Top Tips to Sell Your Home This Season

Selling your home can be a stressful and daunting task, but with the right preparation, you can ensure that your home is ready to sell and fetch the best price possible. It’s a fabulous time to leverage the busy spring real estate market. If you’re not sure where to start, here are some helpful tips on how to prepare your home to sell:

 

1. Declutter and Clean

The first step in preparing your home for sale is to declutter and clean it thoroughly. Remove any unnecessary items and clutter to make your home look more spacious and inviting. We love donating items to the Ridgefield Thrift Shop and ReStore Danbury, both very worthy causes that support the community we live in. Thoroughly clean all surfaces, including floors, walls, and countertops. Consider hiring a professional cleaner if necessary. We’d be happy to recommend one if you need!

 

2. Repair and Upgrade

Fix any minor repairs or upgrades that need to be done, such as leaking faucets or broken doorknobs. If your home needs major repairs or upgrades, consider hiring a professional to handle the work. Upgrades can include painting, new light fixtures, or landscaping to improve curb appeal. It can be overwhelming to try to find a contractor or handyman who can do the work in a timely fashion. We have several companies we’ve developed excellent relationships with over the years and they take excellent care of our clients.

 

3. Depersonalize and Stage

Remove personal items like family photos, collectibles, and personal memorabilia from your home. This allows potential buyers to visualize themselves living in the space, which is so important. Consider staging your home with neutral decor and furniture to create a welcoming and cozy atmosphere. This is just one of the services that Compass Concierge is proud to offer, which makes the selling process run so much more smoothly for our clients.

 

4. Price Your Home Accurately

One of the most important steps in preparing your home for sale is pricing it accurately. Research the local real estate market and work with a real estate agent to determine a fair and competitive price for your home. For over 20 years, the Karla Murtaugh Homes mission has been to provide a superior experience for our clients both through the utilization of our team’s knowledge and skills and by adhering to the highest standard of integrity. We have the experience to get you the best price for your home.

 

5. Market Your Home Effectively

We will work closely with you to create an attractive and engaging listing for your home, including high-quality photos and a detailed description. We will leverage cutting-edge Compass technology and national network to market your home effectively to potential buyers through online listings, social media, and other advertising channels.

 

6. Be Flexible and Available

Plan to accommodate potential buyers’ schedules and be available for showings as needed.

 

Getting your home ready to sell requires some effort and planning, but the results are worth it. With a little groundwork, you can make your home more appealing to potential buyers and ensure a smooth and successful sale.

 

If you’re thinking about selling, connect with us today at karla.murtaugh@compass.com or 203-856-5534. Happy Selling Season!

Celebrating Mother’s Day in Ridgefield

Run Like a Mother is a national 5K race series that happens across the U.S. on Mother’s Day Weekend. The mission of Run Like a Mother is to encourage, inspire and nurture our minds and bodies through forward motion whether it is walking or running. Now in its fourteenth year, it’s been an honor to watch the incredible evolution of this event celebrating the incredible moms of our community. I’m a proud sponsor and hope to see you there! You can still register the day of the race. Check out all the details: https://runsignup.com/Race/CT/Ridgefield/RunLikeaMotherRidgefield

 

Looking for a lovely Mother’s Day brunch option? There are so many fabulous restaurants in our area! Here are our top seven favorites:

The Lantern in Ridgefield: https://thelanternrestaurant.com/

Red Rooster Pub in Ridgefield: https://www.redroosterct.com/ridgefield

Redding Roadhouse: https://www.thereddingroadhouse.com/

Oak and Almond in Norwalk: https://oakandalmond.com/

Terrain in Westport: https://www.shopterrain.com/pages/westport-restaurant

McKinney and Doyle in Pawling, NY: https://www.mckinneyanddoyle.com/

The Inn at Pound Ridge: https://www.theinnatpoundridge.com/

 

A Look Inside the Spring Real Estate Market

Q: Is it too late to jump into the spring market?

A: Definitely not.

My phone is ringing off the hook. We’re in a lot of discussions about listing homes in the coming weeks. Many people realize there’s no better time than now if they’re going to jump in. Prices are holding and in some segments, they’re increasing because supply and demand is still driving this market. We’ve had a number of homes that just launched last week, a number of which received multiple bids. This demonstrates that there are still really good qualified buyers out in the market. This isn’t just in Ridgefield, either. Based on my discussions with Compass agents throughout Fairfield and Westchester Counties, they’re experiencing the exact same situation.

 

Q: Why is there such low inventory?

A: The dynamic we’re experiencing is called an “inventory-starved market.” There are a few reasons why. No one expected the impact Covid would have on the real estate market. Right before that happened, there were a lot of people who were getting close to the point in life where they would have had to figure out their next chapter and where they would want to move. Obviously, the pandemic had a huge effect on that nationwide, not just in our area.

This took a lot of people by surprise, and accelerated their decision on what their next move would be. For example, retirement plans were definitely affected for a lot of people and when they decided it was time to make a move, they ran into the same problem many people had. “Where do I go? What is the plan?” Many people are having this experience nationwide where there isn’t a lot of inventory including in destinations where people go from Connecticut, both points north and south, so it’s hard for people to move to different parts of the country as well.

People who migrated from New York to Connecticut didn’t know how long they’d be here for when they arrived. A lot of people predicted that once things went back to normal post-pandemic, those people would turn around and go back to the city. But we’re not really seeing that in Ridgefield. People love it here! So those houses aren’t coming back on the market the way some people thought.