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Listing your home is an exciting time. Even for an HGTV addict, it can also be stressful, full of showings and working with potential buyers (and their demands). As the seller, you want to ensure that buyers see your home’s true potential and aren’t distracted by the work and cleaning they might have to do.
That’s why before you put your home on the market, it’s time to get busy and make some improvements that can help you get the most cash for your house. Fortunately, you don’t have to spend months or thousands of dollars to get your home market-ready. Take a look at our checklist and see what you can do today.
You may be wondering why you should hire a real estate agent who will take some of your profit, especially in a seller’s market. Real estate agents are licensed professionals who understand the market’s demands and have years of experience buying and selling homes. They don’t just do this a handful of times during their lives. They do it every day.
They also have in-depth local knowledge about neighborhoods, schools, districts, and homes that you need to know when buying. These are things that might be hard to find or difficult to understand as a novice home buyer.
Real estate agents are also used to dealing with demanding homeowners or other agents. They can handle intense negotiations because it is their job. Besides, they know who is buying and selling in the area, which can mean a faster sale of your house. As a result, selling with an experienced real estate agent can increase your profit on your home.
You don’t have to KonMari your whole house, but you do need to take a hard look at the sources of clutter in your home. If your home has messy surfaces, buyers will have a hard time imagining their furnishings there. And they won’t want to rent a storage room if it looks like there is not enough space. They’ll move on to the next house.
For that reason, you need to do the work and get piles of mail, magazines, clothes, laundry, toys, knickknacks, pet items, small exercise equipment, food on the counters, bottles in the bathroom, and other clutter, out of sight.
Make a sweep of your flat surfaces, and then look at what is behind closed doors. Remember that interested buyers look everywhere.
If you don’t feel like throwing things away or donating items, you can store them off-site in a storage locker. Consider it an advantage in the move. Some of your boxes will already be packed!
As with the previous point, a buyer wants to walk into your home and imagine their life there. If they see pictures of your happy family, that might be a challenge. We aren’t recommending you put away your children’s school photos or family vacation photos on the fridge, foreverーjust until you are done with house showings.
If you have art that is very personal or even controversial, this is an excellent time to remove it, as well.
Sure, you probably loved your purple bedroom when you painted it, but a buyer might internally cringe. Painting is a high return on investment and lower-cost modification that you can make that helps buyers envision what their walls will look like. Don’t go crazy with the new color. Choose something neutral. Gray has been a popular option lately.
Painting is easily something that you can do-it-yourself if you know how to do it. You could also choose a smaller area to touch up and save money.
Plants are essential when it comes to staging your home. Landscaping, including flowers, shrubs, and trees outside of your house, adds to its curb appeal. Plants have a known positive impact on mood, and they help make your home look inviting to potential buyers.
You can also add a couple of tastefully selected plants inside your home. Imagine a colorful orchid or an easy-to-care-for succulent welcoming a buyer inside.
While your home is on the market, you should be keeping it squeaky clean. It’s time to roll up those sleeves and grab a mop. The surfaces should be spotless, the floors shiny and vacuumed, and nary a dust bunny in sight.
However, before you decide to nail that “For Sale” sign in your yard, you need to perform a deep clean that will scrub all the hard-to-reach places, the windows, and the tiny areas you don’t think of cleaning every week.
Buyers will expect your home to be in pristine condition and smelling fresh. If you doubt you can do it all on your own, some companies handle deep cleaning and move out cleaning.
As you are deep cleaning or painting, it’s the perfect time to polish or buff out any scuffs you find in the walls or floors. You can do that even if you aren’t going to be repainting. Well-loved homes have a way of accumulating scuffs and scratches that new buyers may not appreciate.
We want to think that we can trust everyone who walks through our doors, but that is not always the case. If you have valuable jewelry, artwork, or electronic devices, it’s best to keep them locked up or store them away from your house with your other items.
You never know when a job loss, financial crisis, or life will happen, and when it does, it can be extremely stressful. If your lender has agreed to a short sale, contact our short sale team. They can walk you through the process, explain our short sale services, and let you know all of your options for a successful sale.
When you are staging and listing your home, it’s essential to have a team of agents you can depend on. You can see the positive testimonials of hundreds of home buyers and sellers who found peace of mind working with Kerby & Christina. Contact us, and we will work with you to get the best rate for your home.
Kerby & Cristina Real Estate Experts | RE/MAX Results | 1143 South Shore Dr Plymouth, MN 55441 | 763-634-0073 | © 2023
Kerby & Cristina Real Estate Experts | RE/MAX Results | 1143 South Shore Dr Plymouth, MN 55441 | 612-812-9262 | © 2023
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