Showing your home is all about first impressions. The extra time you spend getting your home ready for sale will often increase your chances of receiving a higher offer. Therefore, before putting your home on the market go through your home to update, refresh and declutter. Here are steps you can follow.
1. Do your homework.
a. What are homes selling for in your area?
b. How do these homes compare to yours? (Square footage, features and location) Ex: Type of home, bedrooms, baths, style, acres, year built, walkscore, 1 or 2 car garage and driveway size, and updates to interior and exterior.
Find out what your home is worth without speaking with an agent here or get a more complete home evaluation here.
An agent can assist you in determining your home value with little or no pressure. We can also keep your preferences in our database and alert you when your ideal home comes up for sale.
Signing up for our monthly e-newsletter would keep you infront of the real estate market and keep you informed about local events.
2. Make sure all light fixtures work and you have extra bulbs on hand. The brighter your home the more spacious and inviting it will appear.
3. Rent a storage unit to pack up and store your extra items from step 4.
4. Declutter and organize your home.
Remember you are striving to create a blank slate for someone to build from. Visitors should not be distracted by your items to view your home.
Therefore, remove knick knacks and excessive personal items such as family photos and notes from every room. Leave just enough to give a lived-in feeling. Ex: Remove items cluttering the refrigerator.
Arrange furniture to create good traffic flow. And only furniture and lamp stands should be left sitting on the ground.
Purge your closets and cabinets building in at least 25% of free space.
Don’t forget to declutter below your bathroom and kitchen sinks.
Clutter in a home will give the perception that there aren’t enough storage areas and that the home is too small to live in.
Painting the walls in lighter tones, positioning mirrors to create more light, and minimizing window treatments and drapery will help make a room look bigger.
5. Deep clean your home.
Everything must be cleaned including: floors, walls, windows, mirrors, counters, appliances, furniture, bathrooms including toilets, rugs and ceiling fan blades. Everything that creates a bad smell should be cleaned or removed.
Booking a professional cleaner can be very useful to reduce the work and stress of preparing your home.
6. Fix or replace broken items.
Ex: door locks, leaky faucets, running toilets, cracks or holes in the walls, broken appliances, squeaky floors or doors, cracks in the sidewalk leading up to the front door. Replace a worn carpet if cleaning is not possible. Replace the shower curtain. Getting acquainted with a handy man can be very helpful at this point.
Items or areas needing repair give the impression that the house was not cared for and will turn prospective buyers away. Or they will lower the offering price (and more) to pay for the repair.
7. Paint and/or touch up the walls, stairwells, baseboards and crown molding in neutral colours.
Ex: white, light grays or light beiges. This will brighten up your home and cover any small imperfections. This will also suggest less work when moving in.
8. Check your curb appeal.
Giving a good first impression starts outside your home. Remove toys and excessive lawn fixtures. You may also need to touch up the paint on your exterior surfaces. Power wash the outside siding of dirt and cobwebs. Maintain the flower beds. If off-season plant silk flowers for a touch of colour. Replace your welcome mat.
9. Before a showing:
Open the windows to air out the house.
Bake cookies or bread for an inviting smell.
Bring cut fresh flowers into the house for the scent.
Leave lemonade and mini-glasses.
Turn all the lights on.
Replace the towels in the bathrooms.
Remove extra items from counters.
Make all the beds.
Cut the grass.
In the summer: make certain the air conditioner is on.
In the winter: turn the fireplace on for a cozy feeling.
10. Get ready for your offers.
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