Tips to Prepare Your Home for a Successful Sale
If you’re planning to sell your home, you may be wondering how you can prepare it to attract buyers and maximize the amount of money you receive. If so, here are some great tips that will help you get your house in the best possible shape to sell as quickly and as painlessly as possible. Since time can be of the essence in a real estate sale, do yourself (and your bank account) a favor by starting with these tips before putting your house up for sale.
1) Get Rid of Clutter!
Take this time to go through your belongings and get rid of anything that you don't need. You'll be able to see the impact of this process when you take pictures or video of your home. This will make it much easier for potential buyers to imagine themselves in your space. There are plenty of ways you can get organized, but one popular strategy is by color. You could start in one room and divide everything into piles - like clothes, books, office supplies - and then sort them by color in boxes or on shelves. This way, you can create sections and put them back together again once you're done sorting!
2) Remove Personal Items
Planning to sell your home? Make it more appealing to potential buyers by removing personal items and staging it with neutral pieces. Potential home buyers like to imagine themselves in the space; having family photos and personalized items can throw that “vision” off for them.
3) Clean and Polish the Main Areas
When preparing your home, focus on the main areas that buyers will see. These are the living room, kitchen and bedrooms. If these areas don’t look good, buyers will wonder if other rooms are in similar condition and may not be interested in looking at the property.
Vacuum & Sweep: Put up any area rugs or furniture that you can so that you can vacuum & sweep underneath them. This will help eliminate dust and dirt from accumulating there over time and make it look cleaner than before you started preparing your home for sale.
4) Update your Bathroom and Kitchen Countertops
One fairly inexpensive way to update your kitchen and baths is to update the countertops to a neutral, clean, durable surface. Ask your broker for advice as to where you can find the most cost effective products in your neighborhood.
5) Fix Up the Attic or Basement
Add more usable square footage to your home by turning your basement into another communal space or bedroom. Buyers love having that extra area to hang out in!
6) Check Out Under the Stairs Storage Space
Under the stairs can be an underutilized space in your home. It's perfect for storage, and some even like it as a powder room. You may be surprised at how much you can fit into such a small space!
One of the more common home improvements that is often overlooked is lightening up dark, carpeted areas. This is an easy way to make your home seem brighter and more spacious. Vacuum your carpet thoroughly before you do anything else. Once the carpet has been vacuumed, blot it with a cloth or paper towel. You'll want to use as little liquid as possible when doing this. Avoid using bleach or any other chemicals; instead use water, white vinegar or hydrogen peroxide if you need to remove any stains from the carpeting. Soak up all of the liquid with towels and then dry it off completely with another cloth or paper towel. Make sure that there are no wet spots left on your carpeting before proceeding!
