Before a house ever hits the market, there's a lead-up most sellers skip, and it's costing them money. This episode of Real Estate Without The Noise breaks down how to prepare your home for sale the right way: what buyers actually notice with their senses, why curb appeal is the cheapest return you'll ever get, and which renovations pay you back versus which ones just drain your budget. Hosts Evelyn Lopes, Ruth Ballantyne, and Sandy Casella, with over one hundred years of combined real estate experience, also expose the biggest pricing myth sellers still believe. Real conversations, real client stories, no market hype. For homeowners in the GTA thinking about listing soon, this is the episode to hear first.
Most sellers focus on the day the house hits the market. The real work happens before that, in the weeks nobody sees. In this episode of Real Estate Without The Noise, Evelyn Lopes, Ruth Ballantyne, and Sandy Casella walk through what actually moves buyers before a house is ever listed. They cover the five senses test buyers run without realizing it, why smell is the one thing sellers can never judge in their own home, and how curb appeal buys or costs you a buyer before the front door even opens. They also get honest about renovations. Paint is the best return you will ever get. A brand new kitchen, almost never. And they tackle the biggest pricing myth in the business: that you should always leave room to negotiate. The truth is the opposite.
Connect with the hosts:
● Evelyn Lopes, RE/MAX Realty Services Inc. — evelyn@evelynlopes.com — 905-965-5902
● Ruth Ballantyne, RE/MAX Realty Services Inc. — ruth@ruthballantyne.ca — 416-779-8732
● Sandy Casella, eXp Realty — sandy@sandycasella.com — 416-467-8627
Show contact: RealEstateWithoutTheNoise@gmail.com
● 0:00 Cold open: what's costing sellers the sale before it even starts
● 1:20 The five senses test buyers run without realizing it
● 6:45 The smell problem no seller can judge for themselves
● 12:10 Curb appeal and the first ninety seconds
● 18:30 Renovating for return versus renovating for ego
● 24:15 Flooring, ceilings, and the mistakes that break a house's flow
● 28:00 Access and showings: the flexibility that actually sells houses
● 31:40 Why overpricing costs you the first two weeks, and why that matters most
● 35:10 Before we go: one insight, one warning, one mindset shift from each host
TRANSCRIPT
There are a lot of things that are really important for sellers to do before they even put their home on the market. And sometimes sellers think that they're just going to bypass it or that it really doesn't make a difference. Today, we're gonna dive into that topic and really talk about some of the important things that are necessary to complete before you put up your home for sale. The most important process when you're selling your house is the lead-up to having it on the market. It's not the day it goes for sale, and it's not the showings that happen after that. It's that lead-up, the first few weeks before you get your house on the market. There's a lot of prep that goes into that, and there are certain things that are very important and other things that are not so important. Today, we wanna talk about what are the most important things in that lead-up to getting your house for sale, and they may be totally different than what you think. So let's dive in. Right. I totally agree with you, Sandy. You know sellers are always concerned about making mistakes when selling their home, and you're absolutely right. It's that preparation that is a key component to a successful sale. And there's different I guess, different components to properly preparing your home for sale. Now, one of them will be, in my opinion, just taking a really good look at your home from the perspective of how buyers are going to see it. We know that buyers buy on emotions, right? We enter a house, and right away we either feel connected to it or we feel like, you know, this is not the home for us. So we have to make sure that we really position the home so that it makes a really strong and positive first impression. And I think when we're doing that, buyers are, are looking at the home, so they're seeing it. They are smelling it. So if there's, you know, offensive odors, that's not a good thing. They are looking to see that it's bright and inviting and the floor plan or the flow of the home works well, the colors work well. There's so many I think, aspects of just the way that the home presents itself visually. So maybe we can talk about some of the things that are things that people can do to position the look of the home in the best light. I always say to my clients that you have to think of your home more like a model home and not like your home. Because the way you live in a house isn't the best way to sell a house. So when you go into a model home, it's always bright, it's always sparsely decorated, there isn't a lot of clutter, it's always well-lit, and everything's put in its place. And I think that that is how a house should look. That's the best way we can present a house when we're putting it on the market. No clutter, lots of light, nice and clean Yeah. So don't rush the process for sure, because that first few weeks on the market are really important because a lot of times buyers are just waiting for new list-- They, they've seen what's on the market, and they're just waiting for new listings to come up. So if that-- if it's not prepped properly and it doesn't hit the market in the best light, you will lose a lot of those buyers at the very beginning. They'll move on. They're not going to come back and revisit it. So it's really important that prep going in is done properly and you, you know, have a team that you trust to get you