The hard facts of getting ready to sell your home

The first thing you must do is evaluate your house as if you were going to purchase it all over again. Look at it through the buyers eyes. If you cannot be critical, ask me for advice.  Here are some basic tips on how to get a home ready for sale:

Cleaning is the place to start! Make sure the light fixtures are washed, the floors are shiny, windows washed, blinds dusted, etc, you get the idea. Cleaning from top to bottom and then maintaining this look is a must. If you cannot handle this on your own, having a cleaning service help will take the stress off your busy schedule.

Kitchen and Bathrooms sell the house. Every buyer is extremely critical of these areas and every seller has the hardest time maintaining theses areas because of getting ready in the morning, getting the kids out, making breakfast lunch and dinner... Just plain living in your house while you are trying to sell it is the problem. But these rooms must be clean and tidy and sparkle. Really sparkle to the point of getting out the bleach and whitening the grout, polishing the faucets and making your shower look like you do not use it. Use bright colored towels to make the bathroom brighter and more colorful. Try and coordinate with the colors of your tile or carpet, even if they are very neutral, use color to enhance the appearance.

The kitchen counters should be as bare as possible. Remove the old blender that rarely gets used. Take out the old trash can and replace it with a shiny new one. Adding some flowers on the counter top or the kitchen table is a nice touch. Don't use specific fragrances like potpourri or plug in air fresheners because the scent may be overpowering and could indicate that yo are trying to hide an undesirable odor. If you are really serious, bake cookies, bread, or even slow cook a pot roast in a crock pot. Nobody can resist these delicious aromas. Remember, clean, fresh and homey is always a winner.

De-clutter, de-clutter, and more de-cluttering. Cannot say this enough. Rule of thumb to remember…..if you do not need it on a daily basis, pack it way. You are moving so get a head start on it. The problem with most homes is the owner keeps their personality in the property instead of making it neutral. By removing your “stuff” the buyer can imagine moving their “stuff” in the room. Always a good buying sign. Buyers are not always good at looking past problems. People come up with more reasons why not to buy than to purchase…so by taking away the objections before they arise, you are ahead of the game.

Closets need to be organized, pack away the non-seasonal garb and thin it out. Cabinets under sink areas need to be cleaned out and the flooring checked for damage from water leaks or chemicals everyone keeps under sinks. Remove as much as possible. The rest of the closets in the home need to be organized and neatly stacked. Try to make them look as large as possible.

Basements – if it is finished, the same rule apply. Unfinished basements are difficult to present and make warm. If you use the basement as a storage area, first of all, pack as much as you can in boxes, then stack everything in one area, neatly. Make the basement look as large as you can, don’t cover or block and important items the buyers may want to see: sump pit/pump, crawl space, roughed in plumbing. Keep these area accessible while containing your stored items in one area. If your basement is finished, the same rules apply as any other room in the house. Neat, well organized, and ready for showings.

Repairs. Most people are not aware of repairs that need to be made. Because you live there, the obvious can be overlooked and become the norm. I encourage every seller to have their home inspected before we even put the home on the market.  By having the home inspected you have the advantage of finding and repairing problem that could derail an otherwise great contract. Very new homes (less than 7 years) should not need to be pre-inspected, but older homes over 20 years can benefit from a through inspection. Remember the idea of handling an objection before it surfaces always makes the contract negotiations easier.

Re-arrange furniture. Sometimes a room will look larger and will flow better is furniture is removed and/or re-arranged. I like to call it home staging. In staging a home, the main goal is to make the home look larger by de-cluttering and rearranging the overall flow of the house. Another feature of staging is adding accent pieces of furniture if needed. I mentioned this earlier, but you have to imagine being a buyer. Buyers will try and place their furniture and belongings in your house before they even make an offer. If you have lots of stuff, or the look and flow of the house is bad, the buyer may envision their stuff may not fit. So de-clutter, de-clutter and de-clutter some more, then make sure you take a critical look at all the rooms for overall condition and furniture layout. Consider making the family room cozy, the living room a place to share a conversation with a friend and the dining room is always a formal invitation for dinner. Furniture that is too big for the room should be removed. Remember….bigger is better when sizing up a house to buy and if the rooms appear too small, even if they are not, the buyer may not choose your house.

Garage. This is the catch all area of the house. If you cannot organize the garage with shelving and allow ample floor space, you need to rent a storage facility and move some things out. The garage should be clean and organized. Most buyers will only take a cursory peek here, but if it is obvious that there is no room for storage along with their car/cars the buyer may not move on to another home. Keep in mind that a neat and tidy garage is a reflection on how the seller maintains the house. If the garage is that nice, the house will be even better.

Outside. The exterior personifies the character of the seller. “Curl appeal” is an old real estate term attached to each home. If it looks good driving up, the inside should be even better. Take a look at the exterior paint, do you need to repaint or just touch up the peeling window sills? Is the landscaping trimmed for the season? Weeds are absolutely not allowed….get the weed killer out and spray weekly or pull them out. Any dead trees or shrubs need to be removed. Make your lawn the greenest in the neighborhood, check your fence for damaged pickets. And make sure the front door is clean, paint it if necessary, and have it open smoothly, with easy operating locks. If the agent can't get the key to work in a door whose paint is peeling with spider webs in all corners, they just might move on to the next home.

All these suggestions may sound strict, and they are supposed to be. Remember, you are selling your most important asset, and you need to show pride. A buyer will pay more for a home that shows great and has been cared for than one that looks just like another place to live. I've spent over 20 years watching people an dhow they make their home buying decisions. These tips are just a few of what I've learned to be key points in the buying process. There are many more to watch out for, but these areas must be taken care of and when they are, you have just helped stack the cards in your favor as a seller.