Property Prep
Home Selling Tips
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Set Up Your Home to Inspire Offers
Basically, you want your home to not only look clean and attractive, you also want prospective Buyers to be able to see themselves and their families living there. You want them to walk around and visualize where their T.V. could go and where their winter clothes could be stored. You want them to imagine themselves sitting in your tub or cooking dinner for friends in your kitchen. So, though the way you have your home set up right now might be perfect for you, it’s important to look at it from the perspective of others who might want to live there.
Clean
Most clients hate this part. Most of us keep our homes relatively clean but the standard here is sparkling, market-ready clean. Clean everything: carpets, walls, windows, bathrooms, the kitchen and more. An unkept property overwhelms buyers with a feeling of having to clean/work in order to move in; don't give a potential buyer an easy reason to disregard your property. Dust and wash windows, mirrors, and surfaces so they sparkle. Clean the oven and all appliances. Organize your yard, basement, attic and garage.
Get any tile grout spiffed up. Shampoo carpets and rugs. Polish floors. Wipe down doggy doors. Touch up paint and patch holes in the walls. Once the major clean is done and your home starts to be shown, keep that standard up as much as possible. You never know when that perfect Buyer will ask to see your home! Kitchens and bathrooms should be especially clean with sparkling floors. You may need to sweep, mop, and vacuum more often because of all the people trooping through your house.
Check Your Curb Appeal
Does your home make a great first impression? A home with great curb appeal will attract potential buyers. Mow your lawn, weed the yard, blow or wash the driveway, and clean your roof and gutters. Make the front inviting by planting a few flowers to liven up the entrance. I usually suggest planting some colorful seasonal flowers in flower beds in the front yard and placing a few flowerpots on the front step. Wash down the front driveway and porch then roll up your hose and hide it. New welcome mats not only add eye appeal but will help remind potential buyers to wipe their feet.
Your Personal Stuff
By “personal stuff,” I mean things like family photos, posters of rock bands or political slogans, the deer heads from your hunting adventures, those funny magnets and your kids’ art that you have on your refrigerator. Again, the objective is for potential buyers to see themselves in this home, not you. Think about it: When you walk into someone’s personal home for the first time, it can be a little awkward. You feel like an outsider and that you “don’t belong,” right? When you walk into a model home, you feel freer, not like an intruder. By hiding away a lot of what says “you” about the house, buyers are able to see more of “me” in it.
Brighten Rooms
Replace any burnt out light bulbs. Consider painting the walls, ceilings and windowsills white in each room. It is clean, peaceful and all furnishings look good with white. Paint is an inexpensive do it yourself fix. This strategy works and will make the room appear larger. It's easier for buyers to start with white walls rather then painting over any existing dark colors that may not suite their taste. Keep all lights on, it makes your home appear brighter, more inviting, and easier to see. Keep all blinds and window treatments open. This will make your home seem larger and brighter. It will also show off your exterior features.
Remove Clutter
Depersonalize the space so buyers can easily visualize your beautiful property as their own. To make your home appear larger remove all clutter such as knickknacks and photos. When a buyer walks through your home they want to see a clean and somewhat empty area that affords them plenty of living space and options.
Organize
People buy homes that appear clean, spacious and solid. Many buyers will look in your closets and pantry. To make these areas appear more spacious, organize your closets by putting away out of season coats and fold your clothes neatly. Consider purchasing shoe organizers and sweater racks to give your closets a face-lift and help them appear larger.
Regrout and Reseal the Sink and Tub
If the tile and tub are from a different era or look dated, re-caulk, glaze, re-grout, or use grout paint as an inexpensive way to give the room a new look. Add new towels and/or hang new shower curtains. Remove soap scum or hard water stains with tile cleaner to give bathrooms new life.
Basic Maintenance
Here is the checklist I give my clients with questions about the home repair items they should handle before we put the home on the market:
- Is your water heater double strapped?
- Do all of your smoke detectors work?
- Do you have a CO 2 detector on each floor?
- Have your furnace filters been changed recently?
- Has your HVAC unit been professionally maintained recently?
- Does your garage door open smoothly and does your garage door opener operate properly?
- Do any of your doors or sliders need some WD40?
- Do you have any leaky faucets or slow-flowing drains?
- Do you have any missing or torn screens?
- Do you have any light bulbs that need replacing?
- Do all of your blinds and shades work properly?
- Do all door locks and locking mechanisms work properly?
- Are your gates and their latches working properly?
- Is your fence in good repair?
Your Home's Nose
Consciously or unconsciously, potential buyers “smell” your home before they even look around! You may not even notice the smell of your home because you’re used to it. But others will notice, and the scent can set the tone of the showing. (Who knew, right?!?) If your home smells musty or like your pets or has unpleasant cooking odors, it will turn people off. If it smells like cigarette smoke, some people will refuse to enter the house! If the odors are major, you may need to bring in professionals to clean and deodorize (or replace) carpets and furniture or even paint walls.
Major Repairs
What about things like mold and dry rot issues, leaks, broken roof tiles, health and safety issues or termite problems? If you know that these problems exist, I almost always recommend that you take care of them before your home goes on the market. Often, lenders will not fund a home until these problems are fixed. Even if they did, few home buyers want to take on that kind of project. Delaying getting this work done will only delay the sale and may actually turn some buyers away. If you absolutely cannot afford to have this work done, at the very least get a guaranteed estimate from a reputable vendor so your potential buyers have a sense of what they would be getting into.
Showing Your Home
When you get that call that an agent wants to show your home, here’s how you help your house shine, and if you’re away at work during the day, do these things before you leave in the morning. Put away any clutter and personal stuff. In your preparation, you already did this so all you should have to do is put away anything that was brought out the day before. Spiff up your kitchen and bathroom. The whole house should be clean but make sure to do a last polish of these two areas.
Flush toilets. Fold towels and washcloths. Wipe down counters and sinks. Empty trash cans. Sweep your front step and front hall. It’s about first impressions. Make arrangements for pets (if any) during showings. Personally, I love animals but not everyone does. Be absent during the showing. You want potential buyers to feel free to really explore your home and “occupy” it. You want them to speak frankly to their agent about what they like and don’t like about the house. You want them to turn on the disposal, poke into the garage, pace off your dining room.
