Prepare Your Home to Sell

10 Ways to Prepare Your Home to Sell

1. Declutter & Depersonalize. Get rid of clutter on you table tops, walls, sinks, and counters to make the home look bigger, cleaner, and like a model show home. Throw out or file stacks of newspapers and magazines and keep your bills and paperwork out of sight. Put your toothpaste, brush, and razor in the drawer or cabinet when not being used. Make sure you don’t have too many personal and family photos throughout the house. The new buyers need to be able to picture themselves in your home. Pack away most of your small decorative items. The cleaner your home looks, the more attractive it looks to prospective buyers.
2. Clean, organize, and empty your closets. Store out-of-season clothing in attics or storage facilities to make closets seem roomier. Clean out the garage and hall or linen closets. If your closets look messy and full, then the prospective buyers will think the home does not have enough closet / storage space and may be turned off from purchasing the home.
3. Wash your windows and screens to let more light into the interior. Keep blinds open to bring in more natural light.
4. Keep everything extra clean. Wash fingerprints from light switch plates. Mop and wax floors. Clean the stove and refrigerator. A clean house makes a better first impression and convinces buyers that the home has been well cared for.
5. Get rid of smells. Clean carpeting and drapes to eliminate cooking odors, smoke, and pet smells. Open the windows. If needed, replace carpets and rugs with bad odors.
6. Put higher wattage bulbs in light sockets to make rooms seem brighter. Replace any burnt-out bulbs and invest in table lams or floor lamps where extra light is needed.
7. Make minor repairs that can create a bad impression. Small problems, such as sticky doors, torn screens, cracked caulking, or a dripping faucet, may seem trivial, but they’ll give buyers the impression that the house isn’t well maintained.
8. Tidy your yard. Cut the grass, rake the leaves, trim the bushes, and edge the walks. Put a pot or two of bright flowers near the entryway.
9. Improve your CURB APPEAL. First impressions are the most important. Homeowners can decide they do not want to purchase a home before they even walk inside. With this in mind, think about how the home looks as you first walk up. Does the front door need to be painted? Would a new architectural shingled roof do miracles for the look of the home? Would new landscaping & flowers help the appeal? Maybe hanging flower pots or rocking chairs on the front porch would help. Try to make your home look it’s best up front.
10. Think about staging. Your home may be very comfortable for you and if you are like most people, you love it just the way it is. However, your tastes may not produce the fastest sale or the highest offer. Consider hiring a professional staging company to let the experts put your house in the best condition to get the sale and highest offer. They can help with colors on walls and furniture placement. They can also bring in new furniture and pictures for your walls that will help improve the impression of the home. If you do not wish to hire a home staging company, then try to think like a home stager when you are decluttering and getting your home ready for the sale.

5 Ways to Speed up Your Home Sale

1. Price it right. The most common reason a home does not sell within the first month is due to a price over market value. Market value is the price like-homes have sold for within the past 6 months, not what like homes are listed at.
2. Get your house market-ready. Follow the above guidelines to improve the look and appeal of your home to convert shoppers into buyers.
3. Be flexible about showings. It’s often disruptive to have a house ready to show on the spur of the moment, but the more often someone can see your home, the sooner you’ll find a seller.
4. Be ready for the offers. Decide in advance what price and terms you’ll find acceptable. Remember, often the first buyer you encounter will be the buyer who will be the most willing to pay the highest price.
5. Don’t refuse to drop the price. If your home has been on the market for more than 30 days without an offer, be prepared to lower your asking price. The majority of home sales in the greater Charleston area happen within the first 30 days of listing.