HOME MERCHANDISING SYSTEM
Home Merchandising System brochure is one in a series that is available from GMAC Real Estate. Each brochure offers valuable information, tips and ideas that will help you effectively prepare your home to sell. To give your home a marketing edge, contact your local GMAC Real Estate Sales Professional.
When it is time to sell your home, you know there are things you should do to get it ready. But exactly what should you do? And where should you start?
There is only one real estate firm that can offer you more than two decades of family service heritage.
With GMAC Real Estate, you're assured of working with expertly trained real estate Sales Professionals.
Through our Home Merchandising System, you’ll also have access to other extensive resources – a library of magazine; best-selling books on remodeling, decorating, gardening and home maintenance; a “Merchandising Your Home” videotape that is a step-by-step, room-by-room guide that shows you which key areas to concentrate your efforts on, how to enhance your home’s perceived value, how to eliminate clutter; and much more.
- How can you enhance prospective buyers’ perceived value of your home – inside and out?
- What low-cost, high-return improvements will help you effectively merchandise your home?
- Why is curb appeal so important?
- What are some good home improvement investments?
- How can you decorate your home for sale?
- Why is landscaping important to the sale of your home?
We’ve done our homework. For more than two decades, GMAC Real Estate has been a leading authority for North American families, providing them with helpful ideas to turn ordinary houses into beautiful homes. Our Home Merchandising System™ combines that valuable information with the real estate expertise of GMAC Real Estate members to help you enhance the value of your home and make it stand out in the eyes of prospective buyers.
If you’re thinking about selling your home, the GMAC Real Estate Home Merchandising System can help you prepare your home so that it looks its very best and stands apart from others on the market. Since your home is in competition with comparable homes in the same price range, it’s important to merchandise your home before it’s marketed. It’s our experience that today’s sophisticated buyers look for homes that are clean, clutter-free and well maintained – well-merchandised homes that they can move into comfortably and as effortlessly as possible.
Put the GMAC Real Estate Home Merchandising System to work for you! You’ll discover low-cost, high-returns projects that can significantly improve the perceived value of your home. And with full-color “before and after” photographs, we’ll show you how you can effectively merchandise your home by spending a little or a lot – perhaps the best investment you’ll ever make.
Merchandising vs. marketing
Marketing includes all of the advertising and promotional tools that you and your GMAC Real Estate Service sales professional will use to attract prospective buyers to your home. Merchandising, on the other hand, refers to the preliminary work you do to get your house ready for sale so that it’s the most appealing prospective home buyers.
In other words, merchandising is an important pre-marketing step to preparing your home for sale. With it, we can help you enhance your home from the buyer’s perspective. And we’ll take advantage of your well merchandised home by implementing our proven Home Marketing System to help sell it quickly, easily and at the best possible price.
Look at your home as a buyer
As you prepare to sell your home, shift your perspective: Look at it with critical eye of a buyer. Only by looking at your home objectively can you see what prospective buyers see. And keep in mind that there is a difference in how you live in your home and how it should look when it’s for sale or being shown.
The first step toward merchandising your home is to put on your buyer’s hat and take an inspection tour-inside and out. Our complimentary Home Merchandising Analysis will help you and your GMAC Real Estate Sales professional look at your home from a buyers prospective- identifying any areas that may require minor repairs, general fix-ups or selective improvements. Contact your local GMAC Real Estate member today for your free Home Merchandising Analysis.
Merchandising your home
As you prepare your home to be shown to prospective buyers, you must look at your home through a buyer’s eyes. With our Home Merchandising System, your sales professional can help you spot the little things that buyers will notice – things they might otherwise use to try to negotiate a lower price. Ask your sales professional for brochures about how to merchandise your home. Here’s a sample:
- Unclutter all areas of your home to create an impression of spaciousness.
- Clean everything thoroughly. Ask a friend to help you assess your efforts – especially in sensitive areas such as odor removal.
- Neutralize your home by making any improvements in neutral colors that appeal to any decorating scheme. Your sales professional has helpful decorating information available – ask for tips from him or her.
In the yard
- Keep the lawn well-trimmed and edged. Keep shrubs and trees trimmed.
- Put away lawn equipment, toys, and other outdoor items. Stack firewood neatly.
- Repair and paint or stain fences.
- Check exterior surfaces. Make repairs, clean or paint as needed.
- Clean, paint and repair or realign gutters.
- Fix broken windows and screens, then wash.
- Wash down the exterior of the house, driveways and sidewalks. Fix holes in pavement.
- Check the roof and repair loose shingles or flashing.
- Make sure the entry light and doorbell work. Replace house numbers and welcome met as needed. Paint, stain or clean the door if needed.
- Brighten your landscaping with moveable, potted flowers.
In the home
- Discard all unused items to reduce clutter.
- Arrange clothes neatly in closets. Limit storage on the floor and overhead shelves.
- Leave kitchen countertops as clear as possible. Clean and organize cupboard interiors.
- Check walls for smudges, chipped paint and torn or loose wallpaper. Make repairs and paint surfaces in neutral colors.
- Clean and organize the basement, attic and garage.
- Launder window treatments and carpets. Replace worn, stained or smelly carpeting.
- Tighten loose doorknobs, switch plates, cabinets, drawer pulls and the like.
- Fix sticking doors and windows, and squeaking floors and steps.
- Fix leaky faucets, and remove water stains.
- Repair or clean caulking on tubs and sinks.
- Replace all lights with higher wattage bulbs and open all drapes.
- Arrange furniture to give an impression of spaciousness in each room.
Showing your home
Your sales professional will try to give you as much advance notice as possible for a showing, but always be ready to show your home.
- Ask your sales professional if you should have an open house, usually scheduled for a weekend afternoon.
- Consider hanging a lockbox on your door to allow licensed sales professionals to show your home when you’re not there.
- Take the name and number of all drop-in buyers and refer them to your sales professional.
When your home is to be shown
- Turn on all your lights, including the outside entrance, even during the daytime.
- Turn off the TV.
- Ask a friend to keep pets, especially during your open house.
- Put fresh flowers, your best towels, a nice tablecloth and other accessories.
- Try to leave when the sales professional brings a buyer over, so the buyer feels free to ask questions or to linger. If you stay, be polite but let the sales professional handle the questions.
