If you have placed your property on the market for sale, this can be a bit exciting, but at the same time, it can also be full of anxiety.

You may be excited because of the journey you are about to take with the selling of this house, but anxious because you do not want the house to be on the market for too long. Yes, you want to get it into the hands of someone as quickly as possible.

Well, there are several things you can do that will be beneficial in getting your property into the hands of someone else and at the right price.

Clear House

When someone is doing a walk-through of the estate, although it is a good idea to place furniture in certain positions, so that the rooms will look attractive to the potential buyer, most, if not all, of the other things should be removed.

Yes, remove as much items as you can and in fact, leave only the things you will be selling with the property.

This will give the shopper the opportunity the see the “empty” beauty of the place and therefore visualise their items in it.

Put Into Storage

If you do not have anywhere to store the items you would like to remove from the house, you can consider putting them into storage. Not only can this be an additional encouragement for you to remove some of the things from the selling location, but you will also have somewhere to put them and that without hassle.

Shampoo Carpets

If the home is carpeted and especially if you have pets, hire someone to shampoo it for you. This would not only help to take away visible and invisible stains, but it will help to make them look more attractive, but it will also help to freshen up the surroundings.

If you cannot hire someone, you can purchase a steam vac and do it yourself.

Change Lighting Fixtures

Change the light fixtures that are outdated and replace them with ones that are more modern. Do this for both outside and inside and especially if you are leaving them for the next owner.

If the fixtures are beautiful and, or modern, simply brush the cobwebs and dust away.

Clean House

This may seem like common sense, but stranger things are known to have happened and that is, clean the property before allowing potential buyers to have a walk-through. Do not leave the sink with dirty dishes, the laundry with clothing and the basement with items lying around.

The personal journey in the unabashed pursuit of market leadership can be among your most exciting lifetime experiences. If you, indeed, have a proclivity for luxury real estate marketing you can reignite your career by applying the most powerful principle from the bestselling business book, Good to Great, by Jim Collins. That principle is known as the “Hedgehog Concept”.

The hedgehog concept was derived from a fable about a fox and hedgehog and illustrates the strategic difference between the two. Foxes are dispersed strategists. They will try any strategy that they believe will give them the immediate competitive edge. But, these strategies will not yield sustainable results. Hedgehogs are focused strategists. They fend off predators (think competitors) by rolling up into a ball which fully exposes their sharp quills or spines.

In business, hedgehogs have identified their winning strategy and their authentic brand identity. And, they stick to it with unwavering consistency.

Here is the competitive advantage that hedgehogs have over foxes:

1. Hedgehogs identify a market niche or an approach to marketing that they can master and be better at it than anyone else in their marketplace. They feel like they simply have the natural talent to be the best at this. To hedgehogs, it feels like this is what they were born to do.

2. Hedgehogs select something that they are passionate about. They love what they do and feel lucky that they also get very well paid to do it.

3. Hedgehogs are not predators. They mind their own business. While your competition is constantly hatching new plans to out-fox you, your hedgehog strategy renders your competition irrelevant.

In our strategic branding and marketing consulting practice we help our clients to identify their hedgehog strategy. We help them to bring their authentic personal brand identity into full focus. And, we coach them to stay in focus, by minding their own business when they execute their hedgehog strategy. Although, we call this journey the unabashed pursuit of market leadership, the real prize is the inner certainty that comes from knowing who they really are and from living a life of passion.

It is this inner certainty and the focus of the hedgehog that consistently attracts an abundance of ideal clients. This is one of the most important marketing principals of all time. It is what separates the good from the great!

Ron and Alexandra Seigel are the managing partners of Napa Consultants, International the leading luxury real estate marketing firm, specializing in web design, personal branding, and company branding. Gain the competitive edge in your luxury real estate marketplace. Visit our highly acclaimed blog, the Language of Luxury. “Get Fluent. Get Affluent!” Learn more about gaining and sustaining market leadership at http://www.NapaConsultants.com.

Chicago is among the most diverse cities in the United States. It is also one of the fastest growing cities and a very exciting place to live. You can live in downtown Chicago or in a quiet suburb. Everybody knows that Chicago housing market is very hard to navigate.