When you start thinking about selling, here are a few tips on how to get your house ready to sell. There are many strategies for being able to sell your house not only quickly, but also making sure you are getting the best offer. As with many these days, when you're short on time, you want to make sure that you are optimizing the time you have to prepare your current home so that you can focus on your next move!
When you get ready to sell your house, it can be both an emotional and physical journey. During our last moves, I remember having to be CONSTANTLY ready to show our home. That meant at any given time, our house would have to be show ready, which meant a lot of running around and cleaning.
Preparing the house for selling is just as important as telling your realtor to list it. Taking the following steps I share with you below will avoid some headaches as well as increase the probability that your will receive a great offer on your amazing home. I've partnered with HomeBay.com to share with you 23 practical ways on things to do to get your house in tip top shape.
Checklist for How to Get Your House Ready to Sell on the Market
Interior Checklist of Preparing Your House for the Real Estate Market
1. Create defined spaces for each room.
Potential homebuyers are wanting to visualize their own family in the home. If you have an open concept room, help them visualize what their rooms could be used for!
2. Depersonalize and neutralize your home.
Like the tip above, homebuyers are wanting to envision how their family's personality will look in their new home.
3. Fix things you didn't fix while living there.
All of us have a list of things that we wanted to fix while living there! This is a great time to fix it because you don't want the inspector to find it and cause negotiations to last longer.
4. Research the value of your home (and be realistic).
True home values can be found by taking a look at listings around your area with the same number of rooms, bathrooms and floor plan.
5. Paint the walls.
Painting the walls can provide a refreshed look that could be the thing that causes a buyer to feel like the home is move in ready.
6. DEEP clean your carpet.
This is crucial, especially if you have light colored carpet. Deep cleaning your carpet can refresh the "smell" in your house. Here's a very popular instant carpet spot remover that we've used, and you can see the amazing reviews as well.
7. Get a home stager.
Getting a home stager can help with making sure that each room in the home is SHOW ready.
8. Hire a cleaning service before showings start
Having your house cleaned will make it more likely to have potential buyers feel more comfortable in it.
9. Go Marie Kondo on your cabinets and drawers.
Keep all of your things behind cabinets and drawers CLEAN! I know, it's weird to think that buyers would be opening your drawers. But they want to see how much storage the built-ins have (and I don't blame them). To make your closet bigger, invest in these closet hangers that will allow your clothes to take up less space (check out the before and after here).
10. Store your junk in a storage unit.
All of us have clutter. Remove the clutter and store it away from the house (not in the garage). Biggest tip here is to make the potential buyer feel the space available in the home!
Exterior Checklist of Preparing Your House for the Real Estate Market
11. Increase your curb appeal
There are so many people that do drivebys before asking for a showing. Make sure you make a great first impression.
12. Paint the exterior
If you have paint chipping, please for the love of selling your home, get your home repainted. Having paint chip outside may make potential home buyers wonder what other types of maintenance may have gone neglected.
13. Get some fresh flowers in pots.
Fresh flowers on the front porch makes every space a little more cheery. I love white pots because they allow the flowers to stand out.
14. Refresh your doormats and planters.
Replace your faded doormat with a new, neutral doormat as well as replacing planters with fresh ones. Pro tip: do a dual layer, patterned buffalo check underneath with a neutral tone one on top.
15. Change out the exterior light fixtures.
Sometimes, changing the exterior light fixtures will bring some life back to your home. Investing less than $50 per light fixture may be worth it if you can sell your home faster!
17. Backyard Patio
If you have a backyard patio, please sweep and cleanup this area. As one of the most important areas for entertaining, help your potential home buyer see how they can have friends and family over.
Other Things to Do Before Preparing Your House for the Real Estate Market
16. Get selling timing right
If you are thinking about selling your home, I would recommend selling it in the spring when the buyers are looking. This is also when you have the biggest opportunity to get the most value out of your home.
17. Tour other homes and open houses
Touring other open houses and homes for sale may provide you ideas on what works in terms of staging and paint colors. Imagine if you were the buyer going in - this will help you provide perspective on your own home.
18. Professional real estate photographer
In this age of modern technology, everyone will be looking at your home online. Making sure you have top notch photos of your home is the BEST thing you can do!
19. YouTube Your Home
Go one step further and do a YouTube video of your home so buyers who are cold leads can become warmer leads into selling your home.
20. Review Listing Strategy
You can go with an individual real estate agent or HomeBay.com agents that will allow you to keep a larger portion of the sale of your home as compared to the traditional structure. They can also help you buy your next home as well! They offer a dedicated agent, pricing assistant, MLS access and so much more. HomeBay.com has a dedicated local agent that helps you remotely, saving you the hassle, time and money!
21. Pay for an Inspection Yourself
Experts like Home Bay recommends paying for an inspection yourself which can potentially save you thousands of dollars. You’ll know the exact condition of your home and be able to price it accordingly or make repairs to first to maximize the sale price. Having a pre-inspection report will also provide buyer confidence leading to a quicker sale.
I hope that this lists helps you if your are looking to list your house soon on the real estate market. I know it can be pretty stressful when you are trying to move, but even taking in a few of these steps will ensure that you get top dollar for your home quickly!
Final Thoughts
Selling a house can seem daunting, especially when you are trying to get the most value out of your home. I hope these tips help you in getting the most money you can for your next future home!
Would you have anything else you want to add to this list above?
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