10 Ways to Get Your Home Ready to Sell

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So you want to sell your home! That’s great, you’ve come to the right place. Selling your home, in any market, can be an emotional experience. But, you can use these tips with your Realtor®, to make the process as painless as possible. Everyone wants the same outcome, to sell your home, and here are a few ways to help you do that.

1. Price it Right

This is the biggest and best thing you can do to sell your home. I know, we all want the most money possible for our homes, but it’s so important to listen to your Realtor® when pricing your home. If you price your home too high, the number of people who will view your home is drastically lower, which means the likelihood of an offer also drops. Then your home sits on the market longer, becomes stale inventory, and statistically, the longer a home sits on the market, the lower the price it actually sells for. Often, a home that is priced too high, will sell for less than it would have if it had been priced right to begin with, after sitting on the market for months on end, while you’re still paying a mortgage on it and not able to move on with your life. So, first things first, price your home right from the start.

2. Check Curb Appeal

Curb appeal is one of the biggest improvements you can make to improve saleability and sell your home. It’s what will get people in the door where they can fall in love with the rest of your home. These projects can be large scale, like putting on a deck, or as simple as freshening up the flower beds. Whatever your budget allows, there is a curb appeal project that will help your home. I personally think, a fresh coat of paint, in a fun pop of color on the front door, with some new plants in the flower bed can do wonders for a home. Keeping on top of maintenance is important when you want top dollar for your home. If it looks like the yard is being neglected, a buyer might not think the home is worth what you’re asking and their minds may wonder what other maintenance might be neglected.

3. Depersonalize

I know, little Johnny’s artwork is one of a kind, and his brush strokes are really advanced for his age. It’s no wonder you want all of his artwork on the fridge. But, what buyers really care about is your new stainless steel fridge with an icemaker that is hiding behind that artwork. It’s things like that, that are going to help sell your home. Pictures of family, and all those personal belongings that make a house your home are so important when you’re living there. But, a buyer sees just that, your home. You want them to envision it being their home. So, take some time to pack up those wonderful personal items and put them away until you get into your new home.

4. Declutter

Most of us have a little mess in our homes, a stack of magazines to save recipes out of, a few pairs of shoes by the front door, that room that you had high hopes of being a home office that has turned into a catch all guest room/home office/gym/storage room. Do you know what sellers are going to see? Your stuff. They won’t notice the great kitchen if your cupboards are so full things are falling out of them, they will just see the lack of storage. They won’t notice the roomy the 2 car garage with shop bench, what they see is it’s so stuffed you can barely park one car in it. That’s how most of us live, and there is nothing wrong with it, but you want to sell your home, and so you have to make a buyer to fall in love with your home. Covering it up with stuff isn’t going to do that.

5. Clean

Like, deep clean. Blah, I know. But a deep clean will save you headache and heartache later when you put your home on the market. When a buyer walks into a home that is sparkling clean, there aren’t things to nitpick. After years of experience, you might know that the carpet just needs to be steam cleaned to look brand new, but a buyer might see worn out carpet that they might have to replace. Everyone’s bathtubs have rings around them you say! But, a buyer is just going to see more work for them when they move in. A clean home will make people feel welcomed and will photograph better.

6. Keep it Pristine

Your Realtor® will thank you. It’s a pain in the booty, I know, I get it. Life happens, your kids are professional mess makers, there are meals to be cooked, dogs to be washed, and husbands that don’t understand that the middle of the hallway isn’t the place for shoes. Having your home show ready at a drop of a hat can be exhausting. But, what’s better, putting in the effort up front, and helping you sell your home quickly? Or half assing it and having to keep half assing it for months while your home sits on the market? We all know, logically, your dirty laundry doesn’t affect the value of a home. But, it does affect a buyer’s mindset. You want them to fall in love. We all see a Pottery Barn catalog and instantly want to live in all those rooms. And, that’s what you want a buyer to do. Would we fall in love with those rooms though if there were dirty dishes, stinky socks and mud tracked in from the dog? Probably not.

7. Make Small Repairs

You’ve been living with that leaky sink for a 6 months, it’s not the big of a deal, right? Wrong. To sound like a broken record, you want the buyers to fall in love. What people don’t fall in love with are honey do lists before they even move into a place. Help sell your home by making those minor repairs. Having a home without those little things wrong will show pride of ownership and help keep you from having to do them during the inspection period, when you’re probably in the middle of your move. What you shouldn’t do is over build and not get your money back out. A kitchen remodel is great and all, but if you turn around and sell it, chances are you won’t get all your money back out.

8. Stage

If your budget allows for professional staging then fantastic, there is a reason that staging works so well. But, if that isn’t in the budget, then doing some staging yourself can really help show and sell your home. Along with decluttering and depersonalizing, you want to really pair down the amount of furniture you have in a room. Empty rooms appear smaller, but so do overly stuffed rooms. Putting some furniture in storage is a great way of getting your home unstuffed. Allowing for easy walking through rooms, a good flow throughout the home, and allowing space between furniture will all make rooms feel larger.

9. Give Purpose

That funky little nook off the kitchen, or under the stairs, you might have lived with them empty but that isn’t living up to their full potential. Turn an odd space into a reading nook, or built in desk for example. This will give purpose to an odd space and will take it from a negative to a huge positive. This also is true of other rooms. If you have a catch all room, transition it into another bedroom or office, while putting odds and ends in storage to show the space in the best possible light.

10. Professional Photos

Professional photos are worth every penny. People are seeing houses for sale primarily online these days, so pictures are what sells your house. What sells it better, snapping cell phone pics, or beautiful photos, taken by a professional, with wide angle lenses that show your home in the best possible way? Obviously, the professional! Professional house pictures are very reasonable cost wise, especially considering how much you’ll get back from having them.

Have you sold a home before? What helped you get it sold?