Smart Moves

Every real estate agent has stories about late-night calls from clients who "just can't take it anymore." They're stressed out by the constant need to keep their property in showcase condition until it sells. That means not a single toy on the floor, dish in the sink or wrinkle on a bedroom comforter.

"Even sellers who aren't really slobs can go nuts from all that pressure for perfection," says Tom Early, a veteran real estate broker.

The longer the selling time, he says, the more stress on those who live in the home.

"After a month of showings, the strain really builds up for families with kids," says Early, a past president of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (www.naeba.org).

But he says sellers should strongly resist the urge to let go of upkeep during the showing period.

"Inevitably, the day you let down your guard is the day when serious prospects come through. You never want them to see your dirty boxers on the bedroom floor," Early says.

Here are a few suggestions for sellers:

-- Start your listing with your place in clutter-free condition.

Vicki Norris, a professional organizer and former real estate agent, knows how hard it can be to keep a home in showing shape. This is particularly difficult when the place must be sold for a compelling financial or health issue.

"This can lead to what I call 'situational disorganization,' which occurs when life takes you off track," says Norris, who heads her own consulting firm, Restoring Order (www.restoringorder.com).

Norris urges sellers to thoroughly de-clutter before heading into the market. That means sorting through all your superfluous belongings and removing those items you can do without until your move. It also means consolidating your remaining possessions.

"For example, collect all those CDs and DVDs lying around the house and put them in single well-defined entertainment area. Then do the same for your books, toys and other like items," says Norris, author of "Reclaim Your Life and Get Organized for Good."

To expedite the de-cluttering process, you may wish to turn to a professional organizer, who is likely to prove less judgmental than the friends and family members willing to volunteer. One source for referrals is the National Association of Professional Organizers (www.napo.net).

-- Stash excess belongings in a rented storage unit.

Sid Davis, a real estate broker and author of "A Survival Guide to Selling a Home," tells the true story of a retired schoolteacher in her 60s who wanted to sell her large, two-story family house. But he cautioned her that her house wouldn't be marketable until she removed the lifetime of accumulations that crowded her living and dining rooms.

One approach is to pack your collections in cardboard boxes, stacking these neatly in your garage. Yet as Davis says, many sellers are better off carting those boxes, along with excess furniture, to a rented storage unit.

"Lots of buyers now view a garage as a room they could decorate and convert to added living space. But storing a lot of stuff in there makes the garage looked cramped," he says. Moreover, there are other advantages to off-site storage.

"You're far less likely to be tempted to retrieve items -- like that gourmet waffle iron you hanker for on Sunday mornings -- if they're kept in off-site storage rather than in your garage," Davis says.

-- Invest in high-quality cleaning services.

Are you a home seller who's admittedly oblivious to cobwebs and dust balls, yet who knows the importance of presenting a property in a clean condition? If so, you may wish to invest in what Davis terms a "super-duper cleaning."

Though it could cost a few hundred dollars, one in-depth cleaning could spare you the need to repeat the process for another 60 to 90 days, though light cleaning, as Davis stresses, must be tended to on a daily basis.

-- Hold a family meeting to discuss upkeep issues.

After a home has been on the market for several weeks, its owners sometimes lose focus. Unwashed clothes are left in the laundry room, junk mail stacks up on kitchen counters and sneakers remain on the floor in front of the TV.

"As the days pass, it's natural to start losing your vigilance. Nobody wants to live very long in that 'camping out' mentality," Davis says.

Children especially need to be reminded of the reasons a home must be kept clean and orderly. One way to drive home this point is for all in the household to take part in a family meeting designed to refocus on their goal.

"Tell the kids you understand that it's annoying to be constantly reminded to stay tidy. But try to get their cooperation by asking for their ideas on how to keep the house straightened up," Davis says.

Although he says children under 12 are often willing to cooperate, Davis says teenagers can be extremely resistant, especially if they don't want to move.

"Sometimes I have to tell sellers to put a note on the door of a teenager's room to say it's off-limits to visitors and explaining why. Amazingly, a lot of buyers are OK with that, especially if they have teens of their own," he says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

James Hughes is one of a cohort of Americans who still loves owning a large plot of land, no matter how long a commute it imposes. He lives on a 13-acre parcel a full hour's drive from his office.

"Some people just like the sanctuary feel of lots of land," says Hughes, a real estate expert and dean at Rutgers University.

Hughes has no intention of selling his place anytime soon. But if he did, he believes he'd face considerable difficulty finding buyers who value living on a big, high-maintenance property as much as he does.

"Country settings have lost their allure for a lot of older people. They want to live where they can walk to restaurants, movie theaters and museums. They don't want to be trapped in an auto-dependent area," Hughes says.

But just as the sellers of remotely located properties and their listing agents often find it problematic to locate buyers, so do those who own a house in a city setting with only a postage stamp-sized lot or smaller.

The reality is that many current homebuyers want the best of both worlds -- the convenience of in-town living along with a patch of ground they can call their own. This makes it tough for sellers on both ends of the land-size spectrum.

Here are a few pointers:

-- Stress the best features of a city property with a tiny yard.

Maybe both the interior and exterior of your property are diminutive in size. Even so, your place could still be very saleable due to its urban setting.

Does your city home offer easy commuting access to major employment centers? Are neighborhood schools close enough that children can walk? Also, are popular shopping venues just a short distance away? If so, you and your listing agent should talk up these advantages in your marketing materials.

As Hughes says, one way to help potential buyers appreciate your location is to create a colorful map that puts your home in context with neighborhood amenities. This could be placed on an easel on display in your dining room.

