How to Prepare Your Home for a Sale

Oftentimes, preparing your house for a sale is a lot more difficult than people realize. You will need to find a good company to do a house assessment. You will also have to work with a reliable and bonded contractor to fix any defects. Then there is the Realtor to put the house on the market. Don't forget that there will hopefully be many buyers constantly walking through deciding if they want to buy the house. Does this sound like too much? It certainly may, but not if you start by taking a few steps and make your house look attractive and pristine.

Make your house sparkling clean. For most this is common sense, but there are many people who invite Realtors and even potential buyers to their house thinking they want to see the house as "normal" and not overly clean. These buyers are far from dumb; they know that a house is normally unorganized, especially if there are children present. Thoroughly cleaning and scrubbing your home will help to bring out your home's true potential.

If you have hardwood floors, be sure to polish them. Call the professionals if you have carpets and rugs. For general house maintenance, you can rent a steam cleaner at a local store, but to maintain the interest of a potential buyer you may want to use a professional cleaning service for removal of heavy deep-seated stains. Your carpets need to be as clean and pristine as possible. They certainly must be cleaned in advance and should be in excellent shape. Otherwise, new owners will add "needs new carpet" as a condition of purchase, driving up your cost to sell the home.

Add a fresh coat of paint to your walls. You might want to skip this if you just painted your house. On the other hand, you might want to repaint if your paint job was, for example, all pink with stars sponge-painted onto the ceiling to top it off. Wall colors should be neutral throughout the house, although it is good to use brighter colors in the kitchen area, and the office should look professional. In addition, if your house has accent walls, you should think about painting over them. They might be aesthetically appealing to you, but you don't want to scare away your buyers. What appeals to your taste may turn off buyers who don't view your style as "their style," hindering their ability to see the real potential of the room. A simple rule to keep in mind throughout the selling process is to make your house appear as buyer friendly as you possibly can.

Get rid of all your clutter. In order to sell, your house needs a good presentation that allows buyers to picture themselves on the spot with their own belongings. Therefore, it is highly advisable to clear out your personal things like pictures and toys. Empty your bookshelves and cabinets of everything, including knickknacks, heirlooms, pictures, and toys. Remove most of your books from your bookcase. This will make it much easier for them to imagine their own furniture and belongings filling the rooms.

Stage rooms in your home. Put some collectors' editions or other good quality books on the bookshelves, candles and nice hand towels in the bathrooms, magazines in fan patterns on the coffee tables, and new flowers on the dining room table. Take away any furniture that doesn't fit in well or that will decrease the assumed value of the home. For example, a well-worn family heirloom doesn't necessarily have to be on display. The objective is to make every room appear comfortable and high-quality.

Start some cookies in the oven. Even if you're not the best at baking, you can always go to the grocery store, buy pre-made cookie dough, and put it in the oven 20 minutes before a showing. This will let the cookies have enough time to bake and then cool off, and give you sufficient time to leave your house before possible buyers show up. Why is it important to bake cookies? The scent of those freshly baked cookies, combined with the appearance of fresh paint, clean carpets, and staged rooms, helps any house to have a warm, welcoming atmosphere and feel like a very happy home.

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