In today's real estate market, it is more important than ever to make your home for sale as appealing as possible to potential buyers. Whether they are viewing photos online or personally walking through your home for a showing or open house, home buyers are looking at your home with a critical eye, comparing it to dozens of others on the market. To get your home sold, you must prepare your home to undergo this critique and come out on top.
We like to call the process "staging." Some home owners hire a professional home stager to bring in furniture and decor, but for many homes, it only requires some small cosmetic changes that you can easily do yourself.
Clear Out the Clutter:
How can home buyers see the best features of your home when they're distracted by clutter? Clutter comes in many forms: piles of papers, clothes strewn about, or even an overwhelming number of photos or tchotchkes on display. Whatever its form, clutter is not only a distraction, but also tends to make your home appear smaller because valuable space is taken up and taken over. Here are some tips for tackling clutter in your home to get it ready to sell.
De-Personalize:
Speaking of photos and figurines, consider how easy, or difficult, it is for a home buyer to walk into your home and see themselves living there. It's often hard enough to do with differing tastes in furniture and decor. So make it easier for them. Consider removing some of your personal items from view, such as family photos, sports memorabilia, or your doll collection. Then buyers can walk into your house envisioning how their own personal touches could make this their home instead of yours.
How you store your personalized items, and previously mentioned clutter, is also important. You don't want to crowd your closets or garage making your home's storage areas appear smaller or insufficient. Here are some great ideas for stashing away your stuff.
Clean Every Nook & Cranny:
The cobwebs in the corner and dust on the windowsills aren't a good representation of your home. Clean everything, even more than what you do in your normal routine. Really scrub the grout of your bathroom tile and dust off the baseboards throughout your home. Don't forget about your appliances too. Wipe off the splattered grease from your stovetop and fingerprints from your refrigerator. It's amazing what a thorough cleaning can do to make your home look its best.
Make Minor Repairs:
It's easy to put minor home repairs on a to-do list for later and then never get around to them. If you're preparing your home to sell, it's time you dust off your tool box and take care of these repairs. Perhaps you have a leaky faucet you've been meaning to fix or a broken piece of trim just waiting to be nailed back to the wall. Check the small things you use everyday and have probably grown accustomed to using as is, like that wiggly door knob or light fixtures with burnt out or missing light bulbs.
Completing these small repairs makes a world of difference to prospective home buyers. They won't be calculating the time, effort and money they would have to spend on all those repairs themselves. Plus, it gives your home a finished, well-maintained look.
If you're considering taking on larger home repairs, talk to your Realtor first. As a professional, your real estate agent can tell you what repairs are worth making yourself and what is better left to the home buyer.
Staging your home to sell takes some time and effort, but it can really pay off by helping your home sell faster. If you already have your home listed for sale, it's not too late! Complete these recommendations and ask your Realtor to take new photos so that your home will look its very best online...and in person.
If you are considering listing your home for sale, contact us at CG Shepherd Realty, LLC for an initial consultation, home valuation and more tips for preparing your home to sell.