When it comes to selling your home, don’t make the mistake of listing it without tidying up first. Cleaning up your home, inside and out, will go a long way towards making a good first impression and getting it sold. Before you list, walk through your home, as well as outside, and pretend like you’re a home buyer who is seeing your home first the first time. This will help you put together a “things to do” list that should include the following.
Clean and Polish
Dust off the fan blades (an often forgotten task,) and the fireplace mantle, polish and shine up your faucets, appliances, baseboards, etc. If you’ve moved out already or are just too busy to keep everything clean by yourself, consider hiring a housecleaning service and have them stop by every couple of weeks until your home sells.
Turn the Bathroom into an Oasis
The bathroom is one of the most important areas of the home, one that all home buyers consider. Create a spa like atmosphere in the bathroom, hang nice towels, add a coordinating bath mat etc., a few scented candles and if it doesn’t make the bathroom too crowded, a high quality faux plant.
Declutter
If you want your home to sell, you’ll need the home buyers to focus on how amazing it looks, not how messy and cluttered it is. Pick up all those piles of laundry, shoes and toys from the entry, put away those stacks of mail on the kitchen counter and everything else that detracts from your home’s best features.
Address Your “Honey-Do” List
You know all those little things that you or your hubby have been meaning to do haven’t gotten around to? You can bet that home buyers will notice them, and these long overlooked issues will diminish the value of your home. So, make time to fix leaky faucets, tighten up those loose doorknobs, paint over scuffs marks, etc.
Apply a Fresh Coat of Paint
If you want to renew the appearance of your home, apply a fresh coat of paint to the walls. If it needs more than a touch up, repaint the walls using neutral colors. As much as you might love your dramatic burgundy dining room, the color would more than likely turn off most of your potential buyers. Make it possible for home buyers to focus on the living spaces themselves, not the distracting color of the walls.
Curb Appeal
Don’t forget to clean up outdoors. If the exterior of your home is unappealing, buyers will more than likely not even bother getting out of the car. It’s all about curb appeal, so make sure your home’s exterior looks fantastic. Weed your flower beds and if the season is right, plant flowers, trim your shrubs, deal with peeling paint, keep the walkway clear, etc. Renting a pressure washer to spray down the exterior and sidewalks is a good idea. If you’re exterior’s entryway needs a little jazzing up, add a strategically place potted plant (s), a nice doormat and replace a fixtures that have seen better days.
Don’t Forget to Clean the Windows
Clean the windows both inside and out and make them sparkle (while you’re at it, clean the window sills) says Bob Pergolotti from Window Cleaning CT. Both real estate brokers and home stagers alike are aware of the importance of cleanliness and curb appeal when it comes to selling a home and sparkling clean windows is at the top of their “preparing the home for sale” list.
Once your home is on the market, it will be in competition with lots of other properties so it’s important that it looks “picture perfect”, or as close to as possible.
Weekly Real Estate Episodes
Andy McFarland and his brother are based out of Salt Lake City and they upload weekly videos about their real life experiences onto their growing channel.
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