North Texas Real Estate Blog

As the North Texas real estate market sways in the post-millennium winds, how can you leverage your Southlake home ’s best features to sell quickly and move along to your new life?  I have a friend who put in fresh wall-to-wall pale-aqua colored carpeting and her home sold to the first person that walked through the door.  Another showed her home with an array of second-hand looking things scattered on the floor and her house is still for sale a year later.  What is the difference in these two approaches?  The first person’s home felt happy!  The second felt unkempt and also like it had a past. 

Southlake real estate, Keller real estate, and Grapevine real estate, or, for that matter, any of the lovely homes in North Texas subdivisions could use the happy accent.  Put in a few colorful posies out at the mailbox.  All eyes go to the posies and the posies say, Hi, I’m happy here! 

People want to feel good at home.  Sellers need to look hard (be objective) and remove the sentimental and distracting things around the home.  Within the past two weeks, I have attended two open houses in smaller 3/2 homes.  Both homes had elk trophies looming overhead in the living rooms.  The elks did not say, I’m happy here.  They gave a restricted feeling to those homes.

Another thing I notice as I go into homes is the amount of furniture.  Wall-to-wall furniture and wall decorations say, “Nothing else can fit in here.”  Many over-decorated homes are also poorly lit and have a contracting feeling.  Contrast that with a home shown with a few carefully chosen pictures (not 50!) and lots of “dancing” space around the furniture.  The feeling is moving, movement, easy, carefree, light, and airy.

What does your house feel like when you enter the front door?  Is there an obstacle?  Remove it.  Are there lots of knickknacks?  They are distracting and will stop the buyer from looking up and feeling the space of the home.  Pack up the little things.

Or, clear out everything.  Pack up and leave the rest to the buyer’s imagination.  No home staging, no frills, simply space, very clean space with well-maintained surfaces.  Wipe the slate!  And offer your buyer a clean white page of life. 

Now, add a small fountain and little very soft music.  Help your guests relax into imagining a new life in this home.