to that point, because we have to understand this is somebody's home, this is where y- we live, and somebody coming in telling you that, you know, maybe there's an odor that you need to deal with or you need to remove certain things, that can be really emotional for some people. So we really need to understand who's coming to look at the house and take those pieces out. But the lead up to it is really important in even just getting your mindset around that, taking a look at what are buyers looking for and how does my house fit into that, the whole scheme of things. Right. And I think what you said is a really good point to take off. It's buyers. So We're looking for one buyer, but in order to find that one buyer, we may have to go through a few. And so the more broad buyer base your home appeals to, the better your chances are of finding that one perfect buyer. So I think it's important to make it more generic in terms of your personal things. So you've often heard about, you know, taking down your family photos, you know, if you've got you know different artifacts in the house that maybe are positioned to one specific group, you might wanna take that out so you're not offending anybody. And you wanna make it seem like whoever's walking through the door is seeing themselves in the home, not you in the home. Yeah. I just wanna share a story 'cause I-- On our team, like a lot of times, and you guys are probably the same, when we show houses, a lot of times those houses kind of get nicknames, right? People don't say the house on M- oh, remember that house on Main Street or the house on whatever. They say, "Oh, you mean the smelly house?" "Oh, you mean the, the green house." Or-- So they, they get these kind of personalities, and yesterday I was showing houses to a couple, and here's what we discussed most of the time showing this house. "What is that smell? Is it..." I thought it was they had cats. The house was vacant, and I was like, "That's cats." And someone else was saying, "Oh, it's, it smells like, you know, this." And the other one had a different idea. So imagine that people are looking at your house and their biggest conversation about-- is about what is the smell that we smell in this house, not anything about the property. So that's what we have to look for. That's a really delicate conversation to have with a seller. Do you guys have nicknames for houses? Like, do you find that when you show houses you end up with nicknames? It, it's so funny when you said that. So I actually play... I like, I, I love showing homes, and I, I like to make it fun. So one of the things that we do is we actually name the house. Exactly what you said. You know, this is the green house, or this is, you know, the house with, You know, sometimes people have lots of bu- The da-- yeah, or whatever. There's lots of games or whatever, like, you know, whatever it is. We, we name the house and we rate it out of 10. So those are two little games I play with my buyers. So when you said that, I went, "I totally get that," right? Because it, it's easier to remember something about the house that sticks out. The challenge is when you're selling your house, you want that something that sticks out to be a positive vibe, not like, "Oh, it's the smelly house." You want it to be, "Oh, it's the, the very chic house or the very bright house," or, you know, the-- sometimes the, the houses look so good they call it the model home house, right? So you want it to have those good names, not the bad names, right? Exactly. Yeah. 'Cause I know like a lot of times if like a price comes down or something and, and I call a client and say, "Remember that house? The-- they've reduced the price." And they'll say, "Oh, oh, you mean like the smelly house?" Or like, that's not the connotation that you want people to have about your house. So you have to have-- like honestly look at that, right? So... And I've had cats in the past, and a lot of times I, I-- when people would come over, I'd say, "Okay, be honest with me. Can you smell cats in here?" Because you don't smell it when you live there. So it's, it's pretty important, right? Right. It's actually like that commercial about, I think it's about I don't know whether it's clothes or something. They say how you, you're in your house and you just, you don't smell it anymore. I think it's Febreze or something, right? You just don't smell... Yeah, your nose. Yeah, that's it. So it's true for us, right? And, and a lot of times when we go into houses, like, there is a- an odor of just people living there. And it's not only pets. Pets are one. You know, a- on another smell, more on a positive side, is if it's freshly painted, at least that's more of a clean smell. But if it's really strong, then they say, "Oh, they just painted the house to sell it," right? But other things could be cooking smells. So you know if you cook fish, that's a very strong odor, and that's probably not a great odor for someone to come when they enter your house. Or a strong smell of garlic is another one, right? So we have to watch those smells. And then you may say, "Oh, well, I'm gonna put in some plugins," or, "I'm gonna put in some candles." You have to be careful with that, too, because there's a lot of people that have allergies or those scents are just overpowering. So I think the best smell is just a nice fresh, clean smell. And a way to get that is just open your windows. Like, open the windows and let some fresh air come in before the guests do. I find that so true. Every day when I come in my house, it smells of smoke, and I can smell it because I don't smoke and Rick does smoke. And every day when I come in, I think, "Oh my God, it smells like smoke in here." So if I can smell