Tips to Prepare Your House to Get Sold
Are you getting ready to sell your home? Home sale preparation is one of the most vital tasks when selling a home.
Homes are rarely ready to hit the market as is. Most of them need a slight (or major) makeover to attract potential buyers.
There are certain tricks of the trade that real estate pros use in order to quickly sell a home at a desirable price. These tactics will cost money upfront but will ultimately help increase a seller’s overall profit.
The following tips range from low-cost updates to full-on renovations. Whether your budget is large or small, these strategies are sure to help raise your returns.
Although this advice is mainly geared toward homeowners, it can be used for other people as well (e.g., investors using a 1031 exchange to quickly sell an apartment building).
Clean, Declutter, Depersonalize
Decluttering and depersonalizing your home can help potential buyers visualize themselves in the space. Remember, you are moving on and leaving this home behind. The goal now is to emotionally detach and present buyers with a blank slate.
In addition to giving the place a good scrub, pack up personal belongings such as photographs, knickknacks, family heirlooms, and other decor. Basically, remove anything that will distract from the sale.
Regarding items you no longer want to keep, consider selling or donating them to a local charity such as the Salvation Army or Goodwill.
All other items can be put in storage or tucked away in small boxes in your cabinets and closets. Although this may seem cumbersome, consider it a jumpstart on packing.
Give it a Fresh Coat of Paint
Painting is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to increase the value of a home. At a 107% return on investment, repainting the interior walls has one of the highest values in terms of home improvements.
When repainting a home, research common and popular colors. Keep in mind that this is not about your personal style but what potential buyers will like. The exterior should have a fresh coat of neutral paint, and the interior walls should be free of any chips or cracks.
It’s best to stick to inoffensive colors such as off-white, eggshell, or “greige.” But not all colors work for all rooms. For smaller spaces, pastels and stark whites can make them seem larger.
For larger, potentially alienating rooms, darker, more intimate colors can help bring the room in.
Don’t forget the trim and other adornments. Painting the crown molding the same color as the walls can make a room feel bigger, and painting it a contrasting color can make it cozier.
Stage The Home
Staging a home has been shown to increase the odds of selling it for a higher price. You do not necessarily need to stage every single room, but consider doing important areas such as the master bedroom and living room.
You also do not need to remove all of the furniture in your home to stage it. Hyper-stylized items like a bright yellow couch or zebra rug can be distracting, though, so consider moving them into storage or at least out of sight.
Temporarily decorate the home with furniture and decor that’s ordinary yet in style.
Make Renovations and Repairs
Depending on the condition of a property, the seller may need to make some repairs to sell the place. A leaky roof, some cracked tiles, or a faulty HVAC system could all make selling your house much harder.
Other times, a room’s features may simply be outdated, and making renovations would help increase the home’s market value. Remodeling the kitchen is a common route many homeowners take because most buyers want a nice kitchen.
Installing stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and new cabinets can transform the space into an inviting room for cooking and hosting.
Financing renovations can seem tricky, but homeowners can use plenty of creative options to achieve their remodeling goals.
There are different lines of credit that owners can tap into, like credit cards and second mortgages, but make sure to pay attention to the interest rates.
If you don’t have the money to pay off the renovations immediately, then you will want a card or loan with a low rate. Otherwise, you could end up paying more on interest overall.
If going through the process of making renovations isn’t for you, but you still want to give potential buyers the option to make updates, you could offer seller concessions in the form of credits toward renovations and repairs.
Increase Your Curb Appeal
First impressions matter. The outside of a property and the driveway are what buyers will immediately notice. In addition to painting the exterior of a home, redoing the landscaping and/or the driveway can help increase curb appeal.
If you’re dealing with a particularly run-down house or a fixer-upper, then decluttering the front yard and mowing the lawn could do wonders for your selling efforts. Power cleaning a driveway or installing a new one can make a huge difference as well.
Do a Photoshoot
Once you’re done preparing the home, make sure your listing properly showcases the property. It would be a shame to put in tons of effort only to have a property sit on the market due to unflattering or bland pictures.
Listings with professional photos have even been shown to sell homes up to 32% faster than homes with low-quality images.
When preparing your home for sale, it’s all about emphasizing the details that will capture a buyer’s attention.
Going the extra mile will show people you are serious about selling and will likely increase the final sale price. If you’re working with a real estate agent, be sure to ask for their advice on staging and renovations.
They should be able to point you in the right direction and offer references for contractors, photographers, landscapers, and more.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, you have enjoyed these tips on how to get your home ready to sell and can put them to good use.
The more you can do to get your home prepared for the real estate market, the greater the odds you will sell your house fast for the most money possible.
Never sell yourself short by putting your house up for sale before you’re ready.