Preparing Your Home For Sale – Leigh Brown’s Best Tips for Success
When it’s time to put your house on the market, there’s a host of things to consider: timelines, where you’re going to go next, how to say goodbye to the now-ending chapter in your life, and, perhaps most importantly, how to make your house appealing to all those buyers out there who are champing at the bit to find “THE RIGHT HOME.”
This is where the Leigh Brown Team comes in. We’ve been at this for a long time and know the things that need to happen in and around your home before you put it on the market, before all those buyers line up to take a look, and before someone walks in and says, “This is The One.”
CLEAN. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? But it’s the single most effective thing you can do. Easy, and pretty inexpensive, especially if you do it yourself. Wipe down baseboards, dust everything, get into cracks & crevices with a little toothbrush if you can. Make your home shine! If you don’t have time, hire a cleaning service to come in and give it the once-over from stem to stern.
DEODORIZE. Pay close attention to this one if you have pets. There are few things as pungent as animals and anything they may have (ahem) left behind. There are lots of things you can to to help neutralize those odors—and your potential buyers will appreciate your efforts! Also, we know things like bacon and frying onions or garlic smell absolutely divine when you’re cooking dinner, but those smells linger and can be offensive to some, so be mindful of airing things out after you’ve cooked.
DE-CLUTTER. If you’ve been thinking about taking a load of stuff off to Goodwill or wherever, now is the time to do it! Not only will getting rid of your clutter make your house look better and more spacious to buyers, it’ll give you a leg up on packing to move (there’ll be that much less stuff to load into boxes!)
NEUTRALIZE. Many of us make, shall we say, bold statements of personal taste when it comes to decorating our homes. But the fact is that many people don’t share our tastes. So, if you’ve got a room you’ve painted dark red or plum or if you have wallpaper up anywhere, it’s a good idea to undo that choice. Remove wallpaper if you can (this is a huge turnoff for buyers) and paint walls something neutral like tan or cream. You want people to be able to look at your house like a blank canvas and to be able to envision their things and colors on the walls.
DE-PERSONALIZE. Personal items help to make a house a home. But you want buyers to be able to see the house as their home. If you’ve got it loaded with family photos or your kids’ artwork, it’ll be hard for people to see their own things in the space. If it’s personal, pack it up.
LIGHTEN UP. When you get the word that there’s going to be a showing on your home, make sure you open drapes or blinds, and turn on the lights. All of them. When you’re getting things ready, you might consider bringing in extra lamps—floor or table type—to really help brighten things up. Extra light will make rooms look bigger and really show them in their best, well… light.
GO NATURAL. Adding a few pots of plants and flowers can be a huge boon to how your home shows. Not only are they bright and vibrant, they can help pull buyers’ eyes toward the things you want to highlight. Using plants that are tall can draw eyes upward toward things you want seen; pots placed near things that are special will bring attention to those areas.
DITCH IT. If the rooms in your house are filled to bursting with furniture and STUFF, consider getting rid of it. If you’ve got a lot of bulky furniture, put some of it in storage, donate it, or sell it. Rooms with less stuff in them look bigger & that can go a long way toward getting those buyers toward making an offer.
ORGANIZE. Like it or not, buyers are nosy. They’re going to look in your pantry, your cabinets, and your closets. So tidy those things up! Straighten up the stuff in your pantry. Align labels and make things neat (we know this might sound a little “Sleeping With The Enemy,” but trust us: this is a great touch). In your closets, hang clothes so they’re all facing the same direction. Get rid of and donate anything you haven’t worn in the last year (no, you will never wear your high school jeans again… get rid of them).
FIX IT. Take a walk through your house and make note of any dings or nicks in the paint. Make a list of anything that needs to be fixed. And then FIX THOSE THINGS. Tighten up loose doorknobs, repaint walls that are scuffed or dingy, fix leaky faucets, and so on. Those little things can really make a big difference.
GIVE IT A MAKEOVER. Think about doing a few mini-updates to make what’s old look new. You can replace drawer pulls or cabinet knobs, update the fixtures on your sinks, get new light fixtures for the outside of your home (these are all pretty inexpensive and can make a big difference). Consider putting a fresh coat of paint on your front door, putting slip covers on your tired-out couch, and putting a little “makeup” on anything that looks worn-out.
STAGE IT. Did you know that staged homes sell faster and for more money than homes that aren’t? It’s true. Repurposing rooms, creating little vignettes, amping up your feng shui, and employing other staging goodness will do more than we can say to make your house look like someone else’s home. Leigh Brown knows more than a thing or two about this; we’d be happy to talk to you about putting your home’s best foot forward.
Ready to get started on the legwork? Give Leigh Brown & Associates, REALTORS® a call at (704) 705-7036 or send us an email (leigh@leighsells.com). We’ll talk about what you need to do, and offer some pointers on other things you can do to make your home more marketable. Ready, set, GO!
