In the market we are in now homes that are priced correctly
move quickly. When you decide it is time to list your home, you need to start
acting on the possibility of a sale. There are a handful of things you can
start to do now to help ease the stress of listing time.
Clear the clutter from your home. Chances are your home
feels lived in and homey. That is fantastic for you and it fits your lifestyle
but to a potential buyer it can feel overwhelming. Take a bit of time to go
through each room and remove clutter. This could be extra papers (we all know
we have the week old mail still laying around), it could be stacks of books and
movies that are there for our viewing pleasure. It could also be the overwhelming
amount of laundry that there is to fold and put away. Whatever it is, clean it
up. It is amazing what a difference this makes. It creates more open spaces
with a clean feel. The potential seller’s eye will be more drawn to the
features of your house then the things that may be wrong with it.
If you are having a hard time removing the clutter or
finding a place for it that looks natural you can start packing things up. Take
some of those extra books off the shelf, some of the unused kitchen appliances
off the counter. Take your off-season clothes out of your closets and pack them
up for next year, old papers and items that need to be saved for long term
storage, they can get packed now as well. This can be less stressful then decluttering because you do not need to make a decision right away, you are just
packing it up and can unpack it at your new place.
Once you have taken care of the surfaces in your home it is
time to look at the bigger items. The furniture you have works for you, but it
might be a bit too much for the home viewers. When you walk into a home that
you might purchase you start to look at it as a skeleton that you are going to
put your own personal things into. You try and visualize what that would look
like. You may even look at how the home is staged to see if your furniture will
work like that. You get ideas, you picture yourself being at home. With too
much furniture in the home it is hard for the buyer to do that. It makes the rooms
look smaller and can feel jumbled, it can also mess with the natural flow of
the home. You do not need to discard the furniture forever but possibly you
could move it into a storage unit for temporary keeping, you could even keep it
in the garage, but that can become another issue we will address later.
Now that you have the rooms down to a more minimal look,
take a peek around your home and look at the minor projects that need to be
done. Maybe you are missing trim in part of a room, or the front door has
scuffs in it and just needs a fresh coat of paint. Maybe there are stains in
the carpet, something that can be remedied by a quick carpet cleaning. The
kitchen, does your sink have stains in it? You could hire someone to re-coat it,
or possibly with come elbow grease you can get that thing to shine on your own.
Look at the screens in the windows (if you have them) are they all in properly,
all undamaged? This can be a simple Saturday project, re-stretching screening.
Wash your windows while you are there. It has a huge impact especially if the
sun is shining on open house day! Little things will make the house more
polished. Things that you have become accustomed to, that are not damaging the
home, are things that potential buyers see as projects. Take a little time to
wrap up these projects and give your home a finished feel.
Lastly do your homework. Before you hire a Realtor interview
with some. This can be done with a list of questions and a phone call. See what
they think the value of your home is. Let them tell you their marketing
strategy. Ask them for pointers on a quick sale. Make sure that they are a good
fit for you, last thing you need is a Realtor that you do not see eye to eye
with.
By completing these few things it will help you to prepare
for a home sale. It should not cost a fortune, and when the time comes to put
the home on the market you will be ahead of the curve. Do not wait till the
last minute as this can add stress to your lives and selling a home should not
be a stressful time, more a time of change.
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