it, anyone else that doesn't smoke w- that comes into my house can smell that s- that smell Right. So one of the little things that you can do as a home seller getting prepared to put your house on the market is think of your senses. The sense-- Well, there's five, right? Sight, smell, touch what's the other ones? Hearing, sound, and something else. So, you know, for sound, you don't want to have the TV blaring in the background, right? Y- if you want to do something, either no sound or you could put very soft music in the background, some smooth jazz or just some instrumental, because music, as they say, soothes the soul, right? So if it's like some hard rock, it's gonna make people feel like this. But if it's some smooth jazz or quiet music, it's just gonna make them feel relaxed, and their pace going through the house is gonna be a little bit slower, which gives them more opportunity to spend time in the house and actually look at the home. So sound is one of them. We've talked a little bit about sight in terms of, you know, making sure that it's really bright. And you have to be careful with that one, too, because I remember one house we went to, and they had pot lights everywhere, but the, the color of the pot lights was so bright, my client found that it was offensive. She goes, "Oh my God, I'd have to change every single you know, bulb in these pot lights," because it was so hard and bright, like just hard and harsh. So that was a pot house- a pot, pot light house. Yeah, that I remember, you know, to this day. So again, natural light is always great, so make sure that your windows are open. If you've got heavy draperies, you know, consider taking them off when you're going to s-sell, especially if they're, like, funky colors. Creams are fine, but if they're like reds or blues or, you know, heavy, dark colors, just take them off and let the light come through. And then whether it's day or night, turn on the lights in your house. Lamps as well, because they create an ambiance, and lighting also creates an ambiance in a room. And especially if it is like the fall, where it gets dark around four o'clock, you know, the first impression when they come in the house is the agent's going, "Well, where's the switches? And I can't find it," right? So you just want them to spend their time looking in the room, not trying to find light switches. What about-- well, let, let's talk then about the outside of the house, 'cause I think that's the, the, the major thing. The, the curb appeal of the house is huge. You can't underestimate that welcoming feeling as soon as you drive up to the house. Like the lawn cut, you know, things trimmed. If it's-- if there's snow, making sure that the, the snow is cleared, leaves are cleared if it's the fall, whatever time of year it is, 'cause that's really important, right? Like there's nothing like, m-maybe my bias a little 'cause I love flowers, but seeing a house and there's flowers there, even if it's like a potted plant with some flowers or something. There's nothing like that that really makes a house feel kind of welcome. Right. And, and again, it is that first impression, right? And so as they're walking up to the house, you want to build the excitement of the house, not going like, "Oh, do I really have to go in there?" kind of thing. So things that we can do for the outside of the house, we start with the front door. Make sure that the front door is clean, the paint is good. If it's not a good color, consider changing that color of the paint, right? And, and if you've got a old screen door or-- and it's, you know, it's not very nice looking or the screen on the door is torn, consider taking that screen door right off the front and just have the nice door. Make sure the hardware on the door is really nice looking. Because remember, this is where the buyers are actually gonna be standing for a little while, while the agent's trying to get in with a lockbox. So as they're standing there, they're not looking at the agent trying to open the lockbox. They're looking around the house, so they're gonna notice these things. So make it, like you said, Sandy, welcoming. Maybe a front-- a nice front mat in front of the, the door. And I love, as you said, flowers. It just sort of gives you this nice feeling. So consider, like you say, having some potted plants and things at the front of the door. And the other thing is the garage door. Make sure the garage door is, you know, in good condition. Again, the paint on the garage door is good. And even your driveway, make sure that it's, you know, in decent condition. You might wanna consider giving it a black top coat. Is that what it's called? The black top on, on the driveway. Seal it just so that it looks good and looks good in, in pictures as well. And make sure that your gardens, the weeds are taken out, that, you know, if you've got interlock, that, you know, there's nothing growing in between them. Just make it look fresh and inviting. And windows. Make sure that the windows are clean as well. Have you guys ever had someone drive up to a house and then decide, "No, I don't wanna see it," and they haven't even been in the front? 