When you sell your home, of course, you want to get the best price. If you take the time to address your home’s shortcomings, you will find a buyer faster and be more likely to sell for the price you want.
Tackling repairs, deep cleaning, and staging a home will significantly affect how easy it is to sell. We will look at what you should do to prepare your house for sale.
Making repairs is smart
Wear and tear lead to minor repair issues when you live in your home. A sticking lock, a dripping faucet, and a squeaking floorboard are the sort of problems that are easy for owners to overlook but buyers won’t.
Try to see the rooms in your home as a potential buyer would. List the issues in each room that need attention.
Many of the problems will be jobs you can handle, though the more serious issues will require contractors to solve. Even if you think you might be capable of dealing with a more complicated issue, it could be better to bring in an experienced professional with the right tools for the job.
Trying to sell your home as-is is usually a significant mistake.
Cleaning and decluttering are vital
Homebuyers like spacious rooms that make it easier to see themselves living in the home. Most people will have more furniture in their homes than is ideal when trying to present the property in the best light.
Remove unnecessary furniture and make the rooms feel cluttered. You might also have a lot of possessions that you don’t want to throw out but are taking up space in your home.
Renting a storage unit could be your best option to declutter your home for a few months until you can move into your new property.
Preparing a house for sale means thoroughly cleaning the home as well. While you can do this yourself, bringing professionals to deep clean carpets and the rest of the home can be cost-effective.
It can cost less than $200 to hire professionals that will have carpet cleaning machines and be able to complete the job in a shorter space of time.
Once the home has had a deep clean and been decluttered, this needs to be maintained until a buyer is found. Keep to a cleaning schedule and ensure clutter is kept to a minimum by putting things away.
Depersonalize the space
You want potential buyers to see themselves living in your home. This is more difficult when they see pictures of your family and other personal belongings on display.
Make the rooms in your home more neutral, removing personal items like photos, diplomas, souvenirs, sports memorabilia, and religious symbols.
A fresh coat of paint
Repainting parts of your home will refresh and renew the space. It can make smaller rooms look larger and better showcase interesting architectural details in the home. Your color choices are essential, with warmer neutral colors being better.
While you probably won’t want to repaint the entire home, focusing on more essential rooms or areas that show the most wear will pay more significant dividends.
The entrance to the home, along with kitchens and bathrooms, should be more of a priority for repainting. Other painted areas can be touched or cleaned to remove scuffs and damage.
Staging a home
The benefits of staging your home are pretty straightforward; on average, your home should sell faster and for more.
Staging is an integral part of home sale preparation that doesn’t have to be expensive. Staging can involve rearranging furniture and adding a vase of flowers or a bowl of fruit. You can even get inspiration from TV shows that help with design choices to stage your home better.
It is more important to focus your staging on certain rooms in the home. The living room, kitchen, bathrooms, and master bedroom will be more critical to buyers, so they must be staged more carefully.
With fewer furniture items in your home, you can better stage rooms so that they appeal to buyers. Create a focal point in the room if there isn’t already one. This could be a piece of artwork in the sitting room, highlighting a fireplace, or making the most of a large window with an appealing view.
Staging shouldn’t be confined to the interior. The exterior is the first thing the buyer will see when being shown the home, and it needs to create the right first impression. The yard should be tidy with bushes and trees trimmed, and consider repainting the front door.
Final thoughts
Your time and effort in getting your home ready to sell will be worth it. Buyers will notice, and you’ll be rewarded.
