If only you could just stick a For Sale sign in your front yard, sit back, and watch the offers roll in. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. Still, getting your home ready for a sale shouldn’t cause you too much strife and stress. I’ve rounded up some tips to make the process as simple and easy as possible.
Disassociate with Your Home
Maybe this was the first house purchase with your partner, the place where your kids grew up, or even where you grew up. Now that you’ve decided to sell this house, you’ll need to begin the process of separating yourself from it emotionally. Take lots of pictures, hold a few last gatherings with friends, focus on the positive, and look forward to all of the exciting memories you’ll be making in a new home!
Spruce The Place Up
Make sure everything is in proper working order before you host an open house. Sure, you might have tolerated that faulty back porch light for a few months now, but a potential buyer might be turned off by these quirks. Replace bulbs, give the walls a fresh coat of paint, tend to the plants in the front yard, and make any repairs that you’ve been putting off. Those are some details that potential buyers might notice.
Remove Personal Effects
Of course, any potential buyers will know you lived in the home, but they also want to visualize what life might look like for themselves in the space. Before opening your home to potential buyers, store away any family photos, holiday cards on the bureau, and any clutter that naturally accumulates in common areas. While these things make the house feel like a home to you, you want the buyers to be able to project themselves onto the house. Having too many personal belongings on display might be a bigger distraction than you realize.
Organize Closets And Dressers
While you might not like the idea of strangers rifling through your wardrobe, some buyers like to get a feel for how much space they’ll be getting. If your clothes closets or hallway closets are messy and cluttered with junk, it could give the impression of minimal storage space. Go through your closets and make sure everything is situated properly and that no space appears to cluttered or overpacked.
Make It Shine
Giving your house a perfunctory cleaning before a showing isn’t going to cut it. You’ll want to showcase your home in the best light possible. Make sure to get into all those corners and cracks you normally miss. Clean the tops of ceiling fans, scrub the floors, and wash the walls down. It will make a huge difference in the appearance of the house.
Take a Tour Yourself
Imagine you are the one buying the house. You already did it once, but how would you feel about it now? Start outside and critique your house from the street. Does it have that curb appeal that catches the eye? Do the same thing in every room and adjust as you go. Seeing things from someone else’s perspective will help you make appropriate changes. You can even bring in an unbiased set of eyes if you can’t bring yourself to separate the house from the home.
While it would be a dream to be able to sell your house to the first person who walks through the door, it doesn’t usually happen that way. Making sure that your home is in the best shape possible before putting it up for sale will help it sell a lot faster.
Thinking about selling soon? I’d love to chat about your situation!