'Cause all of those things are so important because you want them-- that you're right, it's the first impression when you get there. The last thing you want them to say is, "I don't wanna see this house," just because you didn't take the time to prepare the outside It's, a cost-effective thing to do, right? That's a really good return on your investment if you're thinking of spending money is the outside, for sure. That's one of the biggest, I think Right. And then from the outside, we go into the inside, and we've talked about lighting, we've talked about smells. The other thing I notice is as soon as I walk in the door, I can tell whether this is a nice clean house or not so clean. And the reason I say it's 'cause we have to take off our shoes, right? And that's when it's not so clean, you go, "Oh, I wish I brought my slippers." And you don't wanna have that comment in people's heads. So you wanna make sure the floors and everything are clean and, and as you mentioned, Ruth, tidy. You know, don't have a lot of stuff everywhere. A simple thing is take off all those magnets and notes that you have on your fridge and all the extra stuff on your counters. And sometimes people have kitchen cabinets where the top there's space and they put all kinds of stuff, cereal and bowls. And what it makes people think is like, "Oh my God, they've got no room in this house. If they've got no room, I've got no room. This is not-- This, this, this is not gonna work." So by removing that excess stuff, it just makes the house look like there's enough room for the people that live in there, so there should be enough room for me. And that includes front hall closets too. Like, the worst thing is when you open-- 'cause they are gonna open the closets to see what the space is like, and it's just overflowing and, you know, they j- they just say that, "Oh, there's not enough room." So even if it's a tiny closet, but it's just got one or two things, it just looks like, "Oh, there's coats in there. Mine will fit." Yeah. But e- even if we wanna back this up a little bit, because this is, this is getting somebody to the house, but there's even still more prep that happens before that because the pictures make a big difference, right? So when you have the pictures taken, make sure that the house is in that same condition and not think, you know, like, "I'll get the pictures, but then I can do some other stuff so when people come to see it," 'cause you lose a lot of people just looking at it on the computer, right? And I, the other day, was looking at some properties and I was, I was shocked that I saw a listing and it was clear that, that the pictures online were taken from a cell phone. And, I mean, cell phones can be very good, but these were not very good ones. Like, they were crooked and the lighting was really bad, and I, and I thought, "Oh my goodness," like, "some people are still taking photos with a-- like terrible photos with a cell phone and putting them online." It's-- You're, you're better off waiting a few days and getting those professional photos done because that's where you're going to lose a lot of people that aren't even going to come and see it. Right. And speaking of photos, when they are professionally done, they're HD quality, so you see everything. So you need to make sure if your walls aren't in good condition, like you said, before you put it up for sale, before you have the photographers, repaint the wall, touch that stuff up. You know, even kitchen cupboards, like if you have like fingerprints, they show up on the photos. Mirrors, they all... You know, the dust, everything shows up. So it's gotta be decluttered, it's gotta be cleaned, and it's gotta look fresh. When a house presents itself as well-maintained, then people feel like, "Oh, this is not a money pit." When it looks like it's not well-maintained, you're like how much other stuff is going on that I d- I'm not even aware of? I need to pay less, 'cause it's gonna cost me, you know, in time and money a whole lot. So I'm gonna lowball the price." When it looks like it's just move-in ready, they say, "Well, there's nothing-- no other expenses. I'm good." So they're willing to pay a little bit more for it. And it's that emotional feeling too, right? Yeah. I have a question. How do you feel about things like even seeing a, a, you know, the picture of the bathroom is really nice, but you see like a hairbrush on the counter or like a garbage pail or just like little things like that, like, like a tea towel hanging over, over top of something or a towel out of place. How do you guys feel about-- Do you think that's a big deal in photos? Personally, I do. I personally go through every room with my client before the photographer comes. I'm there with the photographer, and I just-- for me, aesthetics is a big thing. It's just how I look at things. I'm a very visual person, so it, it drives me crazy. So even showers, like I tell people, "Take all your shampoos and, you know, whatever's in there, your razors, take everything out. Just a clean shower," right? Sometimes even the toilet rolls look better that they're not even on the roll, that it's just plain. And if they are, then I always end up folding them making them look pretty. But if it's just like a couple of sheets left, just take them out. Don't put them there. No, no garbage cans, no God forbid, plungers. If I see a plunger, I'm like, "Oh." I even think it's not even so, like it's those things, but it's also what do we want... We talked about this in another episode about the staging and what do we want draw the person's eye to. So my thought is, instead of having this beautiful picture of a bathroom, what I'm seeing is the hairbrush, and now I'm focused on the hairbrush or the garbage can or the nice little tea towel, where that's not what we want people to focus on. We want them to focus on the room and what they can do in there instead of drawing your eye to little things like that. So one of the tips then might be when you're looking and putting your rooms together, to have as little as possible sitting around that could actually detract. That l- I'm sure people don't think about a hairbrush could, you know, make you think something different or a, a garbage can could make you look differently on the room. But if you take the