These tips for preparing your home for the market require a little effort, but will produce a great reward.
You’ve decided to sell your home. Congratulations! Now it’s time to prepare it for the market. But what does that process entail?
Before your preparation is underway, you’ll need to view the home from a fresh perspective. Soon, it’ll be a product on the market, so it’s time to start thinking like a buyer.
First, clean up the clutter. You want to showcase how wonderful your home is, and that’s hard to do if you’ve got junk scattered around. Decluttering will not only help you sell your home, but it will allow you to sort through and get rid of sundry items you won’t want to take with you when you move.
Next, let in natural light. Opening up blinds and curtains will brighten your home and help it show in its very best light. Additionally, it’s a good idea to have extra lightbulbs on hand. This will be enormously helpful if a lightbulb happens to go on the day of a showing
It’s critically important to deep clean your home as well. Inspect your ceilings and furnace vents for cobwebs or dust and clean your rugs along with the areas underneath your furniture.
We all have a to-do list of small repair items that we’ve said we’ll get around to eventually. Now’s the time to make as many minor fixes as you can, and then call a handyman to take care of the rest. Handle these issues early on, so they don’t show up in a future inspection report, which will eat into your home sale profits or could even derail the deal.
“It’s time to start thinking like a buyer.”
Also, take a good look at your walls. Are there any chips, scuffs, or cracks in your paint? Maybe you took down some artwork you had hanging up and discovered that the paint looks a bit faded. Use touch-up paint to cover up little flaws or faded spots on your walls.
It’ll take a little extra work, but, if necessary, apply a fresh coat to rooms that need it most. Your accent walls, for example, may have been in style 10 years ago, but they aren’t likely to have the same appeal to today’s buyers. That doesn’t mean your entire house has to be painted off-white, but more neutral options will help with first impressions.
A primary focus of your market preparation should be to freshen up your curb appeal. Buyers’ first exposure to your home will be online. Then if they’re interested, the second thing they’ll see is your front yard when they pull up to your curb. That’s why it’s so important to make sure your landscaping looks impeccable, your grass is trimmed, and there’s not a weed in sight.
How can you really impress buyers? Stage the home. Whether you’d like to bring in a professional or do it on your own, staging will go a long way in helping you land a buyer.
Lastly, make an effort to depersonalize the home. I know I’ve said it, but it bears repeating: The home isn’t yours anymore—it’s a product you’re trying to extract the most value out of. With that in mind, you want buyers to imagine themselves living in your home.
If you have any questions about what it takes to get your home in market-ready shape or you’d like our assistance with the details, please give us a call today. We’ll talk to you soon!
