By Cyrus Vaghar, Guest Contributor
The Newton, Massachusetts real estate market has been hot for the past few years. While some expected demand to soften due to the COVID-19 pandemic, interest has only grown. The appeal of suburbs like Newton comes down to basic human nature: People want space and privacy, but also nearby social entertainment and a welcoming community. Newton, a city just five miles west of Boston, checks all of those boxes.
When selling your home in Newton, it is imperative that you prepare early so that the eventual purchase price of our home is maximized. Below are four tips to help as you get ready to sell your home:
1. Less Furniture Is Better
Many homeowners hope to cover every base and show off every possible use of their rooms. For example, this might include setting up a children’s play area, coupled with a large TV and two oversized couches, all in the same room. While this might accomplish the sellers’ goal of showcasing every use of the area, the room becomes a Jack of all trades, and a master of none.
Above all, having a distinct flow is important in all homes. In other words, buyers should feel there is a defined path when walking from room to room. If they have to step over furniture and kids’ toys, they will spend more time looking down at their next step, and less on how beautiful the home is. Staging a house is often ironic—less furniture produces a better result.
2. Check Your Open Permits on NewtonMA.gov
Few sellers are told to look into their open permits with the City of Newton Inspectional Services. Whether you are in West Newton, Newton Centre, Auburndale, Newtonville or Newton Corner, or any other Newton village; whenever a permit is pulled for work on your home, it needs to be closed at the completion of renovations. Although oftentimes contractors do close out the permit they opened, sometimes they neglect to do so.
A simple phone call may be all that is needed to close an open permit, but waiting until the last minute can cause a myriad of problems. Simply put, do not wait for a bank appraiser or buyer’s attorney to alert you to an open permit a week before closing.
Check your open permits here. Type in your address and see if any of the permits are marked as “open.”
3. Carefully Review Offline MLS Information
Your agent will more than likely (and should) provide you with an offline MLS listing sheet of your property. This information is essentially the real estate equivalent of a features sheet of a new car: It contains photos, room descriptions, remarks, showing instructions and much more information about your home.
Many people are unaware that this data is fed to hundreds of websites, such as Zillow and Trulia. If there is misinformation, such as listing three bedrooms when there are four, the effects can be compounded when it is passed through to other platforms. Therefore, it is imperative that the information is correct.
4. Present Your House at its Best Through Professional Photography
Speaking of your listing, one of the biggest mistakes you can make as a seller is not hiring a professional photographer to take photos of your home. Some agents will simply use their iPhone to take a few photos of the interior of the house, which is not recommended. If photos do not look enticing, it may turn a buyer off from coming to looking at your property. Make sure you ask your agent about professional photography that shows your home off at its best with good lightning and staging!