time to think of a buyer and if you saw those things and put yourself in the buyer's shoes as you go all the way through your house, you might find that you look at it a little differently. Right. And I think as realtors, we've all, you know, we've been doing this for a long time, but I'm sure you probably felt the same way when you first started telling people, you know, "These are some suggestions." It was hard because we do understand this is your home, this is where you live, and, and you have to live while your house is for sale. But we're not saying it to say-- to, to be mean. Let's put it that way. We're saying it really to help you because I think our experience has shown that by doing these few little things that really cost nothing, like it doesn't cost anything to remove a, a hairbrush, for example, but it will make a better impression of your house which will end up getting you more money in the end, right? And all those cumulative rooms that the buyers are looking at will just sh- show better, present better, make them feel better, and it's better for you, the seller. So as a seller, what you could do, I think, it just came to my mind is go through your house with your phone, take photos, and then look at those photos objectively to help you understand what needs to come out. 'Cause I'm sure you guys have seen this before where you see a house and when you're in it the house is really nice. Maybe they've got, I don't know, I'm gonna say like maybe some type of wall covering that's really nice, right? Or tile. But in pictures it doesn't come out the same. It looks busy or it looks-- it doesn't look as good. But when you see the house it looks really nice and sometimes I've seen this where there's a whole bunch of pictures of the same thing 'cause when you get there you understand why but in the pictures it doesn't translate. So if you go through it yourself and take photos and look at them objectively and say what, you know, "This is a good way for me to understand what I should take out of this house or what I should take out of this room." I-- actually I think I'm gonna use that. It just came to me. I think it's a good idea. And colors are another one. There's a lot of times where I'll tell, you know, clients like I know they might have just repainted the room but they've painted it, you know, a color that's not going to show well online. It's gonna be like a, you know, an orange or a red or a deep green or blue. Whatever color it is it just doesn't translate the same online. It's gotta look neutral And so sometimes even a room that's been freshly painted but in the wrong color doesn't work. And speaking of colors, white is not white 'cause I went to someone had called me about listing their house and she said, "We just had the whole house painted," and it was white, but it was white. And all I could feel is, oh my God, this house is so sterile, and it just did not have a good feeling. So again, neutral and white is, is White is not white. There's a million whites and they're not all created equal. Yeah. Absolutely. What, what are-- has anyone had, like, saw a house and then maybe the seller has done some renovations that they maybe shouldn't have, or they've done the wrong renovations or over-renovated it? What, what are, what are your feelings on that? What-- how do you, how do you talk about that with a seller? Well, I, I, I mean, I guess it... Everybody renovates and decorates, like I said, for the way that they live, and that's fine. But when you're going to sell, like we said, we're trying to go to the masses. So it depends whether it's something they've done in the past, they renovated for themselves, and we may have to look at that. The one that I find most disheartening is when someone just renovated 'cause they're getting ready to put their house on sale and they go, "Oh, I think we should do this," and they just spent a whole bunch of money on something that either does not make the house good or that really doesn't give them that ROI. So sometimes you know, I'll go and people will say, "Oh, I'm gonna do a whole brand-new kitchen." And I'm like, "You don't need to do a whole brand-new kitchen. Here are some things we can do." Maybe it's the funky kitchen counter that you have, you know. Maybe just replacing that would give the, the kitchen a different look. So again, not everything that you improve is gonna give you the same ROI, and not everything that you improve is going to have the same impact. So again, this is where working with your realtor, they will tell you what people are looking for in houses like yours in your area, because different areas and different houses, there's a different expectation, right? Price point too. So if you're looking at, you know, a house that's a million and a half, people are expecting, you know, granite in the kitchen counters, right? But if you're looking at a, a townhouse at 600, it's nice, but it's not like a make or break, right? So things like that. And another one a lot of people are doing lately is they're removing all the bathtubs and doing just stand-up showers, which is great, but in my opinion, I think the house needs to have at least one bathtub. Because if they've got young babies and things, they're not gonna take their baby and put them in the shower. They need a bathtub. So there-- you have to keep one bathtub in the house. So again, it's knowing what, what's a minimum, at least a minimum expectation for buyers. Yeah. So, okay, so let me ask you this question. Let's, let's do some would you do this or this, right? Like if you had to do one or the other. So what, what do you think is more important, stucco on the ceilings or flooring? What, what would you do? Yeah, absolutely. I don't, I