On the "Local Resources" page under “Buying & Selling Perspectives > Selling” you\'ll find a checklist you can print out to better organize the job you have ahead of you. And make no mistake, it is a job. The reward is potentially a quicker sale at a higher price with less "nit picking".
You have two goals in preparing your home for sale.
The first is getting as many potential qualified Buyers (looking for a home like yours, i.e. price, features, etc.) as is possible to go through your home. Why?
First of all, obviously, most people won\'t buy a home if they don\'t go through it. And more buyers, in theory, means a better price (and terms).
The second goal is to "eliminate objections".
In other words, eliminate as many of the objections (large and small) as is practical, that could distract potential Buyers from really "seeing" themselves in your home. And ultimately prevent them from making you an offer.
Before we even get started, I strongly recommend getting a "Home Inspection". I can all but guarantee the Buyers will have one. If anything significant is discovered, you can have it taken care of before you\'re under contract. Problems at that point inevitably cost you more to solve. Assuming they don\'t "kill" the sale completely. A very big problem if you have purchased another residence contingent on your current home closing on or before a specific date. You do not want a leaky faucet to be a point of contention.
The absolute first thing you have to do is imagine your home as other people see it. Start with the outside;
A great number of people simply drive around looking for "for sale" signs. Other people prefer, even if they\'re working with Agents, to do "drive bys". We\'ve all seen these people driving very slowly up and down streets.
Therefore my suggestion is, walk out in the middle of the street and slowly walk down the street looking at your house the way the people driving by would.
Keep this in mind,
The potential Buyers that are scheduling showings to go through your home are going to pull in your driveway, walk to the front door and walk through your house.
The people driving by are deciding if they want to go through your home based on what they see from the street. The "curb appeal" (next to price) is arguably the most important factor in selling a home.
Now, really look at your home. How does it look as your coming down the street? Try to imagine looking for it as a Buyer would. What\'s the first thing you notice? Look at the side yard. Are there over grown bushes, trash cans, etc.? Is the paint faded or out of date? I\'ve heard of people only painting the front of their houses. Clean up the look as much as is possible and practical.
About now you\'re probably saying, "Well, if they\'re that particular" or something along those lines. I told you it was a lot of work. Just remember this; it\'s difficult, if not impossible to quantify exactly what will motivate one person or dissuade another. That\'s a discussion for Psychologists, but wouldn\'t you hate to find out later that the Buyer who would\'ve offered you the best price didn\'t bother to go through your home because your garage door windows were dirty or something else as similarly trivial that even they couldn\'t explain.
My point is, leave NOTHING to chance.
Some quick suggestions;
The biggest bang for the buck in improving the look of the front of your home; MULCH! While you’re at it, plant some annuals and keep the grass cut.
If you\'ve got a small driveway, park your cars "high and tight" (or even in the street in front of the neighbors house) especially if you\'ve got a showing scheduled. Some buyers might not like having to squeeze past your cars (or theirs if they bought the home) to get to the front door.
(Not to change the subject, but if you have a showing scheduled and you\'re working with an Agent, they should have told you that you SHOULDN\'T be present during showings. If you\'re selling yourself see ( The Problems With Selling Your Own Home).
Obviously, if you have peeling paint or cracked windows, those should be addressed.
Keep this in mind, MOST BUYERS DON\'T WANT TO DO ANYTHING.
We\'ve all heard to put some potted plants near the entry, basically, dress it up. But allow me to give you something to consider.
If you\'re selling your own home or you\'ve left the house to allow an Agent to show it, the excited Buyers are going to be standing in your entry, either waiting for you to answer the door or the Agent to retrieve the key from the lockbox. When they\'re standing there they\'ll be looking at everything within sight. When they walk into you home they\'ll be overwhelmed with things to look at, but at the front door, they\'ll see every detail. The chipped tile or concrete, the lighting, the faded or dirty paint, the ceiling, the smudges on the kick plate area of the door.
My point is, get this area as perfect as you can.
A note about selling a vacant home…
A furnished home "shows" better than an empty one. If the homes empty, consider renting furniture for a few weeks.