You may also want to exhibit photos showing nearby parks and biking trails, which are increasingly important to fitness-minded homebuyers, as well as to those with small children.

"In city parks, there are now more and more jogging strollers in use," Hughes says.

-- Highlight your interior space if your city lot is tiny.

Mark Nash, a longtime real estate broker and author of "1001 Tips for Buying & Selling a Home," says a "surprising number of family buyers can be persuaded to accept the trade-off of a very small lot if the house is loaded with bells and whistles inside." A large kitchen that flows into a high-ceilinged family room would be one such plus.

Another big draw is lots of storage space, he says, "so if you have great walk-in closets and huge kitchen cabinets, don't keep all that a secret."

-- Market your country home through a "broker's open."

Perhaps your property is surrounded by several acres of land in a bucolic area with flowering gardens, yet it's located far enough outside the city that it's hard to draw prospects to your distant location.

If that's the case, Nash recommends you ask your listing agent to stage one or more "brokers' opens" at the place. These are open houses to which real estate agents throughout the general area are invited. They typically feature food, entertainment or both.

"If your place looks gorgeous and gets exposed to many agents, they'll spread the word and bring interested clients by," Nash says.

-- Tout highway access to the country house you're selling.

The cost of gas isn't the only factor that discourages many buyers from considering a property in a country location. It's also the time a long commute can absorb.

"Dual-career couples are more time-stretched than ever. They don't want to get stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic when they could get back and forth to work a lot faster," Nash says.

But as any long-distance truck driver will tell you, not all roadways are created equal. If your property has easy access to a major highway that's not traffic-ridden, then Nash says you should make sure potential buyers know this.

"You'll never attract hard-core urbanites to a rural location. But you can ease the minds of country dreamers who would consider your place," he says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

Fewer Americans now seek a "show-off" house than a few years ago, real estate market observers say. That means oversized houses are less popular than in the past, in large measure due to cost.

"Middle-class people are far more price-aware, and that's led to a strong pushback against McMansions," says Karen Rittenhouse, a realty firm owner and author of "The Essential Handbook for Buying a Home."

Through her company, Rittenhouse stakes out and buys eight to 10 houses each month. These are soon remodeled and then typically occupied by young families. The business gives her a keen awareness of what people want in a property.

"Buyers are more realistic now," says Stephen Melman, who oversees buyer surveys for the National Association of Home Builders (www.nahb.org).

John Rygiol, a real estate broker since 1971, says it's wise for all buyers to define their search criteria thoughtfully rather than simply visiting an indefinite number of properties.

"The goal is to find a house that excites you. By first creating a short list of houses to visit, you should get to that goal faster," says Rygiol, who's affiliated with the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (www.naeba.org).

Here are a few pointers for buyers:

-- Use price per square foot as a general guide.

Although mega-sized houses have lost their luster for many buyers, Rygiol says square footage remains a useful metric to judge value when comparing properties.

Rygiol says his home-buying clients are often surprised to find that a large house will often sell for less per square foot than will a smaller place in the same neighborhood on a same-sized lot.

"In popular locations, land costs are rising, which makes lot size an important factor influencing sales price. The lot around a house is the one thing you can't change or replace," he says.

If for any reason the square footage of a home you like isn't shown its listing, Rygiol suggests you check the local property tax assessor's website.

-- Count bathrooms before deciding which homes to visit.

In decades past, it wasn't uncommon for several people in a family to share the use of a bathroom. People simply waited their turn to take their daily bath or shower. But these days, many buyers have lost patience with this waiting game.

Granted, homes in older neighborhoods are likely to have fewer bathrooms than those in recently built subdivisions. But wherever you're looking, he says it's smart to favor homes with multiple bathrooms.

"Even if you personally don't mind sharing, the house you buy will hold its value longer if it has more bathrooms," Rygiol says.

-- Take an aerial view of properties that interest you.

The task of screening homes is much easier for the current generation of buyers than for their parents. That's due to Google Maps, an online tool that lets you pinpoint properties by simply typing in an address.

"This aerial view lets you rule out a house that backs up to something unpleasant,like an industrial park, a busy street, a discount store or an apartment complex," Rygiol says.

What about living across the street from a school? For most buyers, he recommends against it, because "schools generate a lot of traffic from parents dropping off and picking up their children."

You can further narrow your search if you drive by available homes in an area that interests you. That can help you preview homes for exterior appeal, another critical factor in helping you decide which homes to visit.

-- Look for a place with "good bones."

There's lots of hidden value in a house that's well designed and structurally sound. As architects say, such a property has "good bones."

Perceptive buyers can readily sort through available homes to find those with good bones, says Rittenhouse. These properties typically give buyers more for their money than do homes that are superficially appealing but have fundamental issues.

"It doesn't cost much to repaint a room or replace carpet. But the owners of homes with serious issues, like structural flaws, can spend huge sums to remedy those problems," she says.

-- Make lifestyle a primary consideration.

Before the recession, Rittenhouse says some house hunters, particularly those in the trade-up market, allowed ego to determine what they bought. But she says your lifestyle should be a more important selection factor.

"It's silly to buy the showiest house in the neighborhood just to impress other people. You're the one who will live there," she says.

When visiting homes, she encourages buyers to trust their instincts. Upon passing through the front door, the place should give you a feeling of harmony. The rooms and major features, including window sizes, should be in proportion.

Notice especially the layout of any home you're visiting because the floor plan can be influential element in your lifestyle.

For example, an empty-nest couple that often has dinner parties will likely want a formal dining room. But a family with young children will probably make better use of a large family room that flows into a country-sized kitchen.

"You've got to go by your own personal needs," Rittenhouse says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)