Every seller wants their home to sell fast and for top dollar, but it takes more than luck to make this happen.
Selling quickly and for the most money involves effort, planning and a spruce up so buyers will want to make your home their own.
Below are nine steps to help you achieve your home-selling goals.
Your Home is a Product
You have lived in your home for years and “home is where the heart is” but if you want to sell it is a good idea to put those thoughts behind you. Your home has become a massive part of you but you need to make that emotional break when you are selling. Your house is no longer your home, it is now a product that you are trying to sell. Think of it like a box of cereal with a ton of other boxes surrounding it on a shelf. Your product has to be more appealing stand out more than the other competitors on the shelf.
Depersonalize
Pack up those photographs, knickknacks and heirlooms. You’ll have to pack them eventually anyway when you move, and you want the buyers to be less distracted by your personal items and more focused on the esthetics of the home. You want them to mentally place their own furniture, visualize their own pictures on the wall and you want them to place their own family heirlooms on the shelves. It is also a great idea to move furniture around so it leaves an open, spacious feeling and unobstructed flow to the room.
Declutter
People tend to collect an amazing amount of ‘things.’ If you haven’t used it in over a year, you probably don’t need it. Why not donate it or throw it away? Do you really want to pack it up and take it with you to your next home only to leave it in the box for another few years? If you insist on keeping the small things, box them up and store the boxes away. If you have too many boxes, consider renting a container to store your coveted belongings.
Closets and Cabinets
Buyers will look through your closets and it is important that they are tidy and organized as well. Make sure that your clothes are hung up neatly, coffee cup handles are pointing in the same direction, spice jars are labelled and alphabetized – that may be going a bit far but every bit of organization helps and you get the idea.
Remove or Replace Favourite Items
If you are wanting to take certain items with you and don’t want them included in the sale, now is the time to remove them. Take down and replace your great grandma’s chandelier. Remove and replace any fixtures that you insist on taking with you as it will make things less complicated when you are negotiating through an offer.
Minor Repairs
If you don’t want to put in the effort and wish to sell your home ‘as is’ you won’t be getting top dollar for it. Should you decide that you want the most money possible, you need to pay attention to all of those little nit-picky tasks that need doing before the house goes up for sale. Patch holes in the wall, finish putting up that trim, paint that wall that needs painting, replace that burned out lightbulb. It all adds up when people are looking at your home. Each item that a buyer sees that needs fixing the more their internal calculator starts subtracting from your asking price.
Cleaning House
We understand that it’s nearly impossible to keep your home spick and span 24/7 but if you don’t have the time to do your own housework you may want to consider paying for a cleaner to come in and help you out. If you do have the time, Mr. Clean’s Magic Eraser will now become your new best friend.
Wash the windows inside and out, pressure-wash sidewalks and the exterior. Re-caulk tubs, clean showers, and sinks, polish chrome faucets and mirrors.
Mop floors, vacuum, clean cupboards, dusting… the more effort you put into your daily or weekly chores the more appealing your home will be. You will also be in less of a panicked state when an agent calls and asks for a last-minute showing.
All rooms are important to clean but make sure that you put particular attention into your bathrooms and kitchen. Statistics show that they are the most scrutinized rooms in a home. If you insist on putting money into fixing up your home before selling it, those are two rooms to pay the most attention to. Make sure that they look and smell appealing.
Curb Appeal
If a buyer won’t even get out of their car because the exterior of your home turns them off, you probably won’t get an offer. Does your yard show that you take pride in your home? If not, start with the front door. Wash it, clean the hardware, paint it if necessary. You know that old adage “you feast with your eyes first?” That phrase reigns true to those wishing to purchase a home too. First impressions are huge. Clear the sidewalks (shovel in the winter), mow the lawn, trim the bushes, fix the fence and paint faded window trim. Here is another tip – make sure visitors can clearly read your house number.
Proofread your hard work
Now go back into every room that you put your efforts into, scan around. If you feel pride in every room that you have touched up, cleaned and scoured then you are pretty much ready for that first showing.
At the end of the day, selling your home can be a very emotional venture. Nothing is worse than having a price put upon your cherished home only to have a perfect stranger walk through and audit it’s value. By putting yourself into a mindset that you are selling a product you have the ability to separate yourself from your heart to your head.
This will help you see things objectively, fix what needs fixing, clean what needs cleaning and declutter what needs decluttering. You will also find yourself in the position of stronger position for negotiation — but that’s for a different blog post.
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Thank you.
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