Regardless of the market conditions, it always pays to prepare your home as best you can. This doesn’t mean that you need to remodel your home. Often making simple improvements like fresh paint, carpet and lighting will make a huge difference in how a home looks and feels.
You will want to consult with a local reputable Real Estate Agent on how to best prepare your home for the current market. Depending on your home, you may need to do more to fully maximize your final sales price. Here is a list of items that most Sellers should do:
- Declutter and de-personalize. If you will not be living in the home, then your focus is just to get everything out of the house. However, if you will be living in the home, you will want to declutter your entire home. Pack items that you are not currently using and either rent a storage unit, or neatly stack packed boxes in the garage. Try to remove half the contents in all your closets. You want to give the illusion that the home has plenty of storage. Declutter and organize your kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Potential buyers will open closets and cabinets to evaluate the storage in your home.
- Be clean, feel clean and smell clean! This is a must for any Seller trying to sell a home. The home doesn’t have to have a remodeled kitchen, but it does need a kitchen that is super clean! You will want to do an extra deep cleaning of the home. Think auto detailer – they will clean every little crevice in your car, so that it feels practically new. If you have any odors in the home, you’ll want to eliminate them, and not cover them up. An overwhelming perfume smell can be a red flag for a Buyer. They will be wondering what you are trying to hide.
- Yard clean up and exterior. Some homes may need more yard attention than others. You will want to focus on the front yard and how the home looks from the street. People are visual, so anything you can do to improve your curb appeal will pay off down the road! If you can’t see the home because plants are overgrown, you will want to trim all of these plants down. In general, you want plants at or below window level to let in as much natural light as possible. Define garden beds and have black mulch placed. We prefer black mulch because it looks best in photos. Again, you will want a Real Estate Agent to assess your yard and put together a list of items to do. If you plan early, you can make improvements this year such as planting extra shrubs, or drastically trimming overgrown plants. This will give the plants time to have new growth so that they look good for when you are ready to sell. A coat of fresh paint on the front door, a new welcome mat and a container of colorful plants are an inexpensive way to refresh and enhance your entrance. First impressions count!
- Repair items. As we mentioned at the start of this article, most Sellers will benefit from fresh interior paint and possibly replacing carpet, so we won’t discuss that as part of repairs. Older homes can get an aesthetic boost by changing outdated light fixtures and replacing cabinet pulls for a more contemporary look. While these aren’t technically repairs, they can be an important part of preparing your home. You will want to tackle obvious repair items, especially if they are small items. When small repair items are left undone, Buyers wonder what larger issues were also not taken care of. The basics include taking care of peeling paint, fixing broken or failed windows, replace light bulbs with LED bulbs, clean gutters, ensure GFCI outlets are in kitchens, bathrooms, exterior and garages. Are your 3 prong outlets grounded? If not, you should consider changing them back to 2 prong, or installing GFCI outlets. Clean moss off the roof, but don’t power wash. This will shorten the life of your roof. An appraiser will want to see that there is about 5 years of expected life left for the roof. In our area, traditional water heaters must have 2 earthquake straps and CO (Carbon Monoxide) and smoke detectors must be installed – an Appraiser will check for these two items. We always recommend taking care of emotional hot button issues such as rodents, mold, and asbestos. If your home possibly had oil heat in its past, Buyers will want to know what happened to the old oil tank. If you do have an old oil tank, our recommendation is to have it decommissioned in place and do not have it removed. If you are unsure if there is an oil tank on your property, there are several companies who can provide tank location service. If no oil tank is found, they will issue letter stating that.
- Have your home inspected by a licensed Home Inspector prior to listing. We are huge advocates of having your home inspected including a sewer scope prior to going on the market. By having a full home inspection up front, the Buyer is already aware of the condition of the home, so there are no surprises for either the Buyer or Seller. If something does come up during the inspection, this allows you time to choose how and who will repair the item. Depending on the issue, it may make sense to just disclose the issue to Buyers. Our recommended home inspector, Brandal Gehr of VI inspections, put together an informative video on the home inspection process.
- Staging your home and getting it ready for photography. Staging helps Buyers envision the space so that they can visually move in and see themselves in the home. It helps them fall in love with the home. If they can’t envision themselves in the home, then they will never write an offer. All homes benefit from some form of staging – whether it is a professional staging company or you are staging your own home. If your home is going to be vacant, then this part is easy for you because you’ve hired a staging company to take care of this essential step. In general Stagers will not stage an occupied home. If you are going to be living in the home, then this part of the preparation process may be your most time consuming. But don’t worry, we will guide you through this process. We do a walkthrough with our Sellers and put together a detailed plan of what needs to be done to prepare the home for photos. We often bring is small staging items like pillows and bedding to enhance our Seller’s furniture. An older couch looks completely different with new throw pillows. Twenty-year-old bedroom furniture looks more contemporary with new bedding and comfy pillows. Quick FYI, have us over for a walkthrough before you get rid of any furniture. Let us determine what should stay or go to best present your home.
Congratulations, you are now ready to sell your home! All of your hard work will pay off.
