Selling your home is a lot like applying for a job, if your cover letter and resume aren’t polished to perfection, you aren’t getting an interview. Keeping with the job application analogy, it’s not enough to be “acceptable,” you need perfection if you want to ensure that you’re noticed by the right people. Similarly, putting your home up for sale requires: (1) descriptions of the home you are trying to sell; (2) succinct and accurate information on your home, and (3) photographs of your home. Once the right people have noticed your application, or listing, it’s time for your interview. Just like you show up to your interview dressed to the nines, looking like the best possible version of yourself, you should stage your home to perfection for potential buyers. This article will discuss the major turn-offs to buyers, and what you can do to be noticed by the right people. At the Chernov Team, we have a proven track record of creating your home’s resume in a manner that will make it stand out among all other homes, increasing your chances of an “interview” (house showing) and a “job offer” (offer to purchase).
The Home’s Cover Letter Can’t Be Sub-Par
Describing your home in a few paragraphs is difficult, but not impossible; if you want that interview, you’re going to have to find a way to highlight all the great things about your home. If your home has a fantastic view, you want to highlight the view in your home’s description – that’s what sets your home apart. When dealing with online postings, it is important to remember that generally only the first few lines of text will appear from a web search, so it is imperative that you grab their attention beginning at the first sentence; avoid empty words or phrases like “located at the top of mount Who Cares, we bought our first dog with our first home; we named him Rusty.” While that information matter to you, everyone else will scroll right past your listing and you’ll never get that interview.
Keep Your Resume on Point
Like a resume, your listing is a snapshot of what you are trying to sell; there are likely a million things that made you fall in love with your home – not all of them need to be shared upfront. A picture of the family of quail in your backyard every spring (yes, this is autobiographical) is amazing, but probably isn’t going to convince someone to come view your house (you might be better served by showing your house in the middle of the day in the Spring and showing them the backyard, they’ll notice the bunnies and quail themselves. People looking to buy your home want to know what the home looks like more than anything else, the rest is just very valuable icing on the cake.
Don’t Take Amateur Headshots?
The job application analogy is getting a little difficult, but it’s almost over. If any old picture is worth a thousand words, then surely a professional picture is worth even more. We live in an era where everyone with a smartphone and a couple filters thinks they are a photographer, that’s an absurd concept. Professional photographers are professional (i.e., they get paid for it) because they are better than everyone else; they have beaten out the aforementioned smart-phone having, filter-using millennial in the competitive photography market (free market is good sometimes). The qualitative difference between a selfie with your smartphone and a professionally staged photograph is night and day, and so are the results. Do yourself a favor, and don’t skimp on the cost of a professional photographer. Sure, you saved a thousand dollars, but you also lost several thousand dollars because nobody wants to buy your home.
You Got the Interview, Don’t Muck it Up
Now we’re at the interview stage. I’m sure we have all either personally experienced, or heard a story about, someone showing up for an interview looking all wrong for the job: shorts and flip-flops to an interview at a law office for example. We laugh at how ridiculous it is to be that boneheaded in an interview setting but forget that not staging your home for showings is the functional equivalent; “this is the best they/it can look?” Intuitively, we all understand that the interview is where you put your best foot forward. Don’t be that person with shorts and flip-flops in an interview.
At the Chernov Team, we consider ourselves your headhunters. We will polish your home’s resume and cover letter, we will make sure your headshot is perfect, and we’ll even dress you for your interview. In addition to that, we actively send out your resume, cover letter, and headshots to potential buyers in order to get your home that all important interview. At the Chernov Team we know what buyers are looking for in Studio City, Sherman Oaks, and Encino, and we can put you in the best position to sell your home. Whoever comes to the table most prepared leaves with the most, and the Chernov Team always leaves with the most.