The Top 10 Things You Need To Do To Prepare Your Home For Sale
There are many ways to prepare your home to sell to ensure you get top value for your property. We’ve compiled a list of what we think are the most important tasks to undertake leading up to your house’s sale.
1. Emotionally Detach
It’s important to constantly remind yourself why you’re selling the property. Remember the reasons why selling your property is good for you and your family and try your best to emotionally distance yourself. The sale of your home has now become a business transaction. It is likely that both buyer and seller will be making concessions in one way or the other, so keep that in mind.
2. View the Home from a Buyer’s Perspective
Now that you’re mentally prepared to sell your home, walk through your home from the perspective of someone looking to purchase a property. It might even be a good idea to objectively look at your competition. Checking how your home compares can help you learn how the market is reacting to the type of home that you will be selling.
3. Prepare all your house’s documentation
Realtors, lenders, buyers, and home inspectors are all going to want to see written proof for a variety of things associated with your property. You’ll want to collect and have immediate access to things like mortgage details, warranties, renovation receipts, utility bills, and home maintenance records.
4. Make an extra set of keys
You’ll need to make an extra set of keys so that Realtors can take prospective buyers through your home, and so that you can make yourself scarce for the showings of your home.
5. Clean Clean Clean
Make your home sparkle! A Deep cleaning right before your home goes on the market will make your home much more desirable to buyers. You definitely want your property to be viewed in the best light when buyers come through.
6. Check How your Home Looks from the Road
Clean outside windows, mow the lawn, and tidy the yard. First appearances are incredibly important to potential buyers so you want the outdoor space to look as nice as possible. If needed, bring in a landscaper for a day. For a reasonable cost, they can make your home pop in no time..
7. The importance of Light
Make sure all of your light fixtures have working bulbs. Fumbling around a dark home does not leave a great impression. When showings start you'll want to turn all of the lights on and leave them on until you get home. Consider the slight increase to your monthly hydro bill the cost of doing business. It's also nice to have unobstructed windows that will let as much natural light in as possible.
8. Do Minor Home Maintenance
Change those leaky faucets, fix loose doorknobs and make any other necessary repairs to your home that might need to be done. There are usually a few minor fixes families haven’t gotten around to that can detract from the value of a home in the eyes of buyers.
9. Begin the Decluttering Process
It’s a good idea to start packing things away early so you’re not in a big rush when you do begin the moving process. Decluttering also helps with opening up your home & depersonalizing the space as well. You want this process to remove things from your home entirely, not fill your garage/storage room to capacity. We typically pay for a mobile storage container, or a storage room.
10. Hire a realtor
A realtor helps with the marketing, listing, showing, and sale negotiations of your home. An experienced agent can also help guide you through the home preparation and staging process, so you don’t have to do it alone.
Those are our top 10 tips on how to prepare your home for sale. Thinking of selling? Contact us at Dewar Realty today for more information on how our real estate agents can help you through the selling process.
Posted by Greg Dewar on
Leave A Comment