When you are putting your home on the market, there are several things you need to do to help it sell. It is always best to hire a real estate agent who can help you with the process. They can provide you with essential tips, and share industry knowledge that can make things move smoother, and hopefully lead you to sell your home quickly.
They can tell you the value of your home and the best time of year to put your home on the market. A real estate agent can suggest a good photographer take excellent pictures of both the interior and exterior to promote your house on the Internet. They will also give you tips on how to revamp your home to make it more appealing to buyers.
Some of those tips are discussed below, to give you a head start on preparing your home for sale.
Exterior
The outside of your home will of course be the first thing potential buyers see when they arrive. You have only one chance to make a first impression, so you need to make it the very best impression possible.
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Curb Appeal
Before they even see the house, buyers will notice the front yard. They will expect to see a well-manicured lawn with tasteful landscaping; some may not even want to see shrubbery and flowers up front. If your front flower beds are not maintained, invest some time and effort to make them beautiful for your home shoppers.
Certain plants require planting and trimming at different times of year. If you need to uproot existing shrubs and plant new ones, keep that in mind. This may take some time to get right, so start early. Transplant large bushes if you are on a short time, and schedule your planting so that you achieve the heights needed for a great first impression.
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Walls
If you have siding, and that siding is dingy, dirty, or faded from years of exposure to the elements, expect to replace it. Pressure washing can only do so much in terms of cleaning the outside of your home. It cannot restore their original beauty. A new set of siding, along with new window shutters, can freshen up the outside nicely.
If you have foundation issues, make sure to get these taken care of immediately. Home buyers are expecting to pay for your home and some minor repairs that happen to appear after purchasing. They will not want to have to pay an extensive amount for major repairs. If you think an issue such as this is occurring in your home, have it inspected and fixed prior to putting your house on the market.
Interiors
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Depersonalize
Make sure you remove any trace of your existence from the home. Potential buyers of your home will want to see what the house could be with them living in it, not how the people living in it have made it. It needs to look like a model home for new houses.
Pictures of the family need to be taken off the walls and replaced with a tasteful piece of art. Kids toys will have to be packed away, just keep a few hidden for them to play with when the house is not showing.
Just as you should minimize the presence of children, you should remove all evidence of your pets. The chances of buyers being allergic to a cat or dog are high, so every toy and food dish should be removed from the home. Pet beds: get rid of them! Once you clear the house of any pet paraphernalia, make sure to do a thorough cleaning, because, again, some buyers will have allergies.
Change the decor in the rooms. Anything that speaks to your personal tastes may not be widely accepted. Paint your walls a neutral colour. Remove the memorabilia from your shelves. Even your bed sheets can speak of your tastes. Replace the sheets on your bed with a more luxurious set of sheets. Remember: you are showing off how gorgeous the sleeping quarters could be for potential buyers.
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Staging
You should rearrange your furniture to present the best possible layout of the house. There are techniques that you can use to make your room feel bigger than it is. One such technique would be to pull the living room furniture closer together, away from the walls.
If you arrange them in an H-shape so that your coffee table is centred, and the sofa and chairs are facing each other, you can create a more intimate feel to the room. You can manoeuvre them into more of a U-shaped design for a more laid-back ambience.
However you arrange your rooms, make sure you do so for the rooms’ intent. If your spare bedroom is a child’s playroom, convert it into a spare bedroom or an office. Not every buyer has kids, and they will be turned away by the presence of them. Those who do have children will be more creative and can envision an office being used for their kids.
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