These are 4 important steps for preparing your home for sale, from the outside in.
Getting your home ready for the market can seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be! There are a lot of resources out there on the web that can help easily guide you with step-by-step checklists. I will do my best to help provide guidance with my blogs so check back often for new articles, and if you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact me! Getting a home ready will require some time invested and some money spent, but by tackling some of these projects ahead of time can save you headaches down the road, and possibly WOW buyers enough to increase their purchase price! According to the National Association of Realtors, 62% of agents say that staged homes and clean homes tend to spend significantly less time on the market.
Now you’re likely asking what are some things you can do to get your home ready? in this blog I will cover some projects you should tackle in a step-by-step guide to make sure your home will be ‘show ready’ when it hits the market.
Spruce Up Your Home’s Exterior
Having a spruced up home exterior not only shows potential Buyers that you care about the exterior, but also that you show just as much care for the interior of the home. There are many things you can do to spruce up the exterior from power washing steps, adding the house number, touching up any chipping paint, and maybe adding some fresh paint to the front door. At the very least three things that should be done are trimming of any over grown bushes, weeding any flower beds and mowing the lawn – doing these 3 things prior to photos and showings can greatly improve the amount of Buyers who want to see your home and first impressions for Buyers visiting the home.
Declutter the Entry Way
The last thing you want when people enter your home is to feel squeezed in by multiple coats or tripping over too many shoes. For showings and photos you want the entry way to feel bright and open. This will give the impression it is a large open area and it will feel more welcoming. In addition sometimes peoples personal belongings can’t have scents. You don’t want to immediately turn off Buyers with any scents that they may find as a turn off. Hide all coats, hats, shoes etc. In another closet and neatly organize them there.
Declutter the Home
This is a big one! if you plan on moving you can start packing and putting items into boxes either in a POD storage device or just in your basement or garage. Having a cluttered home not only makes it feel small but it can distract buyers from actually viewing the home and showing off any great features you may have. Time and time again I have entered homes that have so much on their kitchen island that it’s almost hard to notice the beautiful piece of granite, and how large of an island it is! Remove any personal items as again these can distract buyers and get them focused more on you and your family, then envisioning themselves in the home. Now this doesn’t mean remove everything and make it appear no one lives there, but remove enough so items are very minimal. This also helps with photography as again too many items will make it hard to showcase features of the home and some items can absorb light making these areas appear dark and cold, which isn’t what you want.
Organize Storage Areas
As touched upon in the last bullet points, if you start stuffing things into closets it’s going to give just as bad of an impression had the items been out in the open. When beginning to box items make sure boxes are in the basement or garage and organized in such manner that if people wanted to walk through this room they could. Make sure closets are neat and organized as people do open them. A cluttered unorganized closet can appear much smaller than an organized one, and as we all know, people want large closets.
