When you decided to sell your current home, whether to upgrade, downgrade, or circumstances dictate you have to sell, there are several things you truly should do before you have your agent put the house on the market.
You need to keep in mind that you are SELLING A HOUSE. Nothing less! Nothing more!
When it comes to selling a home less is more. Just visit a builder’s model home. You will never see family pictures on the wall, sports trophies cluttering up shelves, or the cabinets and walls cluttered. The walls are always painted in a more neutral color. The goal is for the potential buyer to walk into a home, fall in love and immediately being able to see themselves and THEIR furniture in the home. Not YOURS.
You already have been sold on your home and now it is time for you to sell your home to a different buyer.
The first thing you should do is to de-clutter each room. Either store or sell what you no longer need. On a side note you could inventory the contents for insurance purposes. Because when you have a loss the first thing an insurance company will ask for is a detailed inventory list of what is missing or damaged. When you consider storing your items do not use your garage. Your garage is part of the house you are selling and not your store room. Buyers need to be able to picture their vehicle in the garage and not the boxes you stored in it.
Give each room a good cleaning. Let’s find the dust bunnies that are hiding in the corner and under the bed. You would be surprised what you will find or what you have been missing. Give each wall and ceiling a fresh code of paint. You don’t have to use the $40 gallon paint, buy the more reasonable $10 gallon paint and have the store tint it with a neutral color. You don’t have to like the paint. Just don’t paint everything constitutional white. Different colors will add a different feel in each room.
When the carpets are over 10 years old, torn or dirty beyond cleaning or maybe screaming 70’s 80’s look consider replacing them as well.
The more your house speaks to a potential buyer the faster a home will likely be sold. When you are looking for more ideas or advice just contact me and I will be glad to help.