don't think I've ever been in a house where the stucco ceilings have been a deal breaker. But flooring, absolutely, yes. Especially, I think the worst is, is different flooring in every room is worse than having flooring that needs to be replaced, in my opinion. Because if flooring is good everywhere but it's different in every room, it's a, a lot of times it's not even one of those things where people will take the money off, it's just a deal breaker. It's really... I don't know, it must be something to do with the eye, like how the eye perceives that. Yeah. It just, first of all, it breaks up the space. So if you're gonna do flooring, at least every level should have the same flooring. But you're absolutely right. When it's all different, it doesn't show well. I think one of the biggest mistakes people make too when we're talking about flooring or, again, ceilings, is when they put in a really expensive kitchen to get it sold instead of just putting some- in something that's nice but you know, that will do. Because I've seen people spend like $50,000 on putting in a new kitchen, and they're not gonna get that money back. Whereas if they just put in your basic nice new kitchen, especially if their kitchen was old, I, I think that w- would probably have served them better. Yeah, for sure. And then it, like, even that 50,000 in the kitchen, you could've maybe taken 30,000 of that and done different things, right? Like, maybe instead of doing that, you just paint the whole house or something, because I always say to sellers, "You either do everything or you do nothing." Because what people, I think, really don't like is they don't like something-- A few things are done, like if you have three bathrooms and one is done and the other ones aren't, for some reason that's, that's like something that stalls people to me. So leave everything and let them do everything. Don't do here or there. Spending 50,000 on a, on a kitchen when you could've painted the whole house or, you know, your outside doesn't look very good and you could've spent some of that on landscaping, you could spend that money more wisely and, and get that money back, I think. Yeah. And I, and I think it depends, too, how often that room is. So maybe the kitchen is, is dated, but the cabinets are in really good condition. It's just that the color is not good. So again, you can paint. And speaking of paint, I think paint is one of the best investments. Like, you put in 100% you get back as long as you pick the right color, not just white. Like- And do it professionally. Don't paint yourself if you're not a very good painter. Like, I can paint a room, but I'm not painting it if I'm gonna sell it. So I think-- I agree. I think paint is the number one, the biggest return on your investment. It, it's clean. It's, it's inviting. You're right, Evelyn, though, the paint, the color matters. Do a neutral color throughout and, and paint the whole thing. That's your biggest, absolutely your biggest return. If there's a lot of painting that needs to be done, like if it's one bedroom, that's fine. But if it's a lot, it's better that you just get a professional to do it. They're in, they're out. There's not gonna be that, "Oh my God, they painted and they painted the ceiling," or, "They painted the floor," or whatever. While they're doing the painting, you spend your time decluttering, you know, getting rid of the stuff. And then them doing the painting, you doing the cluttering, will help your house be ready to be put on the market in a much better timeframe. Sometimes, you know selling your house is, is a, is a long-term decision. We don't just wake up and go, "I'm gonna sell my house today." It's something that we sort of have to process. But once we get to that point where we do wanna sell our home, and we have spoken to the realtor, and they have given you, you know, your price and you agree on everything, they've given you your list of things to do, and they're telling you, "This is a good time right now," because maybe there's not a lot of competition on the market, things like that. If you're spending months and months saying, "I'm gonna paint myself. I'm gonna do this," like, you're missing the boat. So- In that case, I would say have someone else do it. Absolutely. When the market turned, I saw that with two or three sellers that did not wanna spend the money on having a professional come in and do this, do it for them, and they took five or six months to get it done. They didn't do the best job and, you know, instead of spending $3,000, they ended up losing like $100,000 on the sale because the not, maybe not 100, but 50 or $60,000 on the sale because the market went down. So it's, it's really not worth it. I recently had some sellers have the professional painters in. They fixed all the, the drywall where it needed to be fixed. They did an excellent job. It's a lot of work painting, moving all the furniture, and then, you know, while the painters were doing that, they did the decluttering and then their home was ready to go on the market in a reasonable timeframe, and they did really well. Yeah. It looked totally different. Once we've got the house in shape, what are you seeing in today's market that is the biggest problem after the house is ready to go on the market? One of the things I think is a problem is after it's on the market and they do a home inspection and the homeowner did not tackle things that they knew were troublesome to them. Like, so for example, maybe they had a dripping kitchen sink faucet and they're... it's been bothering them for years and they just figured, "Ah," because then it's gonna come up in the home inspection, right? Or, you know, they... So it's those, those little repair things