In this post I am going to cover 10 different tips on how to make sure that your home is ready to sell. I have seen all of these work in amazing ways and I have even seen them help get offers on homes that weren’t selling.
- Deep Clean- Buyers are looking for their needs to be met in their future home and if your house isn’t clean, your house is going to go to the bottom of the list in homes that strike their interest. The cleaner the house is the more likely you are to get multiple offers and sell it for more money.
- De-clutter-The more stuff you have in the house the more crowded it feels. A buyer coming in to your house has probably already outgrown the space that they are in and are searching for a bigger space. If your house is full with a lot of stuff, they are going to see your house as something too small. Buyers are very visual and are trying to imaging themselves with their stuff in your house, so make sure that you make room and de-clutter. A simple rule is that you want 3 things per room, and beyond that you want everything packed away. This shouldn’t be too hard because you are moving anyways.
- De-personalize- Take anything personal off the walls such as family photos, anything religious, or anything that would draw someone’s opinion out. The goal is to be as neutral as possible, because you want to take away anything that would distract them from the house.
- New Carpet- New carpet is one of those things that buyers think is really expensive, so they see a house that might need new carpet and they automatically cross it off their list because it seems like a task that is too costly. You can actually get carpet at a pretty affordable price and should be something considered when you are selling.
- New Paint- A fresh coat of paint can make a huge difference, and I don’t mean on the outside I mean on the inside. Fresh paint just smells good, and it shows better overall.
- Staging- I always tell my clients how you live in your house is not how you sell your house. You want good furniture that showcases the values in your house. Do you have an over sized pantry? If you do, you want your pantry half empty so it showcases the size and appears bigger. Do you have a walk in closet when everyone else on the street doesn’t? Staging really increases the exposure of the show worthy features of your house so that buyers can get the feel for the value of your home.
- Curb Appeal- The curb appeal of your home will be the first impression for your buyers. You want your lawn to be looking nice with a fresh mow, weeds pulled, flower beds fresh, and so on. You don’t have to go over the top by painting your door, or doing shutters and trim, but you do want it looking clean.
- Clean Your Windows- Natural light is super important these days and is very popular and trendy. Being able to have a lot of natural light makes a big deal to buyers coming through your house. The cleaner the windows, the better it looks when they look out.
- Smell- You want to make sure your house smells fresh and inviting, but you don’t want it to be a floral or perfume sent, because that might make someone sick. You just want it to smell fresh. An easy way to freshen it up if it is warm outside is to open up windows and let the fresh air in. If you do need to use plug-ins to cover up smells, you don’t want too many plug-ins that people can see. If they can see multiple plug-ins from one location they are going to start to wonder why you have so many and what you are trying to cover.
- Photo Arrangement- Make sure to arrange your pictures in a way that catches buyer’s attention. There is a statistic that says that 50% of buyers want the pictures to be arranged in the way that they would walk through the house more than anything else. Try to have the main value of the house in the first three pictures, because that is typically how far buyers get before they move on to the next house.
These steps guarantee success. If you are thinking of selling reach out to me, I would love to sit down with you and go over a game plan to get you top dollar.
