RE/MAX Plantation - Preparing Your House For Sale

You have made the decision to sell your home. Now you need to prepare it for the market. What steps do you take to encourage interest in buyers?

Make necessary repairs
You want to avoid any expensive renovations at this point. Stick to the repairs that you can make that will improve the appeal of your home. For instance, if you have a leaky faucet, now is a good time to fix it. Obvious holes in the wall or floors should be repaired.
Do you have doors or drawers that won’t close properly? Those are easy to fix. Even the small little light bulb replacements can help. It might go unnoticed, but it might also detract from the overall feel of your house.

Paint with neutral colors
Now is not the time to experiment with painting your bathroom purple. It might really appeal to some and might turn others away. People can be passionate about color. Sure, you can argue, they can always repaint, but some don’t want to bother. It’s too much of a hassle. They just want to move into their perfect home.

The best solution is to paint with neutral colors that couldn’t offend anyone. Make it a home that anyone could find pleasing.

Add that extra shine
You want to present your home as perfect in every way. This means you will need to do daily cleaning. Polish all faucets so they shine. Often a buyer will turn on a faucet or flush a toilet to see if it works. They will notice how the chrome sparkles.
Vacuum and sweep daily. Get rid of old rugs and wash all your windows and mirrors.

Look at all the towels and linens and make sure they look clean and fresh. Of course you need to make your bed and straighten your towels. These little details make a big difference.

Remove personal items and clumsy furniture
It’s your home and you probably have accumulated a lot of stuff over the years. Most people have about two houses’ worth of things cluttered around their home. This doesn’t make for a good presentation.

Go through your furniture and give away anything that you don’t plan to take with you, anything that doesn’t fit in with your current décor. In general, people want to see furniture in a home, but they prefer to see open spaces, clear of objects.

Make sure to clear off all surfaces and clean them regularly. Prepare your home as if you were doing a photo shoot for a magazine or providing the location for your favorite sit com.

Remove anything you want to keep
If there are any appliances, window coverings or light fixtures that you plan to keep, consider taking them down before showing your home. Sometimes a buyer will assume these items come with the home and can get bent out of shape when they learn that they can’t have the drapes. It can actually blow the deal. The safest thing to do is to take them down and box them away.

Have your friends walk through your home
As a final test, after you have made all the changes you think will make your house look and feel like someone else’s dream home, ask a few friends to come over and give you their opinion. It might be impossible for you to tell if you’ve done your job without outside help.

Have your friends pretend to be a buyer and see if they can point out anything that makes them feel awkward. What do they like? What could they do without?

Of course, if you have a Realtor®, they can give you an unbiased and professional assessment, making recommendations to improve your home’s look. However if you’re selling on your own, or you just want other opinions, ask your friends for their viewpoint. They will spot things you miss.