that you need to make sure are good. So but everything's in working order. And I think it's, I think it's access. Like, you have to be prepared to, to have showings whenever the showings are booked. I, I think sometimes sellers don't understand how properties are shown. So let's say an agent is going to show five or six properties and they book all these appointments, and then you say something like, "Oh, well, I can't do it at 1:00. Can you come at 3:00?" Chances are in this type of a m- in a seller's market, you can get away with that, but in a buyer's market, chances are they're just gonna drop it and not see it. So I think access to the house is really important, so you have to be prepared to have showings at almost any time. And if you can't, if you absolutely can't, if there's certain times, have those, make sure it's in the listing when the house can't be shown so that agents can work around it as they're booking showings. I think that's, that's a b- really big one because people don't understand that. Or you have an open house booked on a Sunday at 2:00 and someone books an appointment at 11:00 and you say, "Well, just come to the open house." I would rather... I, I tell sellers, "I'd rather you tell me. I'll cancel the open house and have the showing if I can o- if it's only one or the other," because that's a showing that somebody's booked to come and see it. So I think access to the house is super important once it's on the market. I think you're right, but I think sometimes people don't think of the, the other people. They're not putting themselves in the buyer's shoes to say, "Okay, that agent has already coordinated with the buyer what times they can come and see the house." It's not like they wanna make it inconvenient for the seller. It's just that they're trying their best to, to make it convenient for both the buyer's agent and the buyer themselves. So I think sometimes we don't think about that when we're thinking about our own problems and whether we want them here at 2:30 or 3:00. And the other thing is they're often not just seeing your house. So the, the agent might have, you know, three or four listed or properties to show that day, and they've planned out a route, you know, so they're not going like this all over town. And you say no, and so you're right, Sandi. They just end up dropping it because it's, it's, it's just not gonna make sense. And often they're not gonna rebook it for another time. They're just gonna go on with things, right? And hopefully their, their goal, the buyer's goal that day going out, they're not going out for fun. They're going out to find the house, and so they're hoping that they're gonna find that house that day. And, and the other thing is I can't tell you how many times I've booked a last-minute showing. So I'm showing houses and the people tell me one certain thing, and we go out and we look, and then they're like, "No, no, no, we want this." And I'm like, "Well, that's not what you've been saying. But you know what? I just saw this house. Let's see if we can get into it. I think it'll be perfect for you." And you book that last-minute showing while you're out showing, and that's the house they buy. So like you said, you have to be flexible 'cause you just never know which which buyer it's gonna be. So what do, what do you think about how important is it to get it priced right, right at the beginning? Because sometimes people say, "I can always lower my price," or, "Everybody's going to negotiate." So I think overpricing is a big one. What are, what are your thoughts on that? I think it's a really big one, especially in today's market, because there's a lot of people out there and a lot of people that have been sitting waiting for maybe months, maybe years now to get into the market. So when you're putting your house on the market, and often basing on that on what other people are listed at and not what other people are selling at, I think that if your price is too high, you automatically are losing people right from the beginning. Doesn't matter how well your house shows, doesn't matter you know, how, how nice it smells, doesn't matter how nicely you've prepared it. If the price is too high, a lot of people aren't gonna come and look at it And I think we know as realtors that the first two weeks of a property being listed are the most impactful. The sellers are always looking at what's new on the market, as you said earlier, Sandy. They're waiting for something to come up. The agents are always wanting to go and see what's new on the market 'cause they've seen everything else, and they wanna see what's new as well. So it garners a lot of activity the first two weeks. If you're overpriced, what ends up happening is you get no showings or very few showings, and you're missing the boat. And then you say, you know, two weeks later, hopefully not more than two weeks later, you're gonna reduce the price. But the longer you wait, especially if it's a cl- declining market, you are following the market down. But even if it's a stable market and you've overpriced and now you're going to reduce the price, we know that one of the first questions that a buyer asks us is, "How long has the property been on the market?" The longer the property's been on the market, then they start making up reasons why it didn't sell, and often they'll say, like, "Okay, it's been on the market a month, and I really like this house, but nobody else likes this house. So what's wrong with it that I'm not seeing that everybody else is seeing? But I like the house, so okay, I'll put in an offer, but I'm gonna lowball it," not knowing that you've reduced the price, right? So when it's a new listing, they're like, "Oh my God, I just got into