I’m sure you have heard the term “curb appeal” but have anyone ever spoke to you about “couch appeal”? That’s right, couch appeal. In the past everyone was worried about how their house looked when a potential buyer drove past but now with the internet it is “couch appeal” which matters most. Don’t get me wrong, it is always important to have great curb appeal but now with 78% of the potential buyers going to the internet first, couch appeal is more important. Gone are the days where buyers are looking at 30 homes over the weekend. Now buyers have the ability to view multiple photos or take a visual tour of any potential home right from the comfort of their own home. This has helped buyers reduce the number of homes which would be a “waste of time” to see based on floor plan, street view or style. This has also helped home sellers reduce the number of unwanted traffic through their home. Buyers and Sellers are limited in the amount of spare time they on weekends and evenings so minimizing the number of prospects who might never have wanted to see the home had they known something via photos or visual tour.

When getting your home ready for sale in a buyer’s market keep in mind that the competition is tough. You have to really step it up when it comes to the “couch appeal”. Gone is the day that buyers will walk in and say “we can fix this or that” because now they drive down the street to the plethora of homes on the market and say “well we don’t have to fix this or change that”. The basic idea when it comes to “couch appeal” is keep it sweat and simple. Remove the extra end tables in the living room, or the oversize ottoman in the family room. Clean off the counter tops, dressers, refrigerators, tables and that favorite place you put the mail when you come home from work. Moving furniture around in a room may make it appear larger than it is or taking a few pictures off the wall will give the impression the rooms are larger. Paint those rooms which haven’t been painted in 10 years which still have the kid’s growth chart marks on the wall. Keep in mind that what ever you do will help and this is a temporary situation, after the house is sold you can go back to living comfortably and not worry about traffic flow.

Don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions about how or why it is important to do certain things to prepare your home.

Best of luck and good selling.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 1st, 2007 at 2:29 pm and is filed under Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.