buyer away.

Photo credit:  Halloween house

If People Knew How Much Work Was Involved, Would They Move?

Posted on September 5, 2011 
Filed Under Moving | Leave a Comment

  I have read that the human memory is a miraculous thing.  It does not remember the feeling of pain.  You remember that things hurt but you cannot relive it.  Now, that same memory is working when you move.  You remember that it was a hassle but you cannot remember how much work, physical effort, stress and organizational skills were required.  Thank Goodness!!!!!

Let’s just stop of a minute and think of the work involved in getting your home ready for a sale.  You start by paring down on the things in each room and then clean it the house to a new level of immaculate.  You may have to organize people to come in and get the home ready – certainly a real estate agent and a home stager, painters, handymen, installers, gardeners, movers (to shift some of your things to a storage locker), and pest control people.  The list goes on depending upon what you need to do to have your home ready. 

Once your home is on the market you are going to need to keep it clean and tidy.  You never know when someone will want to see it and you have already left for work.  Your morning routine will now include getting the home ready to show, each and every day.

Finally, you get an acceptable offer and have a set date to remove yourself and all of your things from the home.  For many people, leaving a home is like leaving a very good friend.  There is an emotional attachment and a grieving process that is involved as you drive away for the last time.  I know my husband would have hugged one of our favourite homes as we spent our last minutes in the driveway saying good-bye to the neighbours. 

So why move?  Well, there as many reasons to move as there are houses on the market.  Outgrowing the house or needing to downsize are likely the most common reasons to move.  Of course, being transferred is a moving force.   Economic reasons whether going up or down cause people to want and need to move.  Finally, there are some people who love change and are looking for the elusive perfect house.  We all know people who spend a part of everyday house shopping on the internet and never miss an Open House day.   A quick internet search showed that North Americans move anywhere from 10 to 16 times during their lifetime (depending on what site you are visiting).  That is an astounding number of moves! 

The good news about moving is that, over time, you will forget the pain and stress of doing it.  Take heart!

Photo credit:  Moving Day

Jack of all Trays

Posted on July 26, 2011 
Filed Under Listing and Selling Your Home, Staging Your Home | Leave a Comment

If you have a counter in the bathroom or kitchen that has a lot of little containers, collect them and put them on a tray.  Your eye sees many little things such as tissues, cotton ball container and a soap pump as three things BUT if they are on a tray, they look like one item and less cluttered to the eye. 

The photo was taken in my kitchen.  I put the paper towel holder, the kleenex container (see the black item on the left), salt and pepper grinders, the dogs’ treat bowl and one or two little bags of treats all in that little tray.  It has freed up counter space and looks organized.  In addition to this tray, I also have three on the kitchen table – one for the condiments and serviettes and one for my husband and me (we put all those little things in them that just seem to float around the house like the mail, receipts, reading glasses, etc.

Collect and organize your clutter.

Do I ring the bell or just walk in?

Posted on July 23, 2011 
Filed Under Valerie Zinger | Leave a Comment

Open House protocol came into question yesterday. 

A few visitors asked me if they should ring the bell and wait for the agent or just walk into the house. 

I said – Please ring the bell to let me know that there is someone there and then walk in –  if the door is unlocked.  The door would only be locked if there were too many people in the house and I needed to crowd control. 

I said that if I was tied up (hopefully just figuratively) with other visitors in another part of the home, I would like to know that someone else is coming in the house AND I would not expect them to wait for several minutes at the door until I could free myself from the other people. 

Another question was – shoes or bare feet?  Well, it was hot yesterday but, when asked, I said that the homeowner would prefer to deal with some bare feet prints on the floor more than the dirt brought in on the shoe soles. 

Now, if only the question was “Can I put in an offer today?” .  Oh well.  The home was in fantastic shape.  The air conditioning was working at a very comfortable level.  There were a lot of visitors and families looking for more space.  I have my hopes that there was a Buyer lurking in the group somewhere.

Hamburgers Served at My Last Open House

Posted on July 23, 2011 
Filed Under Listing and Selling Your Home, Ottawa Today / Interesting People, Places and Things, Valerie Zinger | Leave a Comment

 

I wanted to make something fun for my Open House last Sunday.   I normally have a small bowl of lifesaver mints (individually wrapped) and some packets of Red Zinger tea.  Just a bit boring.  I found a recipe for cookie hamburgers.  Basically, a box of Nilla cookies, a can of icing, red and green food colouring, big shreds of coconut and some little chocolate chocolate-chip cookies.   What took me the most time – finding the right little ‘hamburger” cookies. 

Hand to the good book (Paula Deen’s cookbook where the basic ingredient of EVERY recipe is butter or cream or both), I have never bought a can of icing in my life.  Can’t say I would do it again but this was for fun and for others so…. 

This photo is close to how my hamburgers looked – I omitted the sesame seeds and didn’t make the mustard icing – just used the plain vanilla to make it look like mayo. 

I ended up with 40 cookies.  I then individually wrapped each cookie in parchment paper.  I live with someone who will not eat food made by unknown sources (except of course in restaurants).  An aside – he will not nibble at Price Club nor will he buy all those terrific jams, jellies, candies, etc at the big craft sales. 

I digress:  The hamburgers were a hit.  I think it helped when I said that they were actually cookies – they looked like the real thing – AND that I had made them.  At least the visitors had met the ‘cook’.  Of course you got the cookie on the way out.  I did not want bits of coconut scattered about the house with a trail of crumbs where the visitors walked.

It helps to have some fun while you work.  Hamburgers at an Open House was fun to do.

Photo credit:  burgers

If you are blessed with deep window wells ………. Add Flowers

Posted on July 3, 2011 
Filed Under Listing and Selling Your Home, Staging Your Home | Leave a Comment

Most construction in North America does not lend itself to deep window wells.  Now, if your home was 300 years old or more, then the walls would be thick and the window wells deep.  If you have your home for sale, think of adding flowers, hanging, flower boxes or on your exterior window sills. 

Being the horrible wretch that I am, I had to add the signature and the location.  

Hope you like this collage.

Barney and Barbie – Together at Last

Posted on June 2, 2011 
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Sometimes you cannot eradicate Barbie pink and Barney purple when putting your house on the market. The turmoil with the children may be too great. I listed a home that had two little girls. Yes, Barney and Barbie were cohabiting in that house. OMG. It would have made a home stager happy to get his or her hands on Barney’s cave and Barbie’s house. It was difficult to look at those rooms (no photos were included in the listing) BUT we posted a little sign outside the rooms saying that they would be painted before the new owners’ took possession.

If this happened again, I would also add the paint chip of the colour that the room would be painted. While we had no problems with the sale (and in fact the new owners didn’t want the rooms painted!!!!) why toy (LOL) with a possible disagreement.

Wave adieu to Barney and Barbie with your paint brush.

Photo credit: Purple like Barney

Give Thanks for Spring and a Day Without Rain

Posted on May 28, 2011 
Filed Under Ottawa Today / Interesting People, Places and Things | 1 Comment

 

Last Tuesday was a wonderful sunny and warm day. I went for a walk with my camera to try to capture some of my favourite spring flowers. There were: magnolia buds on a tree; tulips (so late this year but what an opportunity to photograph them); iris flowers just starting to appear; lilacs with that wonderful lilac smell that is so sweet but cannot be photographed; a big headed poppy, peonies and, finally, a lawn ornament that needed to be caged for this collage.

If you are having as much rain as we are today, I hope you enjoy this collage and the reminder of all that spring that be.

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