This book is an excellent, succinct & practical reference for anyone selling their real estate. I liked it so well, I bought a second copy to give to a friend selling her condo.
Review #2
top notch advice
I've been in the real estate business for almost three months and I have to say this is by far the best book yet on the subject that I have looked at online. House dressing is key to getting the right price you want for your house. you'd think people would be interested in the quality aspects of a house, wood make, name of the manor, bedroom names, the name of the basement, people who lived there, etc etc, but they're not. This is a business first and foremost. People get houses to sell more houses, and guess what, look at how many houses we have? Too many. Yet people still want more houses. Its crazy. But that is economics for you. This book will fix that though. From the first moment a buyer walks into the room of your abode you need to convince them that this is the house of their pocketbook dreams. Selling. Thats the key. Brandish a broom to make it clear to them you intend to "sweep up", an industry buzz word. Whatever you do, don't let them see the toilet bowl, this is a sign of weakness and humanity that nobody really likes to talk about. Let's face it, wouldn't we all like to live in a world where people don't have to go to the bathroom and just eat and everything disappears from your bottom half hours later? Duh. Think of the environment. Anyway keep the bathroom locked. Also if you're having trouble with selling, as in this market where people have forgotten the value of a good house, there are other options, first. If your house square footage is over 5,000 square feet, you can rent out bedrooms to immigrants. The great thing about immigrants is that while naturalized citizens prefer whole rooms to themselves, wasting valuable space, immigrants require a single bed, which is often forty times smaller than a room. While you have to charge less for a single bed, you don't have to charge forty times less, you can fit an average 200 square foot room with ten immigrants. For the whole house that is 250 immigrants, each paying about 50 dollars a month, thats over four thousand dollars a month! And the bonus is when a prospective buyer comes in and sees your business plan in action, and action it will be, the hustle and bustle of everyday life in every section of the house, they will know that you mean business. And that means if you mean business, and you bought this house, and they want to mean business, then, in beautiful logical simplicity: they will buy the house. Classic. Well done.
Review #3
Very useful book
This a great book and if you're having trouble getting ready to sell your house, this is book to put you on the right path. The author tells you the things that HGTV has drilled in our heads for a while now, but it gives you a check list to keep you on track.
I purchased the book to help with my condo redecorating; I wanted to go all out, but this book (and others like it) provided me with guidelines to keep me from going to far. I didn't want to have to undo my decor once I got ready to sell.
If you already know to clean, repair, declutter, then you don't need this book, but if you would like a little more insight into each (a little direction) this is a fantastic book. It would be interesting to know if people really do sell faster in a down market based on these strategies.
