By Jeff Ostroth
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

When the time has come to sell your house, there are two things you must do in order to sell it quickly and at the best possible price in today’s market.

First, price your house correctly. If it’s priced too high for today’s market, it will sit. And the longer it lingers, the more you may ultimately need to cut its price just to rekindle some interest.

Second, make sure your house stands out from all the other houses out there. “Buying a house can be emotional,” says Karen Southwell, assistant manager of Coldwell Banker. “There’s nothing like a great first impression. Without it, people don’t come back.”

The best real estate agents will advise and help you in making your house as attractive as possible to house hunters. There are also firms that specialize in home staging, or setting up a home for sale.

Cedar Crest’s Home Staging Resource
People who have reserved a new apartment home at Cedar Crest can get this special help from RealCraft, LLC., located in nearby Bloomingdale, N.J.

“We chose RealCraft to be our partner in helping people to start enjoying our maintenance-free lifestyle soon as possible,” says Jessica Picinich, associate marketing director at Cedar Crest. “And we’ve negotiated a special rate for folks who have reserved at Cedar Crest.”

“As inexpensively as possible”
Home staging is not about making big improvements to a house, says RealCraft owner Jennifer Ellis, who has so far worked with about a dozen people who moved to Cedar Crest. “When you’re selling a house, it’s time to be making money, not spending it. So we try to do things as inexpensively as possible.”

The concept, she says, is to turn the home into a showcased product that will appeal to a large audience. “When a person has been in a house a very long time, it has its own character, but that may not be right in a selling situation. People get distracted, so you want the home to be streamlined.”