If you were buying...

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

an existing home, what are the most important things you would look at?  I ask because we are preparing to put our house on the market even though we don't have anywhere to move to yet... what details are most important in an existing home? 

[MountainDon]

OOOps! I wrote this in the context of what I'd do if I were selling, not buying. It's still more or less the same details though.


Have a fresh set of eyes look it over. A prospective real estate agent with experience would be a good choice. If you're like many, (most?), there are things about your house that you are so used to you'll never really see the details, the faults. Faults? What in my house?!   

If you're doing the selling yourself, having an experienced realtor look it over and give opinions is still a good place to start. As long as you don't sign anything with them you have no obligation.

De-cluttering the space, inside and out is a very good thing to do. From past posts it seems you may be well along that road already. And the place has to be cleaner than clean. Those folks that do pre-sale home detailing could be a good resource as long as you don't mind paying them.

[MountainDon]

I'd read over some of the links on this page...
http://homebuying.about.com/od/sellingahouse/How_to_Sell_Your_House_for_the_Most_.htm

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Thanks, Don, for the useful link.  I think our house is one that people will come in and either love or hate.  The loud colors are great for me, but they may totally turn someone else off.  I am banking on some eccentric woman coming into the kitchen and falling illogically in love with it... insisting to her husband that she "has to have" that house with the adorable little cottage kitchen.  When we've had people over, we've gotten a lot of positive comments on it... one of the deacons from our church was here for a meeting one time, and I came in from the garden with the kids to find him wandering around with his mouth hanging open and checking out all the details from ceiling to floor and saying, "I just love your house... I really just love it."  This is from a man who lives in a huge and elegant home... it gives me hope of selling quickly, if the right people come look.  There is something charming about it... you can only see glimpses of the other rooms, which makes you wonder what's around each corner, and which is part of the reason I think we liked it.  Plus, it has a great view out the windows to the north... a park-like yard, a field, stream, and trains passing on the railroad, close enough to enjoy them but not so close that they shake things off the shelves.  We still have a lot of work that we want to get done, much of which will hopefully happen in the week or so following Thanksgiving.