Properly preparing your house before you actually put it on the market may end up being the most important step you take and the difference between a quick sale and a long wait for your property to sell. From the time potential buyers pull up in front of your house you want them to be thinking, “Wow, this is really nice.”
In order to get that response from the curb to the front door to all of the rooms in your house it will take a little time and planning. The good thing is that it won’t always take a lot of money unless you discover something major that absolutely needs fixing or replacing as you get your house ready for market.
Here are a few tips that will help you increase your home’s curb appeal and maximize the likelihood of a quick sale. Some of these ideas will cost you nothing but a little bit of sweat equity and time.
Cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning
Let’s start off with a freebee: It’s time to clean up and clean out your house from top to bottom. First, take a look around your main living areas like your living room, dining room and family room. This is most likely where you have a lot of family photos and other personal items such as college degrees, awards and certificates. Take them down, dust them off, box them up and get them put away. Pictures of you are not going to help potential home buyers envision themselves living in your house, which is what you want. Next, and this will be easier with some of the normally present items out of the way, clean every nook and cranny in your home. Imagine a weekly cleaning, spring cleaning and that special cleaning you do before you have visitors all rolled into one. You’ll need to hit all the regular spots with some extra elbow grease like the kitchen and the baths and add on dusting ceiling fans, scrubbing baseboards, and washing the windows. This is a job for a team of people, so recruit whatever family members and friends you can bribe with food and beverages and get them working, too. Last is the landscaping. Mowing and trimming are a start but don’t forget to clean out flower beds and around shrubbery, get rid of the weeds you usually ignored because they are in the back of the house, and cut any low hanging branches that hide your house and block potentially offer-inspiring views.
What’s that smell?
Studies have proven that our sense of smell is our most emotion and memory inducing sense. Given that fact, home buyers are sure to remember whether your house smelled like flowers or, not to be blunt, smelled like garbage. In most cases, your four-legged friends, or maybe even those with fins and gills, are the culprits. However, it’s time to investigate all of the places that might have a smell that can turn people off and address the problem. Some things can be taken care of during the cleaning process, like doing a thorough clean-out of your refrigerator and washing out your kitchen garbage can. These two kitchen areas may have smells you don’t even notice so have one of your helpers take a whiff and let you know if they give it the thumbs up or not. This goes for bathrooms, laundry rooms and basement areas. You don’t want anywhere in your house to smell musty, stale or even overly chemical. So pick cleansers with a fresh scent when possible. In addition to cleaning, your pets may need to take a vacation once you put your house on the market. At a minimum, your guest bathroom should cease to be your cat’s bathroom, too. Even pet-owning home buyers don’t want to know about your pet’s business.
Fix it up
It’s time to knock all of those little things you’ve been meaning to off of your list. You may be able to do a lot of things yourself or you might need to hire a handyman who you can give the entire list to for completion. If you have any ripped screens, you should replace them. Anything that is “a little loose,” like a door handle or light switch, should be put back to the way it should be or replaced. Every bulb in every light should work and every light switch should properly control what it’s meant to manage. If you have any cracks or holes that don’t really bother you, they’ll still bother potential buyers; get them patched up. Blinds are another item people notice right away; if any are broken or on their last legs, replace them with up to date versions. Gutters and down spouts with even minor defects can make a house look in disrepair, so don’t forget to check around the outside of your house for items to fix as well.
Just remember, in partnership with your realtor, you are a salesman trying to sell your product. Every turn of a screw and push of a mop will mean dollars in your pocket sooner rather than later. For each person who comes to view your house when it’s on the market, you only have one chance to make a first impression, make it count!
