Get The House Ready
Now that you decided on your partner in crime aka your agent, it is time to get ready for the beauty pageant. Remember, you are not just selling your home. You are selling the idea of living in your house!
Secret 1: Empty your closets!
Do you know the first thing that potential buyers do? They open up your kitchen closets, your build-in wardrobes, your medicine cabinet. You name it and I can guarantee they will peek at it. Storage is one of the most important aspects potential buyers cannot get enough. Therefore, it is really important for you to clean and organize so that buyers can see the true potential. Better yet, I suggest to clean half of your closet and organize the other half so that they can fill in the blanks for themselves.
Secret 2: Turn on the lights!
Stack up on lights and make sure each light bulb is fully functioning. You know what is the next thing potential buyers will talk about back and forth? The lighting in your house either at day time or your storage room. Make sure to clean your windows, take down your curtains and drapes and increase the intensity of the light bulbs and imitate natural sun light as much as possible. Make sure your house looks like buyers will have to wear sunglasses all day long.
Secret 3: Hide the beast!
We all love our fur balls, right? As a millennial I am guilty to treat my orange tabby cat as my baby. I even call myself a cat mother! This might come as a surprise to you but not everyone is interested in your fur babies. In fact, it is best to pretend that no cat/ dog paw has ever set place in your house. I highly suggest for you to get rid of food bowls, litter and pet hair in your house. Also, make sure your house smells fresh and relocate your cat/ dog for the open houses so that they are less stressed when strangers visit.
Secret 4: Upgrade or not to upgrade?
I encourage for you take on weekend projects and focus on the make up your house.
Be my guest to paint your walls, patch the holes and cracks in the walls, fix or replace broken appliances and HVAC systems, replace door handles, fix your faucets etc. There is a saying that goes “Too much house for the neighborhood” It is important to check with your agent to analyze your neighborhood stats. We would like you to get the return of your investment after all.
Secret 5: Less homey the better…
I know you spent so much time and effort to make your house you: homey sanctuary you can return at the end of the day to relax and energize. Now, imagine strangers opposite of your taste visiting your house. It might be the perfect house on the paper but if potential buyers cannot imagine themselves living in your space they will have a pass. You see you can miss so much by not taking action. I suggest to put all your personal items in storage. You can identify personal items items as family photos, home décor, accessories and little objects etc… If you want to take the next step, which I highly suggest, you can hire a home staging professional. Keep in mind, your agent might also have this in her marketing plan as some agents do collaborations with home stagers or your agent can simply may have the knowledge to consult you at no cost.
Secret 6: Kitchen all day every day!
You remember when I first told you this will be a beauty pageant? To make it more specific this will be a beauty pageant for your kitchen. Updates I will suggest are budget friendly and will get your %85 of your money back. Remember, if we can energize your kitchen, the buyer has less chance to negotiate the purchase price.
I suggest you to start with cleaning your kitchen, this costs almost nothing as I am sure you have cleaning products in your home already. Paint the walls to neutral colors and consider an accent wall in a complementary colors.
Next budget friendly update could be to freshen up the cabinets. You can either paint them or open up shelving by removing upper cabinet doors and place them with glass fronts. This will give your house an elegant and custom upgrade felling.
When it comes to the kitchens the upgrades are limitless. Remember to clean or replace the floors. Start with any broken pieces.
Now this one I’ll suggest now might sound like a big project but depending on where you are at the time you might consider replacing the counter tops. Keeping mind, butcher block, cement, and quartz are popular with home buyers right now.
Secret 7: First impressions matter!
Think about your home as a person you meet at an event, wedding reception or job interview.
Although the inner beauty is what makes us to stay, outer beauty is what attracts us to connect. The same rule applies for your home.
Your home is getting prepared for the interview of its life. Treat your exterior so that it makes a first grade impression. The minute buyers start walking towards your home they must get curious what more beauties they will face inside. Think about painting the exterior, this is one of the most effective ways to increase the curb appeal of your home. A simple power wash can suffice in making your decks look like new. Think about cleaning up your landscape, focus on details such as pulling all weeds, trimming up tress, adding stones that match with your garden. There are many ways to add value to your home once you start investigating.
