Making Your House Ready For Sale

One of the biggest problems we see in home sales is when the seller doesn't prepare the home for showing properly.  There are 3 primary rules to prepare the home.  These rules are 1) De-personalize your home 2) "Re-new" your house and 3) Market your property. 

The first step is to de-personalize your home. 

If you cannot separate yourself emotionally from the house you are selling then you will have difficulty with steps 2 and 3 as well.  When you re-new your house you may start thinking that you really like it again and you may not want to move. And you may not want to market your house if you still think of it as your home.  You need to tell yourself that the house you are living in is an asset or investment that you are going to sale.  You may or may not be living in it but if you are, you are a tenant in an investment property.  Try and focus instead on your future home. 

• Get rid of all personal items - Family pictures, personal items that the kids made in school etc. You don't want buyers seeing the house as your home, you want them to visualize it as their home.
• De-clutter - Go and rent a storage unit and put all of those personal items there.  Also, if you have not used it in some time, then put it in storage.  This includes pots and pans and other kithen stuff that gets accumulated in the cabinets and drawers, clothing and stuff in the closets, the garage and even the attic.  Buyers will look in these places?  Get a safe and lock up medicines and firearms.

The second step is to Re-new your house. 

The big three here are, new flooring, new paint and new landscaping.  Also make repairs where necessary.  Some people make the costly mistake of spending too much money on things that don't return very much value.  You don't need to renovate the entire home.  The goal here is to make the house look newer than the competition selling the house down the street.  

• Flooring - Replace the carpets with new carpets.  This is actually less expensive that you might think.  Think about it from a buyers perspective, "New carpets, I don't have to worry about dirt, animals and other things from the previous owner!".  If you have pets and are still living in the house, then have the carpets professionally cleaned and offer a carpet allowance in the listing.  Have tile floors cleaned and regrouted if necessary.  Wood flooring should be polished or re-surfaced.   
• Paint - This is the least expensive and the most return for the money (for houses built after 1978).  Get the entire house repainted, inside and outside.  Do this several days before the first showings so the paint fumes are not overpowering.  Slight new paint odors actually help the house feel new.  Don't just paint the walls but make sure all of the trim, moldings and doors are painted as well. 
• Landscaping - This is the part of the house that invites the buyers.  If you have poorly trimmed grass and dull, un-kept plants then the buyer has already formed an opinion of the house before stepping a foot inside.  Think of your landscaping as the first impression. Consider hiring a professional landscaper. Cut, trim and mow the lawn on Thusdays so it is ready for the weekend buyers. Trim the bushes and trees. Re-mulch the beds. Plant new flowers in the beds.
• Repairs - You want the prospective buyers to know that the house they are about to buy was well taken care of.  So make all repairs before the inspector comes.  Patch all of the holes in the walls, replace lightbulbs, repair leaky faucets, lubricate door hinges, replace cracked glass, etc.  

Then finally, Market your property. 

Think of this step like a retailer selling a product.  This is why you want to take the emotion of ownership out of it.  You will arrange the house and property to sell it, not to live in it.  You want the buyer to think, "This house is organized and clean, I think the owners take care of the home as well". 

• As in the first step remove anything you don't use often and put it is storage.
• Take everything off of the closet floors.  This will make the closets look bigger.
• Arrange clothing on the hangers in order and try to make at least an inch between hangers.
• Clean off everything on kitchen counters.
• Put essential and personal items used daily (toothbrushes, deoderant, etc.)  in a small box and store it in a closet when not in use.
• Line up shoes.
• Arrange furniture so there are clear paths from room to room.  Less furniture is better, put the rest in storage.  Leave just enough furniture in a room to show the purpose of the room.
• Remove ANY items that you don't want to sell such as window coverings, light fixtures, etc.  Then replace them with something.  It is better than having exclusions.
• Clean windows inside and out.
• Pressure wash the driveway and sidewalks.
• Keep the bathrooms looking like a new hotel bathroom, New towels, soaps, etc.
• Keep the driveways clear as possible.  Park the cars in the garage and keep the door closed.

Now your house is ready for sale!  If you follow these steps then not only will your property bring top dollar but it will sell faster.  Remember the goal.  Your property should look and feel newer and better that any other house in the neighborhood listed at a similar price.