Top 10 Budget Tips to Prepare Your Home to Sell
1) Exit – This is the most important thing you can do as a seller. Nothing will make a potential buyer more uncomfortable than you being in the house. If the buyers like the house, then they imagine themselves living in the house, imagining whether their furniture will fit in the house and which rooms their children will choose. If the seller is in the house, he cannot do any of this because he feels like a guest. This is the last thing you want your buyers to feel: GET OUT!
2) De-Clutter – This is another simple thing you can do that will have a big impact. Most of the sellers have been in their house for many years and have collected all kinds of things. You must dispose of them or store them; this will make your home appear larger than another home with the same square footage. You’re planning to move anyway, so why not start a little earlier and make your home more sellable?
3) Clean Up – Believe it or not, this is a different category than clutter. This is one of the hardest things to do, but also one of the most important. If a buyer comes to see your house and the bathroom is dirty, the carpets are a mess and it smells bad, it just leaves a bad impression. Clean out the kids’ toys, put anything that will fit in a drawer or closet, and make it look like you don’t live there. Clean and pick up every time someone comes to see your house.
4) Paint – This is another inexpensive and highly effective tool that can help your home sell fast. Painting is one of the best returns on your investment when you sell your home. There are two issues that need to be addressed when preparing your home for sale. The first is the easiest: make sure you touch up all the paint on the interior and exterior of your house. The second may require you to be a bit more objective about your home. What kind of colors have you selected? Do you have eight different colors in your house? Unless you’re an interior designer, you really should consider repainting all of your rooms in a neutral beige or brown. While this may be a feature of your home that you love, the average buyer won’t like your color selections. Paint your walls a neutral beige or brown color that will make your home appear larger and will also appeal to the most buyers.
5) Landscape – Everyone has heard this before about “curb appeal”. It’s a cliché, but it makes a big difference. Buyers begin to form an opinion about your home when they see it from the outside. Make sure your lawn looks perfect: remove weeds, edge sidewalks and driveways, plant some inexpensive annual flowers that add color to the landscape, and put some new mulch on plant beds. This will not only add curb appeal to your home, but will also add VALUE when you take your friends and family to “check it out”.
6) Wallpaper: WASH IT OFF! Wallpaper has made a bit of a resurgence of late; but for the most part it’s outdated and with the sheer number of selections out there, it’s extremely personal. Most shoppers will prefer a different selection, so go to Home Depot or Lowes and buy some DIF (wallpaper remover) and ditch it.
7) Closets: Of course, buyers will search your closets and this can be a major selling point for some people. So when you’re tidying up, don’t throw out everything in your cupboards! With the many different options out there, you can rent a “POD” system, a storage unit, or just store it at a friend/relative’s house while your house is on the market.
8) Carpets – Have them professionally cleaned. It is not that expensive and can make a big difference.
9) Pressure Washing: Pressure wash the exterior of your house, sidewalks and driveway. It just makes everything shine and look newer. Remember, BRAKE APPEAL!
10) Eliminate non-essentials: The idea here is that the buyer can see themselves living here, not their family. Take down family photos of him and get rid of any large furniture that doesn’t add to the look of the house or room. Try to make it look like a builder’s model home.
