Project Managing

Project Managing Your Home Sale Preparation

Project Managing your house sale requires experience. It sounds so simple, you want to sell your home, your investment property, or part of an Estate. Once upon a time it didn’t require the effort that it does today.

When we sold our home in Mt Dandenong, we decluttered, we finished minor jobs, and we employed an agent. Each Saturday we waited patiently for feedback. Often a scrawled note was left on the kitchen bench, and probably a follow up phone call during the week.  

Nowadays, there are industries around preparing your home for sale. 

Project Managing – What Does It Mean?

Project Managing, there are 5 Cs of Project Management—Complexity, Criticality, Compliance, Culture, and Compassion—guide how often to perform project tasks.

Put more simply, project managing your house sale is to plan, organise, and supervise a team to achieve specific goals within a set timeframe and budget.

Make a list of all the tasks required to complete your project, the time line of each, who is to do each task, and get it all done on time and on budget. Without this plan your list expands, and you may spend more money than intended. This higher budget may impact on your next home spend so it is important to know the outcome that you want. 

Where do you begin?

As with any project, there is a desired outcome and a time frame for completion. From your (the homeowner) involvement until an agent is selected. 

Working backwards is a skill in real estate. You want this and you will need therefore, to do this, this, and this. You want to move into your new house by Christmas and it’s October. Is that even possible?

• Is your home ready to go on the market?
• Have you already bought your next home?
• What impact will moving before Christmas have on family members?

Project Managing the components of the Sale

If you haven’t sold ever, or for a while, then getting the right steps in place, can be like a dance. Two steps forward, one step back, a quick dosie doe around your partner. Who will do what, what will you do, will you outsource or do it all yourselves?

Inevitably, a list is created, followed by list 2 – 35, and the list becomes infinite. Knowing what to do and what not to bother doing becomes an ongoing argument. Your real estate agent wants you to do EVERYTHING. If you do EVERYTHING, then your home becomes easier for them to sell. You may not make up the money you spend. For example, you spend $150,000 doesn’t mean you will recoup it all. It depends on your motivation and your budget. 

Investing time, and elbow grease should be a priority on your project management list. Do what you can do yourselves, and then what will cost you the least with maximum benefit.

I have never been an advocate of replacing kitchens. A kitchen is highly personal, colours are also personal. I don’t like grey even though it is currently trending. Therefore, if a house has grey bathrooms, kitchen, paint, tiles etc I am unlikely to even view it. Yes, I can change those things but a kitchen is a big ticket item and the seller will want to recoup as much as they can, and will add the costs onto their wanted selling price. Or, they will do it as cheaply as possible and you will want to take it out anyway.

Garden, and how does your house present from the street are high on the Project Management to do list.Why? These things can take longer to get to how you want them to be. Gardens don’t grow overnight (well, they do, but they can take time to get them presenting well). 

Decluttering, all those personal items, the overflowing book shelves, the long unused childrens toys, the chock a block cupboards, all need to be gone through, thrown out, Op Shopped, given away, or packed/displayed neatly. Personal items, expensive, and sentimental items should be packed and moved to somewhere safe throughout your marketing campaign. Better safe than sorry. 

Clean, elbow grease, do what you can to present a clean, tidy, and non-smelly home. If you are still living there with children, pets, and partners, then you will need to be practical, there is only so much you can do after all! Wash down walls, clean the windows, wipe skirts and arcs. 

If you decide not to paint, recarpet, replace kitchens, and bathrooms, then make sure the agents know when they view your home initially. Hopefully, they will price accordingly, and won’t start price slashing three weeks in because you didn’t do these things (even though you told them!).

Turnkey is favoured by Agents. Turnkey is you just turn the key, walk in, and start life in your new home. Achieving turnkey on an older home is expensive and time-consuming. Only you can decide on the extent you need to project manage. 

• Plan
• Organise
• Set specific goals
• Know your timeline and budget
• Get going – action makes it happen