On to the interior…
Since you\'re planning on selling, you\'re probably planning on moving. You\'re going to start packing at some point, START NOW.
You want to try and make your home look as spacious as possible, pack all those little knick knacks, books, anything and everything. Visually, all these things "busy up" a home making it appear smaller than it actually is.
It\'s been suggested to remove anything of a personal nature; that being ANYTHING that might offend, make uncomfortable or "turn off" ANY potential buyer. And please, remove anything of value.
Be you showing the home yourself or an Agent showing it, a common scam is for a "couple" to enter the house and then head in different directions. By saying common I\'m not saying a lot of people are being robbed but that when it does happen this is a common method.
Minimize the amount of furniture in each and every room. Sometimes people have furniture placed out in the walk ways. You\'ve learned to live with it, but if a potential Buyer runs into it, they\'re immediately going to feel the house is cramped.
Closets tight? Go through those as well. Potential Buyers will open them to see the size. You want them to feel like there\'s more space than you could possibly use. So where do you put all these things? If you\'re not willing to rent a storage unit for a few months, leave the cars in the driveway and put your boxes smack dab IN THE MIDDLE of the garage. A garage is a garage and Buyers can imagine it being empty. If you stack it against a sidewall, they may think it\'s permanent storage and there\'s not enough storage space in the house.
The next step... Clean, clean, CLEAN!
Now that you\'ve got the house thinned out and cleaned, up the wattage of the bulbs in all the lights. Your goal is to brighten up the space. Don\'t worry about them being too bright for practical purposes. The people looking aren\'t going to "use" the light.
As you\'re thinning out items and cleaning you should be keeping a list of every little problem you come across. Examples being; leaky faucets, loose switches, doors that catch, anything and everything. You want to take care of all of these.
You want as few issues as possible "busying up" the minds of the potential buyer.
The reason is this; the buyers, in their minds, are compiling a pro and con list about your home. Everything goes on that list. Big issues and little issues. Some of the things you can\'t do anything about, the location or style of the house for example.
The reason to take care of the little issues is that the little issues (negatives) take up as much space on that list as the real issues. Some examples of real issues might be, the roof only has a couple of more years in it, or the heating / cooling system is near the end of its lifespan.
Ultimately, you want that list as small (and focused) as possible.
As I\'ve said before, buying or selling a home is an emotion packed undertaking and the buyers are already "stressing out" worrying about finding the right house, paying the "right" price, etc.
At the foremost of the buyers’ worries is the fear of buying a house with issues they didn\'t know about.
In their minds they\'re not going to subcategorize large or small issues, they\'re just going to "feel" like there\'s a lot of issues.
Logic might prevail and they still might make an offer, but the offer price will reflect those issues and usually for much more money than if you had taken care or them on your own.
Let me put it in another way;
I always advise customers, when getting their home ready for sale, to make as many rooms as possible, PERFECT. That way the buyers are thinking, " well, this room needs _________, but everything else is great" or "other than the ________, this house is perfect".
Now you\'ve cleaned, thinned and addressed all the little issues, the question now is; should you paint?
Everyone\'s heard about neutral colors, and I\'m sorry to tell you it\'s true. Any dark colors on the walls not only make the room darker but also make the space seem smaller.
I can understand if you don\'t want to get that involved, but maybe just paint the room buyers will see when they walk in. ( "as many rooms perfect as possible" )
The same is true of updating out dated appliances, counter tops, etc. You may not want to or simply might not be financially able to update. If your home needs updating and it\'s not something you want to do, I would encourage you to at least make it look very well maintained.
Many times as an agent I\'ve shown homes that were, in appraiser talk, "cosmetically obsolete". Most of these homes had older owners, and while the counters, cabinetry or flooring were out dated, you could tell the homes were in fact, very well maintained by the owners.
My point is this, if the little things seem well maintained it stands to reason that overall, the whole home has been well maintained, and Buyers love that.
How do you achieve that "well maintained" look? The details; Clean windows, good grout, cracks sealed and things of the sort.
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