Preparing Your Home for Sale
Because every home is different, there is no perfect formula that everyone can follow to sell a home and exceed expectations. There are a lot of factors that play into the sale of a home from repairs to staging to seasonality to pricing strategies. We take all of that and more into consideration to develop a plan specific to you and your situation that will meet your objectives.
In general, you should think about the following when preparing your home for sale:
Although you have accumulated many memories, selling your home is now a business transaction. You must get into the business mentality because emotions often times allow people to make questionable business decisions. You should let go and look forward to your next home!
Curb appeal is your home’s first chance to make a great impression. If your home doesn’t show very well from the outside, prospective buyers might go into it with a negative attitude; or worse, might not go into it at all! Since you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression, tidy up the porch, mow the lawn, trim the bushes…you get the idea.
You want prospective buyers to fall in love with your home, not you! Buyers can get distracted from the actual home if they are myriad pictures, souvenirs and artifacts strewn all over your home. On average, you only have a few minutes to capture a buyer’s attention so you don’t want them thinking what kind of life you live. Instead, you want them thinking that they can see themselves living in your home.
Clutter can actually make a home feel claustrophobic and turn off buyers right away. It is another distraction that prospective buyers have to navigate when determining whether or not your home is the right home for them. Do some spring cleaning and put things away, donate to charity, or even have a garage sale. Eventually, you’re going to have to address that clutter when you move out anyway.
If you know there are issues with your home, fix them especially if the cost is nominal. When homebuyers see minor issues, they wonder what major issues are lurking. This leads to low-ball offers or worse…no offers! So address those cracked tiles, patch the holes in those walls, fix those leaky faucets, replace those burned-out light bulbs, etc.
Clean and tidy homes are much more inviting than dirty ones. You want to maximize the time a homeowner spends in your home. If your home is dirty, smelly and poorly kept, prospective buyers will not only spend less time in it; they will also be thinking of just getting out of there! That’s no way to market your home. Consider investing in professional cleaning and keeping your home clean throughout the marketing process.
