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Ready Set Sold with Bryan Vogt #11-04: Updated kitchens & bathrooms a must for top dollar

August 5, 2017


Bryan Vogt: Welcome back. This is Bryan Vogt with Ready Set Sold, where we talk about real estate and all things real estate, particularly about sellers, and getting top dollar and a fast sale.
I left you with what we we’re talking about, bathrooms and kitchens. I think most sellers, for the most part, understand how important getting these things done. Many sellers, especially we’re finding more and more sellers much more educated, and understanding before we even go into a house, that they’ve done these things. They’ve done the kitchens, they’ve changed some flooring, they’ve changed countertops, many times the sink, and also the faucet. All these things have been done, and many times just doing it even a year or so in advance, they’ve got to enjoy it, too, so it’s been a win-win situation.
However, however, not always, and in this situation, just to catch up from the [inaudible 00:01:03], in case you didn’t catch it in the very beginning, we’ve got two houses, one going for the many, and one going for the few. The one going for the few doesn’t mean that they don’t think that they’re wanting to go for the many. It doesn’t mean that they don’t want to get these people in here, but sometimes they just either have making a choice, or quite frankly, they don’t have the information to know what to do. That happens both times, too. It’s not always just because a seller is doing this, because they want to. They’re maybe not getting any direction from their agent, at least some information. Give them some guidelines, at least.
As a seller, it’s your right to do whatever you want, but information becomes so critical. If you don’t have this type of information, you don’t know what you don’t know. In the bathrooms and kitchens, for the many, there were some faucets, and really, they were pretty quick fixes. But they had looked at this, and they’d changed out some faucets in the bathroom, they’d changed the shower curtain out. They looked at their flooring, they changed that out. Relatively, yes, there was some expense, but again, they were able to do this and have some time to enjoy it, but it wasn’t near as expensive as what most people think.
Sometimes I think when people hear remodeling and changes, they think of taking things down to the studs. I’m not saying that never happens. That may be something that you want to do, or not want to do, but many times, it’s nothing like that at all. Again, flooring, sometimes just changing, in a bathroom, the faucets, again, the shower curtain. Making sure that those things are taken care of can be a very simple fix and not as expensive as what people think. The impact, though, that they have for buyers is tremendous, again, bathrooms, kitchens.
In this situation, the house that had the few knew that they meant to. It was one of those situations they meant to, but they thought they would wing it again. Thought they were decent shape, they worked fine. There was nothing wrong with that. They just weren’t that stylish in the bathroom, and their faucets, and even where the shower was. The flooring was good. It wasn’t that bad. It was good. They said, “What the heck? Let’s go ahead and just see what happens.”
The other that was going for the many and had this game plan lined up, as I mentioned before, they knew that they wanted to have these things done. And they knew the value of what people would want, what buyers would want. Again, you don’t have to be in real estate to know the kitchens and bathrooms do sell houses. Of course, you need the other things, too, but that is real huge. They had already gotten ahead of the game, and they had done some of that stuff. Some of the things, yes, they did wait before they was getting ready to put it on the market, that they did the flooring and things of that nature, because they wanted to make sure it was in the best shape as possible.
Kitchens, the house that went for the few, the countertop, yeah, it needed to be changed out, but it was okay. Again, okay, when you’re going for top dollar, remember, kitchens and bathrooms. They chose not to change it, and the sink, since the countertops didn’t have it, the sink and the faucets, again, they were okay. Yeah, they had a little long in the tooth, but they were completely functional.
And you know what? The buyers could change it out if they really, really wanted the house. Understand what you’re actually saying there. You’re actually saying that maybe you have to prove to me, as a buyer, that you really want my house, even though there could be 10, 15, 20 other houses in the area that match up well to your particular house. You can say that, but sometimes understanding that the average buyer looks at 10 houses, so if someone has made the upgrades and made the changes, similar to the one we talked about for the house that went for the many, guess what? More times than not, they’re going to win, and buyers are going to gladly want to pay the top dollar to get the house that has all these things already done. That’s huge, and it’s so huge.
Again, the bathrooms, and I mentioned that for the many, what you can do is just make those changes in the countertops, and the sink, and the flooring. All those things make such a huge, huge difference for people.
The last thing on that thing, too, is the kitchens in the many and the few, the few said, “You know what? Staging, yeah, do I really need to turn the lights on? Turning the air conditioning down, even though it’ll cost me a few bucks a day, maybe, even a month, I don’t know. Yeah, I can only kick that up. I want to keep the lights down. I want to save on my electric bills.”
Again, we’re talking about dollars, when we’re potentially looking at thousands of dollars in the sale of your home. They kept everything dark, turned up the air conditioning unit. They were going to work. Okay, that’s fine. The natural lighting wasn’t there. None of those things was there. When you walked into the house, quite frankly, from what the agent talked about, it was kind of dark. You actually had to look for a light, and especially on cloudy days.
The other one, they understood the importance of that first impression, the one to the many that had the great success. They did the exact opposite. They turned the thermostat down, which is huge. It really is huge. I can’t tell you how many buyers, when they walk into a home on a hot day or a cold day, either way, and the air conditioning is set at a higher level, the first thing out of their mouth is, “Is there something wrong with the air conditioning unit?” And that’s not what you want. Again, it’s a simple fix, may cost a few bucks.
What did they do on the many? They wanted to make sure that they had everything ready to go, and they had everything, every light turned on, they had everything as easy and accessible as possible. They told the agent, their agent, “Don’t turn off the lights,” a little tip there. Many times, sometimes the sellers say, “Turn off the lights.” Again, it breaks the flow. Now we’re trying to find out where the light switches are. Again, many times the agent’s never been in the house, pretty sure the buyers have never, ever been in the house, and sometimes the agents haven’t either.
Again, it takes the flow of it, and the last impression you want anyway is exactly the first impression that you had when they’re walking out the door. When we see that, we know right away that they’ve got a good house, and guess what? The agents will talk about that house, and they’re going to get their buyers in there. That also works in getting [inaudible 00:07:36] the many and the few. Again, it’s mindset. It’s getting the prep work, or maybe the work has already been done, and having a strategy, so that you can have fantastic success in the sale of your home.
The tip of the week is next, the $5,000 tip of the week.

You’re listening to Brian Vogt at Ready Set Sold.

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