How much do you really need to do to prepare your home for market?
By Patricia Nugent
It’s a super competitive sellers’ market and homes are being snapped up quickly. Whether you’re downsizing or upsizing, it’s tricky to know how much—or how little—you might need to do to your home to ensure a fast and profitable sale.
For the past 21 years, Jennifer Herron-Underwood, of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, has honed her craft as a top-producing real estate agent. She’s helped hundreds of sellers take their home to market and they’ve put their trust in her knowledge and expertise.
Here are just a few stories from past clients.
Ray E. of Grafton admits he was a “novice home seller” when he reached out to Jennifer last summer.
“We needed to sell a home we owned that renters had been in and there was a lot of damage to fix,” he says. “Jennifer was highly effective and seasoned. She knew exactly what to do. It was a relief to me, as I was thinking we’d need to do major work like renovate the kitchen. She only had us fix the cupboards and repaint. She gave us super helpful guidelines and I feel that maximized our dollars.”
In the end, her suggestions paid off, the house sold in less than 20 days and for more than Ray and his wife had hoped for.
For Shirley Z. of Elyria, the decision to move from a condo to another condo of about the same size two miles away last October was due to association restrictions.
“I couldn’t even put a sign in my yard or have a birdfeeder,” says Shirley, who is in her 80s. “Jennifer made every step of the process easier for us. She worked immensely hard and was compassionate and trustworthy, working from the heart. We felt at ease with her knowledge and expertise.”
Shirley reports they did less than they thought they had to, and the home sold the first weekend they put it on the market. She and her husband moved to the new place and are enjoying not one, but two beautiful birdfeeders in their yard.
Thinking Outside the Box
Even though interest rates are starting to tick up, that isn’t slowing down the number of buyers looking for homes.
“I’m writing offers on homes that are from $13,000 to $17,000 over asking price,” says Jennifer. “When working with buyers, I come up with different strategies to make their offer stand out. For instance, now buyers are starting to offer to pay part of the sellers’ closing costs.”
When to Downsize?
To best suit the needs of homeowners in her community, in 2018 Jennifer went through training by the National Association of Realtors to become a Senior Real Estate Specialist in the area of downsizing. Now she gives helpful talks in the community about it.
“There are a multitude of emotional and financial considerations involved in this complicated life decision,” she explains. “Thanks to my training, I’m uniquely qualified to help people decide if they should stay in their current home or find a more suitable one.”
She says that she is backed by a team of resource people who can handle everything from decluttering to financial planning and the move itself.
“I realize that no matter what a homeowner’s situation, moving can be overwhelming. I try to streamline the process by taking away the complexities and unknowns that can cause stress,” she says.
Jennifer Herron-Underwood works at the Howard Hanna Real Estate Services Offices at 2055 Crocker Road, Suite 101, in Westlake. She specializes in helping people downsize their homes and sells homes in Cuyahoga, Lorain and Medina counties. Jennifer is ranked in the top 5% of Realtors nationally. Call her at 440-371-2862 or visit HowardHanna.com or Downsizing411.com for more information and a list of upcoming virtual seminars and workshops.