How To Prepare Your Home For Sale
You’ve made the decision to sell your home. Now it’s time to prepare your home for sale. Here are some practical tips and guidelines we offer to our clients to put their best foot forward in their home sale journey.
Decide on Your Time Line
Discuss your home selling time line with your Realtor beforehand. The process of preparing your home for sale can take a few weeks to months. Depending on what needs to be done. Your real estate agent may also have ideas for pre-marketing and coming soon. Consider all options, as well as how much time you will need to get your home ready.
Clear the Clutter
Here comes the fun part. Cleaning up! Even the tidiest of people cannot afford to skip this step. Of course, you still have to live in your home however once your home is available for buyer viewings you want it to show as best as possible. This means you need to remove anything that could get in the way of the buyer seeing your home for what it is. Clear off counter spaces, remove excess furniture in rooms to show the space. Consider this your opportunity to get a head start on packing for your move. Minimized and simple homes are the most well received from buyers who are trying to picture themselves in their new home.
Remove Personal and Valuable Items
Removing personal and valuable items when your prepare your home for sale is a good idea. Each time a buyer visits your home they are accompanied by a licensed professional however, having certain family photographs or sentimental items in plain view still isn’t advised. Think of anything you wouldn’t want someone else to see and pack it away. You of course, still want the home to feel lived in and comfortable so either replace photographs with art or leave out the ones that don’t necessarily showcase your personal life or private information.
Consider Hiring a Home Stager
It has been proven that hiring and following the advice of a home stager during the home sale process works! There are different levels of home staging you could consider. From a complete stage where the home stager comes in and completely designs and sets up a home for sale with furniture and decor; down to just a consultation with advice and tips to use the material and furniture you already have. Either way, the best way to prepare your home for sale is to consider the advice of a home stager.
Deep Clean
You can hire a professional for this as well or just roll up your sleeves and put in some elbow grease. It has to be done. Clean your home from top to bottom including baseboards, light fixtures, appliances and YES… even inside the cupboards and closets. Your home is now on display and discerning home buyers will look at every nook and cranny. A sparkling clean, fresh home is one that is going to appeal to home buyers and it’s one that is going to sell.
Stay on Top of It
Now that everything is cleared out, staged and cleaned you have to stay on top of it. In a perfect world, after you prepare your home for sale it sells on the first showing. However, we all know that depending on what market you are in, it can take a few days or even weeks. Meaning that during that time you have to continue to have your home showing it’s best. Some home buyers consider taking a mini vacay while their home is for sale. For others, that’s just not in the cards. So prepare to stay on top of it by continuing to keep your home tidy and showing it’s best.
Selling your home can be an overwhelming process. That’s why following these steps and using the advice given to you from your real estate agent will help make the process smoother and easier for all. There is certainly more to it then just signing papers and installing a sign.
If you are considering selling your home, reach out to us any time to hear more about what we do for our home sellers to help prepare your home for sale today!
