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How To Prepare Your Home For Sale
This is one of the best questions I get when people are ready to sell there home. There are many different things one can do to prepare their house. My main goal when I coach people on what to do to prepare their house, is keep it simple and keep it low cost.
Here are some tips that fall under that category:
- When selling a home you want it to look like the owner cared about the house. What falls under this category is maintaining the yard, keep lawns mowed, plant fresh flowers, prune trees and shrubs if needed, fix broken fences and gates.
- Next is maintaining home itself. To obtain the most value for home and attract the most buyers one needs to touch up the house. If the outside of your home needs painting then consider painting it, maybe your home just needs a good power wash to remove cob webs or green mold. Fix gutters that aren’t hanging right, wash windows, make sure doors, lock and windows operate properly. The same goes for the inside, touch up holes in walls with some putty and paint, touch up trims boards and walls if they are scuffed, make sure all light switches work and light bulbs are working. Check plumbing for leaks from faucets to drains. You will be surprised how thorough people are when they tour your house for the first time. Remember, buyers are trying to get a feel for the house so they check faucets and open and close doors trying to get a warm feeling that would make them want to buy.
- The next area that helps is clearing out clutter, making space and organizing. Making your home look spacious and well maintained is an instant eye appealer. People automatically say I could live here when they can see open living space that is neat and organized. Selling your house is one of the best times to do your spring cleaning and sizing down. If there is some extra furniture in the living room or bedroom that you have collected over the years that you really don’t need and it is taking up floor space put it in the garage or sell it. If you have some items in the front or backyard, that you don’t use or it has turned to junk, through it away or sell it.
- The last area that I want to touch on is what about the floors, especially carpet and Vinyl flooring. What do I do? It comes down to condition and cost. Here are some of the things to debate about. Holes, tears or a stain in carpets and vinyl tells a buyer you don’t care about your house. Lastly eliminate the source of any bad smells. Smells from the carpet like smoke or pets odor get the buyer off on the wrong foot as they walk into your house. Having the carpets professionally cleaned is your first choice. If that doesn’t work then consider replacing or admitting that they need to be replaced and give the buyer a credit. Remember if the cost is high to replace floor coverings the buyer might prefer to pick out their own style and color. If cost is low, consider fixing the problem.
To conclude on preparing your home for sale, the better you can make your house look and smell. The better chance you have of selling your home in the shortest period of time for the greatest market price. |
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