Prepping your home for sale sometimes makes you remember why you bought the home in the first place, you loved it’s wall-to-wall carpet, the open foyer and the built in barbeque. However, demands change frequently, and  your home’s unique charms may have not kept up with the times.  Instead of trying to play up the home’s features as unique, it’s best to revisit your homes features and perhaps revamp for the changing tastes.  Your goal as a seller is not to try to appeal to a particular buyer, but play the odds right and try to  see the home the overall market sees it.   You must compare it to demand overall, and one way to do this is to look at new construction.

Looking at new construction will show you what features current home buyers are looking for.  For a quick glance, the statistics of the National Association of Home Builders give a good insight into what consumers are looking for. Here are the current stats:

The features most likely to be included in a house built this year

1. Walk-in closet in master bedroom

2. Laundry room

3. Low-e windows

4. Great room (kitchen-family-room-living room

5. Energy-star-rated appliances

6. 9-foot ceiling or more on first floor

7. Energy-star-rated windows

8. Programmable thermostat

9. Two-car garage

10. Granite countertop in kitchen

Source: NAHB

Once you know the facts, you know what features of the home to play up (or tone down).  List these items in your marketing and if you want to add one of these to prep your home for sale, look to upgrading to one of these features.   A lot of these features have to do with the energy efficiency of a home.  If you have an energy efficient feature, make sure it is marketed.

What items not to focus on?  Here are a few items that may have been staples in the past, but are least likely to be in a new home and you probably shouldn’t spend too much investment in marketing or light remodeling:

The features least likely to be included in a house built this year:

1.Outdoor kitchen (cooking, refrigeration and sink)

2.Laminate countertops in kitchen

3. Outdoor fireplace

4. Sunroom

5. Two-story family room

6. Media room

7. Two-story foyer

8. Walking/jogging trails in community

9. Whirlpool in master bathroom

10. Carpeting as flooring on main level

Source: NAHB

This list also highlights the demand for energy efficiency.  Two story rooms are seen as inefficient.  However, the luxurious feeling of vertical space is still desired because builders are making higher ceilings on the main floor.

If it time to replace the carpet, opt for hardwoods or cost friendly laminates.  Hardwoods also look better in open floor plans than carpet which are more desirable than closed floor plans.  Even though they are more expensive, the cost will likely yield higher return on investment.

Luxury showers are much more sought than luxury baths, so bring your focus in renovating the shower before the tub.

If renovations are out of the question, consult a home stager like us at Plume.  As home stagers, we have to keep market trends in mind.  If the bathroom is the highlight of the home, with all the correct features, we show it off accordingly.  If the home has an open floor plan, our furniture arrangement is key and will really showcase how great and functional an open concept is.  Since closets and laundry rooms are important to buyers, Plume gives them staging attention as well.  We even went so far as to stage a garage with two cars to let the buyer know that the one door garage actually fits two cars!  It’s important for buyers to know all the important marketable facts at first glance!

-KK

-kk