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Advice on getting your house ready to sell:
The
outside of your property
Disconnect your emotions
Look to reduce the personalized aspects within your
house
Declutter your house
Kitchen
Closet & cupboard space
Furniture
Storage/toys
Cost of repairs?
Plumbing & fixtures? |
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Request a free Valuation NOW |
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There is a lot you can do to help your agent to achieve
a quick sale at a good price.
Be realistic about the price you are likely to achieve.
Be flexible about viewing times. Make the job
of preparing for viewings easy. Move some of your
possessions into storage at this preparation stage.
Where there is a choice of properties, a purchaser may
view and buy another property - you may never get a
second chance. It is worthwhile investing this
energy at this point as first impressions really do
count.
Bear in mind that many prospective buyers will drive
by and view a property from the road before deciding
to ask the agent for an appointment to view.
Make sure the appearance from the outside maximises
the houses assets. Tidying up, replacing a doormat
or adding potted plants at this point can make a big
difference to first impressions.
Pick up any litter, cut the grass, trim the hedges,
touch up paintwork, put out some planted tubs and
keep them looking good.
Avoid
leaving the curtains closed all day. |
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If the outside of your property is important, the
inside is even more so. After location, space and
light are the two most important aspects for home
buyers.
Clear away the clutter, tidy up the toys, make the
beds, wash and put away the dishes and the laundry.
Keep cats and dogs out of the house for the duration.
A good tip is to pack as much as you can when you
put your house on the market - you will have to do
it soon anyway and you will be surprised how much
stuff you can do without for a few weeks.
Try to get rid of any strong smells such as those
from animals or cooking. The old clichés of putting
on a pot of coffee or some bread in the oven may be
past their best but some fresh flowers are a good
idea, and make sure the windows are clean.
Keep work surfaces in the kitchen reasonably tidy
and clear of clutter.
Make sure the house is warm but not stifling and if
you have an open fireplace in the living room, light
a fire.
It is probably not worthwhile redecorating unless it
is badly needed or unless your colour scheme is very
distinctive! Decor is unlikely to add anything to the
value but you need to avoid decor which detracts from
the value. |
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When conversing with real estate agents, you will often
find that when they talk to you about buying real estate,
they will refer to your purchase as a "home."
Yet if you are selling property, they will often refer
to it as a "house." There is a reason for
this. Buying real estate is often an emotional decision,
but when selling real estate you need to remove emotion
from the equation.
You need to think of your house as a marketable commodity.
Property. Real estate. Your goal is to get others
to see it as their potential home,
not yours. If you do not consciously
make this decision, you can inadvertently create a
situation where it takes longer to sell your property.
The first step in getting your home ready to sell is
to "de-personalize" it |
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What you need the potential buyer to see is a wonderfully
(but sparsely) furnished home that they can visualize
themselves living in. Overprovision of family
photos and personalised effects can detract from this
process.
The reason you want to make your home "anonymous"
is because you want buyers to view it as their
potential home. When a potential homebuyer
sees your family photos hanging on the wall, it puts
your own brand on the home and momentarily shatters
their illusions about living in the house themselves.
Put away family photos, sports trophies, collectible
items, knick-knacks, and souvenirs. Put them in a
box. Rent a storage area for a few months or borrow
a friends garage.
Do not just put the box in the attic, basement, garage
or a closet. Part of preparing a house for sale is to
remove "clutter," and that is the next step
in preparing your house for sale |
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This is the hardest thing for most people to do because
they are emotionally attached to everything in the house.
After years of living in the same home, clutter collects
in such a way that may not be evident to the homeowner.
However, it does affect the way buyers see the home,
even if you do not realize it.
Clutter collects on shelves, counter tops, drawers,
closets, garages, attics, and basements. You
want as much open clear space as possible, so every
extra little thing needs to be cleared away.
Take a step back and pretend you are a buyer. Let a
friend help point out areas of clutter, as long as you
can accept their views without getting defensive. Let
your agent help you, too. |
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The kitchen is a good place to start removing clutter,
because it is an easy place to start.
First, get everything off the counters. Everything.
Even the toaster. Put the toaster in a cabinet and
take it out when you use it. Find a place where you
can store everything in cabinets and drawers. Of course,
you may notice that you do not have cabinet space
to put everything. Clean them out. The dishes, pots
and pans that rarely get used? Put them in a box and
put that box in storage.
In
the process of viewing,
homebuyers will open all your cabinets and drawers,
especially in the kitchen. They want to be sure there
is enough room for their "stuff." If your
kitchen cabinets, pantries, and drawers look jammed
full, it sends a negative message to the buyer and
does not promote an image of plentiful storage space.
The best way to do that is to have as much "empty
space" as possible.
For that reason, if you have a "junk drawer,"
get rid of the junk. If you have a rarely used crock
pot, put it in storage. Do this with every cabinet
and drawer. Create open space.
If you have a large amount of foodstuffs crammed into
the shelves or pantry, begin using them – especially
canned goods. Canned goods are heavy and you don’t
want to be lugging them to a new house, anyway – or
paying a mover to do so. Let what you have on the
shelves determine your menus and use up as much as
you can.
Beneath the sink is a very critical space. Make sure
the area beneath the sink is as empty as possible, removing
all extra cleaning supplies. You should scrub the area
down as well, and determine if there are any tell-tale
signs of water leaks that may cause a homebuyer to hesitate
in buying your home. |
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Cupboards are great for accumulating clutter, though
you may not think of it as clutter. We are talking
about extra clothes and shoes you rarely wear but
cannot bear to be without. Pack them in boxes
to avoid that “cramped full look”.
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Many people have too much furniture in certain rooms
– not too much for your own personal living needs
– but too much to give the illusion of space that
a homebuyer would like to see. You may want to tour
some builders’ show houses to see how they place furniture
in the model homes. Observe how they place furniture
in the show house so you get some ideas on what to
remove and what to leave in your house.
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Basements, garages, attics, and sheds accumulate not
only clutter, but junk. These areas should be as empty
as possible so that buyers can imagine what they would
do with the space. Remove anything that is not essential
and take it to the storage area or dump. |
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Do not do anything expensive, such as remodeling. If
possible, use savings to pay for any repairs and improvements
– it is important to avoid charging up credit cards
or obtaining new loans. Remember that part of selling
a house is also preparing to buy your next home. You
do not want to do anything that will affect your credit
scores or hurt your ability to qualify for your next
mortgage. |
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When viewing a house, prospective home buyers often
do not really know what to do. So they play with
things. They flick light switches. They
open everything with a handle. They turn on all
the faucets and flush all the toilets. Having
nice shiny fixtures makes an impression.
All your sink fixtures should look shiny and new.
If this cannot be accomplished by cleaning, buy new
ones. If you don’t buy something fancy, this
can be accomplished inexpensively. Make sure
all the hot and cold water knobs are easy to turn
and that the faucets do not leak. If they do, replace
the washers. Check to make sure you have good water
pressure and that there are no stains on any of the
porcelain.
It sounds like hard work, but it's pretty easy. |
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