Are you preparing your home for sale and already feeling overwhelmed? You’re not alone. As of April 2020, 623,000 homes have been sold in the United States. What this number can’t tell us is how easy it was for sellers to sell their home – or if they sold it for the price they were looking for.
Through some preparation, you could make the home selling process far easier for you.
Read on to learn to top six steps to get your home ready to sell quickly and successfully!
- Find an Agent
This is one of the most important steps you can take in order to quickly sell your home for the price you want. Realtors typically have an in-depth knowledge of the current housing market and how it will impact the sale of your home–for better or worse.
They’ll be able to help you prepare the house before you sell it and, most importantly, tell you what you need to do and what can wait. They’ll try and make the cost to sell your house as minimal as possible.
Next, they’ll also be able to find the most competitive and reasonable price for your home after examining comparable homes within your area.
Best of all, real estate agents will fight for you with a level head during negotiations, handle all the required paperwork, as well as handle all the marketing.
- Deep Clean Your Home
Once you find a real estate agent, the ball will start rolling. Typically the next thing you want to focus on is deep cleaning your home for photography and for open houses. This also includes tidying around your home so that it looks as neutral as possible. The reason you need to do this is so that potential buyers are able to see themselves living in your home easily.
This is hard to do if your home has dirty carpets, dust, clutter on tables and chairs, along with all your personal photos on walls.
- Aesthetic Upgrades
At this point, your realtor will probably have one or two suggestings for what you can do to make your home more attractive to buyers. This means repairing any visible damage such as cracks on walls, crooked light fixtures, and making sure all the appliances and doors operate smoothly.
Depending on the state of your home, you may need to paint some rooms as well. The key is to paint them a neutral color such as white, light beige, or light gray so that they’re attractive to all buyers that come through.
Changing the kitchen and bathroom cabinet hardware is also an affordable way to upgrade your home and make it appear more modern.
- Professional Photography
Once your house is clean and reasonably upgraded, your listing agent will most likely hire a professional photographer. Although some people believe that it’s easier and costs less money to simply take photos themselves, hiring a professional usually pays for itself. This is because professionals have the knowledge and equipment to present your home in its best light.
Remember that most buyers will decide whether or not they want to look at your home based on the photos. In fact, 44% of buyers looked online as their first step to purchasing a new home. Photos are also often used as marketing material on social media channels as well as Zillow, Redfin, the MLS, and more.
- Rent a Storage Unit
You’ll be happy to learn that most photographers don’t take photos of your garage unless it’s a selling point of the home. For instance, if it has a work table and built-in cabinets or is particularly large. In this case, you can use your garage to begin moving extra furniture and items that you don’t want in your home during open houses.
However, if you anticipate the photographer taking photos or a large number of buyers taking a look at the garage, renting a storage unit is the next best option. By renting a storage unit in advance, you’ll be able to quickly box up and store items while you’re in the cleaning and upgrading phase of the home selling process.
This makes it easier to declutter and tidy your home, and you’ll have a head start on the eventual big move.
- Curb Appeal
You’ll also want to consider how your home looks from the outside. The exterior of your home is essentially the first impression that buyers have, but attaining a good impression doesn’t require you to do massive landscaping. Instead, focus on keeping the outside tidy by:
- Trimming hedges
- Regularly cutting grass
- Pressure washing the sidewalks and driveway
- Planting low-maintenance plants
- Putting away children’s and pet’s toys
- Painting or replacing front door
Notice that no pricey and permanent changes to be made. This is because you really can’t predict what your future buyer will prefer.
Preparing Your Home for Sale: Focus on the Longterm
Following these steps and preparing your home for sale may seem overwhelming. Sometimes people want to sell their home as fast as possible in order to be with family in another state or pay off debt. However, by having a plan in place and focusing on the longterm gains of preparing your home, you’ll reap the benefits in the future.
Consider that by taking the time to clean and declutter your home, you could potentially sell your home faster because buyers will feel more comfortable. Likewise, hiring a realtor will give you more peace of mind and help your home sell for more.
Ready for more ways to prepare your home for sale? Keep reading our blog for more informative tips and tricks!
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