How to Get Your House Ready for Market

                                         How to Get Your House Ready for Market

Every seller wants their home to sell quickly for a large profit, but it takes more than luck to make this happen. It involves careful planning and knowing how to professionally prepare your home to convince buyers to pull out their checkbooks.

• Take the home out of the house

Letting go of your home can be difficult. You have lived there, possibly for years, and the house holds many memories. To detach from it emotionally, you must realize that without you in it, the house is just a shell to be filled by other occupants. Look to the future, where can make new memories in your next home.

Sever your emotional attachment to the house by realizing that home is about the occupants who live there, not just the space or building. Your next house will feel like home before you know it because you will be personalizing your space and creating new memories.

• How to take the home out of the house

Pack up your personal photographs, family heirlooms, and other objects and clutter that might distract potential buyers and hurt a possible sale. You want to present buyers with an impersonal, clean environment so they can imagine the home perhaps decorated with their own photographs, furniture, and art objects. Depersonalizing your home makes it easier for potential buyers to visualize how the home might look filled with their own items.

Regarding furniture, only leave understated pieces that are not a distraction and do not create an unintended impression. For example, it would be difficult for a buyer to visualize their own antique furnishings in place of the existing zebra couch, bright yellow chair, and bear rug.

The goal is to make it easy for a potential buyer to see the house as their future home.

• Declutter your house

People tend to collect an amazing quantity of items over the years. Reasons for keeping items include an emotional attachment, an intention to reuse or fix the items in the future, or a wish to pass them on to others. However, for many items, if you have not used them in over a year, you probably don’t need them.

Discard items in a useful way by donating them to a charity or nonprofit organization such as the Salvation Army or Goodwill. These items not only help those in need, but some are tax-deductible.¹ For items that are not accepted, call your town to inquire whether the items can be picked up. Many towns schedule this service once or twice a month.

Also, remove books from bookcases and other knickknacks, and clean everything off your kitchen counters. Essential items that you use daily can be tucked away in small boxes that you can place in a closet when they are not in use. Consider this process an efficient start to your packing.

• Half-empty closets and cabinets

Buyers will be curious about storage space and will want to check closets and cabinets. It is important to ensure these are organized, as it sends a negative message if your storage spaces are cluttered with items falling out.

When a buyer sees everything organized down to the last detail, it shows that you take care of your possessions and likely took good care of the house. In kitchen cabinets, alphabetize spice jars, neatly stack dishes, and turn the coffee cup handles so they are facing the same way. In closets, shirts should be buttoned and hung together, and shoes should be lined up neatly.

• Renting a storage unit

Every home shows better with less furniture. Remove pieces that block or hamper paths and walkways and put them in storage, along with distracting furniture, artwork, and empty bookcases.

Removing extra leaves from your dining room table will make the room appear larger.

Leave just enough furniture to showcase the room’s purpose with plenty of room for buyers to move around.

• Remove or replace favorite items

If you plan on taking certain window coverings, built-in appliances, or fixtures with you, remove them prior to showing the house. If the chandelier in the dining room once belonged to your great-grandmother, be sure to take it down before a buyer sees it and asks that it be included with the house. Telling a buyer, they can’t have an item that appears with the house and enhances its appeal can hurt the sale.

Make minor repairs

In some seller’s markets, you can sell a home in lived-in condition without much complaint. But in normal markets or a buyer’s market, repairs can make or break a sale.

Replace cracked floor or counter tiles and patch any holes in the walls. Fix leaky faucets and doors that do not close properly, as well as kitchen drawers that jam. Consider painting walls neutral colors, especially if they are currently hot pink or purple. Do not give buyers any reason to remember your home as “the one with the orange bathroom.”

Replace burned-out light bulbs and consider replacing those that have been in service for a while. Avoid the potential of having a bulb blow out when you flip the light switch during a showing. It is a small incident that can easily be avoided if you are mindful. You want the buyer’s experience to be as positive as possible.

Throw open the curtains and blinds and turn on those lights. Houses show better when each room is clean and bright.

• Make the house sparkle

Preparing your home to be viewed by potential buyers may require hiring a professional cleaning crew. Cleaning includes washing the windows inside and out; pressure washing and spraying down sidewalks and the exterior; re-caulking tubs, showers, and sinks; and polishing chrome faucets and mirrors. Make sure all the dust is removed from under the furniture, in the cabinets and closets, and everywhere else it could be hiding.

Try to maintain this cleanliness by vacuuming daily, waxing floors, dusting furniture, and keeping the bathrooms and kitchen spotless. Hang up fresh guest towels. Also, keep the toilet lid closed when it is not in use.

Kitchens are a big selling point for many buyers, so make yours as spotless and uncluttered as possible. In the event someone opens your refrigerator, make sure it appears & smells clean and orderly.

Above all, clean and air out any musty areas. The night before a showing, avoid cooking particularly odorous foods such as fish, garlic or cabbage. These smells can linger the day after.

Buyers do not want to walk in your home and see a bowl full of dog food, smell the kitty litter box or have tufts of pet hair stuck to their clothes. It will give buyers the impression that your house is not clean. If you are planning an open house, send the critters to a pet hotel for the day.

• Scrutinize curb appeal the first impression is the only impression

No matter how good the interior of your home looks, buyers have already judged your home before they walk through the door. You never have a second chance to make a first impression. It is important to make people feel warm, welcome and safe as they approach the house. Spruce up your home’s exterior with inexpensive shrubs and brightly colored flowers. You can typically get a 100-percent return on the money you put into your home’s curb appeal. Entryways are also important. You use it as a utility space for your coat and keys. But, when you are selling, make it welcoming by putting in a small bench, a vase of fresh-cut flowers or even some cookies.

• The final step 

Back inside your home, linger in the doorway of each room and imagine how your house will look to a buyer. Examine how the furniture is arranged and rearrange pieces until the room achieves visual appeal. Make sure window coverings hang evenly. Once you’ve cleaned and gotten everything repaired and organized, you can begin staging your home.