Selling your house can be daunting for many reasons. Making sure the home you’ve gotten used to ready to sell while trying to get everything packed up is emotional and stressful. We’ve come up with some tips and tricks to help make the transition a little easier and make your home more appealing to potential buyers.
Make A Good First Impression
When potential buyers pull up to the house, curb appeal is the first impression they will have. Clean surroundings and maintained lawns are what people are looking for. Make a great first impression by patching up dead spots in the yard, picking up any debris, and trimming your trees and bushes. Another helpful idea is to pressure wash your siding, front porch, and driveway to clean any dirt or mildew build up. Freshly painting your front door and shutters can help spruce up the entry and make buyers feel more welcome. During the winter, it is very important to clear the driveway and walkways of snow and ice. If you are selling during the summer, some brightly colored flowerpots will make potential buyers feel more at home. Each of these tips will help create a positive first impression and will give the buyers something to remember during and after touring the rest of the property.
Clean & Organize
Making sure your home is always show-ready when preparing to move may seem impossible. However, storage units can be a lifesaver; they allow you to focus on cleaning without worrying about potential buyers seeing all your boxes. Make the organization easier by removing half of the items in your closets and put them in storage. Neatly organize what’s left so potential buyers see storage possibilities rather than storage limitations and clutter.
Other tips for cleanliness and organization include removing overly personalized items. Although it was your home, you want potential buyers to be able to see themselves making their own home and all their personalization opportunities. Take pictures down and put away monogrammed items. Remove wallpaper, especially if it’s peeling or outdated, and consider painting that area a neutral color. Buyers are looking for a home with the potential to make it their own.
If you have pets, you should make plans to have them stay with a family member or friend during the time your house is being shown. Pets are a personalized part of your home, and you want potential buyers to see themselves living there, with or without their own pets. Animals are wonderful companions but can hinder the home selling process. You will want to remove all traces of animals – hair, stains, and odors – because not everyone likes pets, and any stains or odors can be off-putting.
Fix The Small Things
The broken cabinet handle, the chipped molding, the stained rug: all these issues may have faded into the background for you, but potential buyers are going to notice them right away. When selling your house, you don’t want buyers seeing everything they’d have to fix, but rather the ease of getting settled. Cleaning stains and fabrics will go a long way, as will mopping or polishing your floors. Replace outdated or broken cabinet hardware to refresh their look without replacing the cabinets themselves. Maybe even consider repainting or refinishing them. Another idea is to paint or replace moldings that are faded or chipped. Each of these inexpensive fixes will draw attention away from the buyer’s “To Be Fixed” list to the feeling of being excited to move in.
Bathrooms & Kitchens Sell Houses
Bathrooms and kitchens are one of the main selling points of a house. This means these rooms should be the main cleaning focal point. Organize any storage space, your pantry, even your fridge. Deep clean everything down to the grout. Make sure counters are clutter-free and all displayed appliances are clean. If you have some budget wiggle room, the bathroom or kitchen is a great place to consider an update. Getting a new appliance gives the appearance that other appliances are worth more or are newer too. Updates don’t need to be as big as installing a new oven or dishwasher; they can be as easy as redoing the backsplash behind your sink or buying a new light fixture. Put a little extra effort into these rooms when cleaning because this is where potential buyers will pay the most attention.
The Importance Of Good Lighting
After bathrooms and kitchens, buyers tend to care about how good the lighting is. Let as much natural light in as you can by cleaning windows and opening curtains. If you don’t have much natural light, use halogen lightbulbs or bulbs with higher wattages to create the effect of natural light. Outdated fixtures can make buyers feel like they’re stepping back in time, so consider updating them to a more modern look. Good lighting helps make a room feel larger and more inviting while enhancing the other features of the house. Lastly, exterior light is just as important as interior lighting. Motion lights or bright fixtures next to the entrances are an easy way to make buyers feel more confident in the safety of the house.
Neutral Colors Add Value
Everyone has a different sense of style or color preference, and everyone likes to add their own personal touch to their home. Painting any brightly colored rooms a neutral color, such as a light beige or earth tone, lets potential buyers see more decorating opportunities than limitations. Neutral colors also make the home feel more move-in ready rather than adding to their To-Do list. Even if you can only get to one room, the added value is worthwhile.
Hire An Inspector Before They Do
Interested buyers will most likely hire an inspector to make sure there aren’t any major issues, and to be made aware of the minor ones. Be preemptive and have an inspector look at your house for potential problems. This helps you either fix problems before the buyer sees them or be able to tell the buyer about it before their inspector does.
Hopefully these tips give you some ideas on where to start and help ease the stress of moving. When selling and purchasing a house, keep Bank Five Nine in mind for financial assistance, such as mortgages. Contact us with any questions, our dedicated staff is ready to help!