this house. It's only been on the market three days. I love it, and it's brand new, and somebody else is gonna love it too. So I'm gonna put that offer in, and I'm gonna make it a good offer 'cause I don't wanna lose it." So there are two different mindsets that the buyer has, and as a seller, obviously you want one where the seller's more all in to buying the house and who-- you know, in a position where they feel that they're gonna give you a bigger price 'cause they don't want to lose the house. So pricing is really important. Yeah. And you don't have to-- Th- there's this perception that you have to leave room to negotiate, and that's-- it, it's not true. You don't need to leave room to negotiate. You're better off pricing it right at where you think it will sell because buyers are looking at all these other houses, and they've kind of come up with an idea of what a house like in that type-- like that type of house will sell for. And if it's priced well, they might try you know, and they might come in lower. In most cases, they're willing to go up and pay the, the price that you're asking if it's priced properly. So I, I think that's a big misperception that you have to leave room to negotiate. And if you look at what the list to sale ratio is on the properties that actually sell, they are like 97 to 98%. So y- yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, even just on a, on a average thing. So there's not like, "Oh, I gotta, I'm-- put it way high 'cause they're gonna come really low." They're gonna see the value there. And as a seller, you want to be in control, and the only way that you're in control is if you're getting the activity. If you're getting the activity and you get an offer and you negotiate back and forth and it doesn't come to where you want it to be, you can more confidently say, "I'm gonna let it pass 'cause I got three more showings this week," as opposed to, "I'm gonna let it pass, but I haven't had a showing in weeks and I don't have anything else lined up." They're two different, you know two different perspectives that you're looking at. So as a seller, be in control, price it right, and it will pay off. Exactly. So let's in wrapping this up, let's do just before we go, what do you think one insight or thing that you would advise sellers right at the very beginning when they are now, they've gone through that process of, "Okay, yes, we are going to sell our house. Now we need to start taking steps to get it on the market." What is the one thing that you would say to sellers to do at this point? One of the great quotes this week in REM Magazine went something like, "It doesn't matter what the seller wants as far as price goes. It matters what the buyer can buy instead." And I think that that's the way we have to think of it when we put our houses on the market. We have to get it cleaned up. We have to get it decluttered. We have to make sure that it's freshly, nicely painted, and we don't overprice it. Those are the very sort-- That would be my four tips, making sure that you, you cover those things. I would say don't be overly emotionally attached to the process. There is a process, and we realize that it's your home and, you know, there is obviously an emotion with that. But the process of getting it ready, the process of allowing people through your home, the process of pricing, you can't say, "Well, I wanna price it at X because I need that money." It doesn't work that way. It's gotta be what the market's willing to bear. So try and take some of the emotion out of it and deal with it, you know in a way that's more Like a business transaction because you want to get... You want it to go through, you want it to be successful, and you want the outcome to be the best it possibly can be. And we're just as likely to feel that way as buyers do. On my very first home, the front door opened, I didn't even ne- need to step in. I just knew from when it opened, the feeling I got from what I could see right at the front door made me know I was gonna buy this house. So it's not just everyday buyers and sellers have been in the business for 38 years, and I still buy a house that way. The way it makes me feel is what's really important. Yeah. And I, I would say buyers are not necessarily looking for perfection in your house. They're looking for a house that has that, a feeling that when they walk in, it feels like home. And I think that's, that's really important. So the stark white, you know, doesn't give off that feeling. There are certain things that give off... Every house has a feeling, in my opinion. And so having that, you know, that feeling. Don't be stressed about the sale, that kind of stuff, 'cause it, it gives your house, it definitely gives your house a feeling. So I think that's, like, don't worry about it being perfect. Worry about it feeling like a loved home, and I think people will, buyers will feel that. And you're so true because I've seen where buyers have had a feeling the home is a little dated, but it's clean, it's well taken care of. It just has this home feeling. Maybe they're older people that were selling it. And, you know, everything was smooth 'cause it, you're right, it was just this feeling. You could tell that they loved the home. It was well-maintained and it's all good. We do have a checklist of the things to do to prepare your house for sale when you've got to that point, and it checks off all of those boxes. And we'll put it in the show notes, so if anybody is interested in getting that document, it'll be there for you. That's all part of the process. It's a great checklist. It starts from the outside in and covers a lot of what we've talked about and a little bit more. So yeah, I hope they find it helpful.