4 Simple Tips to Get Your Home Ready to Sell
There may come a point when it’s time to sell your home. Maybe you’re facing this decision now or maybe you’ll consider selling in a few years. Either way, you’ll need to know how to effectively get your home ready to sell.
Your home, as perfect as it is, will most likely need some repairs or updates. Because we’re often blinded by our own bias, you might ask a friend to walk through your home and write a list of repairs they would want done should they choose to buy your home.
You might just be surprised at what a fresh set of eyes will find!
Your friend can give you a more focused list of repairs specific to your house, but if you don’t have someone to do that for you, here are some tips to get you started: Repairs to Make Before Selling Your Home Part 1 and Part 2.
Here are four simple options:
1. Apply a fresh coat of paint.
Both interior and exterior paint weathers over time. Giving your home a fresh coat will revive your home and make it look more move-in ready. If your house is painted with bold colors throughout, you may consider repainting with neutral colors.
Neutral paint on walls is the fastest, most inexpensive way to freshen a room. Why? Because choosing neutrals will serve as a blank slate for potential buyers. Regardless of how proud you are of your design and decorating abilities, when buyers walk through your house, you want them to envision their lives in it, not yours.
2. Replace fixtures.
You may not notice them since they’ve likely been in your home since you purchased it, but lighting fixtures go out of date and occasionally need to be replaced. Remember the ’90s when all accents throughout houses were brass? If you watch HGTV or scroll through Pinterest, you’ll notice that brass is out!
Replacing your lighting fixtures can add to the value of your home and also make it easier to sell. For instance, it may be time to bid farewell to the dated rectangle of fluorescent light bulbs perched on the ceiling. Consider a more modern feel with track lighting. Go ahead and increase your bulb wattage while you’re at it. Increased lighting in your home makes the space look more open and bright and appeals to potential home buyers.
3. Update your kitchen.
What is the first thing most of us look at in a new home? That’s right, the kitchen! The kitchen is where many of us spend most of our time. Whether we’re cooking for family or entertaining guests, people tend to linger in the kitchen.
Since the kitchen plays such a critical role in the house, you need to make sure your kitchen appliances are up to date, the space is clean, and your things are off the counters. Get rid of the clutter and showcase the available storage in each tidy cupboard and closet. Doing this will make even the smallest kitchen appear bigger, and therefore more usable.
4. Clean up outside.
With winter on its way out and spring swooping in, it’s crucial to stay on top of your landscaping. Letting your yard get overgrown is only going to look like a lot of work to potential buyers. Keeping a freshly cut yard, well-groomed shrubbery, and well-watered flowers shows potential buyers that you value your home and that they should, too.
In addition to landscaping, you’ll want to make other repairs to the exterior of your home. Replace that broken screen that you’ve been putting off for a few months. You probably don’t even notice it anymore, but I can assure you, buyers will see it. The same goes for updating an aged front door, lighting fixtures, and your mailbox. All these small outdoor repairs will serve to make a great first impression on your potential home buyers.
Most buyers these days are looking for a move-in ready house without a great deal of work involved. If you take the little bit of time needed to complete these repairs, the value of your home will increase and you may just sell your house faster!
Have more home selling questions? Check out this free ebook, Answers to Your For Sale By Owner Most Frequently Asked Questions.
By Danielle Keech for MilitarybyOwner
