Our team is frequently asked what the best strategies are to prepare your home for having the quickest sale and obtaining a large profit. Preparing your home for sale involves careful planning and professional expertise to help convince buyers to pull out their cheque books. Our team has carefully put together a list of five steps that we as professionals believe will help ensure your home sells quickly and for top dollar.
Curb Appeal
First impressions go a long way, so make sure your homes exterior looks excellent. This can include applying a fresh coat of paint to the front door, mowing your lawn, weeding your flower beds and keeping the walkway clear. Adding a few planters or a cheerful wreath to your front door can make all the difference. In the winter, ensure your driveway is clear of any ice or snow. Many potential buyers will often meet their agent at a house and if they arrive before their agent, they are left outside scrutinizing the exterior. Our team believes this is the most critical step to ensuring a great lasting impression, therefore if you are on a tight budget, try to at least brighten up your front entrance.
Clean Clean Clean
Make your house sparkle from top to bottom by giving your entire house a deep clean. Dust on top of fan blades and fireplace mantles, wash windows, cabinets and countertops, polish your appliances and faucets, vacuum any carpets and mop any wood or tile flooring. Spend the majority of your time cleaning in your kitchen and your bathrooms, as a good impression of these rooms will greatly increase your homes appeal. If you are too busy to stay on top of things or you have already moved out of your home, you can always hire a cleaning crew.
Declutter and Depersonalize
Potential buyers want to be able to envision themselves living in your home, and that is hard to do if all they see are your personal items. Help them out by removing family photos, your kids artwork, framed diplomas and personal collections. Buyers also want to be able to move freely around your home without being blocked by furniture, which can be avoided by removing any extra or oversized items that could make your space look smaller than it really is. Clear any clutter on countertops, remove any piles of shoes from entry ways, remove mail from the kitchen table and anything else that distracts your home from showcasing its gorgeous features.
Repaint the Walls
Paint on walls can be easily overlooked in a home. Your walls may be in need of maintenance or the choice of colours in your home could be a turn off to potential buyers. Repaint your walls to neutral tones like light greys, tans or whites that allows buyers to focus on the space itself and not the colour of the walls.
Tackle Repairs
Buyers will notice any of the little things around the house that you have been meaning to repair but have not got around too. Repair that leaky faucet, any cracked tiles, any holes in the walls and cabinet issues you may have. Do not forget to tighten any loose doorknobs. Remove scuffs on the floor and most importantly double check that all the bulbs in your home work and replace any burnt out ones.
When preparing your home for sale it is important to detach yourself from your home, put on your buyers shoes and walk through your home like it is the first time. The goal is to make it easy for potential buyers to envision themselves living in your home. If you have any questions, our team is always here to help you and we are a phone call away!
-Victoria Barnes