One question that always comes up when I’m talking to potential sellers about marketing their house is; “Do you see anything we should do to the house?”

These sellers are usually referring to paint, carpet, landscaping, and other relatively minor fix up items.

The short answer to all these questions is: “Yes, you should, and as much as you can.”

knoxville homes for sale

A couple of years ago when the Knoxville area market was hot you could count on selling fairly quickly and often without doing very much if your house was in reasonably good condition to start with.

Not so in today’s Knoxville real estate market, you absolutely need to “Dress your home for success” on the sales market.

While Knoxville area homes are still selling well, there are lots more of them on the market, the time to sell has increased to 99 days as of October 2007, and buyers are taking longer to make a decision on which one to offer on.

No surprise there, buyers know with the current supply of homes, that the pressure to buy today is not as strong as it was in a hotter seller’s market.

With buyers more willing to wait for what they consider a deal, that means that sellers need to work harder and spend some time and money to make sure their house stands out from the crowd.

A surprising amount of things you can do to make sure your house shines like a new quarter can be done with very little or even no money. Here’s a short list from my website, http://www.knoxvillemls.com/selling.htm

“1. Be sure your lawn and shrubbery is kept trimmed at all times. Consider
removing overgrown trees and shrubs that  hide the house from the street.2. Keep the garage doors down at all times.
18. Wash all your windows and make sure window treatments are clean and in
good repair. Keep the window coverings open whenever possible to let in
more light.19. With a good degreaser, wipe down everything in the kitchen so it feels
clean to the touch. Clean your stove and oven; replace stove eye pans if needed.”

Visit www.KnoxvilleMLS.com to see the rest of the list of 40 free or inexpensive things to do to make your house sell faster and for more money.

You can also get a no cost, no obligation estimate of what your home could sell for at www.PropertyPricer.com