Let's get your home market ready
10 Easy Ways To Prepare Your Home for Sale
When it comes to selling your home, it may be difficult to know where to start. From finding an agent to cleaning to figuring out your next move, it is clear that there are a lot of complicated steps in the selling process. Additionally, you may be facing many opinions on how to prepare your home for sale. Let me help you out with 10 easy ways to prepare your home for sale that you can get started on today!
How do you want potential buyers to feel when they walk into your home? Will a potential buyer be able to envision their own life in my home? Does my home feel like a space that has been well maintained?
These questions are just a few that you may find yourself reflecting on as you get your home ready to put on the market. Remember, that the more well-organized and de-personalized the space, the more likely a potential buyer will be to envision their future memories and, thus, make a competitive offer on your home.
Step number 1 in prepping your home for sale—
1. Clean and reset
Start by de-cluttering, de-personalizing, and deep cleaning your home. This might be a good time to have a yard sale or make donations to a local charity in need of household items. Need help figuring out what to keep and what to give away? Try Marie Kondo’s methods: Does this bring me joy? Does this help me live the life I want to live? What is the cost of keeping this item— storage-wise, cost-wise, stress-wise, etc.?
Take down items like personal photos and memorabilia. This will allow the buyer to envision themselves in the space instead.
Finally, hire local professionals to deep clean your home.
If you don’t have your next home lined up quite yet, you may look into using a storage service while your home is on the market. Alternatively, you can neatly box your personal belongings that won’t be out for showings and organize them in a discreet area of your home until you move.
- To make sure your home is ready for potential buyers, think like a minimalist designer
- Leave it to the experts— Hire a professional to deep clean your home.
Additional steps to get your home market ready
Okay, you donated that pasta maker you never used and sold that bike that’s been collecting dust in your garage since the pandemic. Great work! Now what?
2. Exterior clean up
Don’t forget to clean the exterior of your home, too! After all, it is the first thing people will see. Find a local hardware store that rents power washers and use it to clean your roof, exterior walls and windows, patios or decks, walkways, and your driveway.
3. Create curb appeal
Give your entryway a simple refresh. Get a new welcome mat, put some new potted plants at the front door, or find an updated light fixture. Your attention to the small details will make a difference.
4. Tidy up storage areas
If you’ve de-cluttered your space, you’re likely using a garage or attic to store your items until you move. Make sure these spaces still look organized and have been swept and dusted. Although these are not living spaces, they still are spaces that speak to the value of your home and how it’s been maintained!
5. Fresh air and clean scents
Let the fresh air in! Do your best to neutralize any odors from pets or cooking by opening up the windows regularly and using clean scents such as candles or diffusers. Try to stray away from scents that are too strong or too perfume-y.
6. Clean the appliances
People are inspecting all areas of your home. They may open your fridge or oven or microwave. We don’t want to scare them away with that salad dressing from five years ago or the cake batter crusted at the bottom of your oven from last month’s Pinterest fail.
7. Don’t forget about the bathrooms
You de-cluttered and de-personalized the rest of the house. Don’t forget about the bathrooms, too! Put away your toothbrush and your hair-care supplies. Let’s keep the toilet seat down and put out fresh towels as well.
8. Hire a handyperson
Make those repairs you’ve been meaning to do. If your front gate can only close if you press just the right amount of pressure while your cat helps give it a swift push, a potential buyer likely won’t be able to do it.
9. Painting and touch ups
A fresh coat of paint goes a long way! If you don’t have the time or resources for new interior paint throughout your home then focus on areas that need touch ups like filling and painting holes where a picture used to be.
10. Replace light bulbs
Lighting has the power to unconsciously affect people’s mood, emotions, and feelings about a space. Invest in new LED lightbulbs that are not only more environmentally-friendly, but also provide an updated, modern look.
Putting time and attention into your home is an important way to attract motivated buyers. I hope this list helps you get started on preparing your home for sale today!