11 Tips for Preparing Your House to Sell

Depending on the state you live in, any offer placed on your home will be contingent on a home inspection. However, most real estate agents will strongly encourage their clients to get an inspection regardless of what the law requires. These are typically done after an offer is accepted, but it’s helpful to know ahead of time which issues may arise, especially if you want to knock a few repairs off the list to make your home more enticing to buyers. If there is major damage or a problem that you are not willing to fix, you can be upfront with interested parties.

Common Issues to Consider Fixing Before Listing Your Home:

• Water damage.
• Breaks in window seals.
• Electrical issues and uncapped live wires.
• Improperly installed shingles, siding or flashing.
• Defects in the home heating and cooling systems.
• Severe cracks or uneven surfaces in the driveway and walkway.

Wait to officially list until you have completed your home improvement projects, but start interviewing agents as you’re preparing your property for sale. They can provide valuable insight into the current housing market. Use prospective agents as a resource to know what should be updated to get top dollar from your sale.

Important Questions to Ask a Realtor:

• What are current real estate trends?
• What would they like to see changed?
• Is the local market trending up or down?
• What would they highlight about your home?
• How impactful would it be to make major home changes?
• What improvements are needed to meet FHA loan requirements?
• What is the average time a home sits on the market during this time of year?

Consider giving your house a new coat of paint and freshen up your landscaping to create a cohesive look from the outside in. Tear out overgrown hedges, create clean edge lines, plant flowers and put down a new layer of mulch.

Then, make sure to power wash the outside of your home to blast off dirt and grime before hiring a professional photographer to take pictures of your home. If your house appears dirty from the outside, it could cause concern to passersby that your interior is just as messy.

Create an Inviting Entryway

Buyers want to feel right at home from the minute they walk through the door. Purchase a welcome mat and hang a wreath so they feel comfortable. Make the home more attractive and step up your curb appeal by painting the front door. Select a color that compliments your home, either seamlessly or with an eye-catching contrast. You want potential buyers to approach your home and see themselves living on the other side of the front door.

You probably wouldn’t even think to fix the small scratch in the drywall or the hole left from a disobedient holiday decoration, but these might matter to a buyer. Fill in holes and repair drywall where there is excessive damage. Focus on the high-traffic areas of your home first, and be sure to take a look at how much wear and tear doorknobs are showing — if they’re scratched, add them to the repair list.

Repairs That Prep Your Home to Sell:

• Realign doors that don’t close properly.
• Replace damaged or cracked floor tiles.
• Update faucets and bathroom hardware.
• For a full list of repairs to make, try these renovations to increase your home value.

Repainting the inside of your home hides imperfections and improves the appeal for potential buyers. While a lime-green laundry room may create an energetic atmosphere for you, it can be overwhelming to others. In order to appeal to a wide range of buyers, stick to neutral colors.

Clear out the spare room that’s collected all of your junk over the years and give it a purpose. It helps to show buyers how they might be able to use the space instead of showcasing your clutter. Try moving the extra desk from the basement into the spare room to create an office or rent a bedroom set to showcase how much furniture the room can hold.

Vacuuming on the weekends and an occasional dusting are not going to help your home sell. Hiring professional cleaners who will scrub scuff marks from baseboards and meticulously clear dust from the top of your windowsills can make your home shine.

Common Areas People Forget to Clean:

• Grout
• Ceiling line
• Shower head
• Tables and chairs
• Windows and blinds
• Inside cupboards, cabinets and drawers

Staging is often the missing step that buyers need to help them visualize your old home as their new one. You’ll want to keep elements that make the home feel lived-in yet clean enough to attract potential buyers. Effectively staging your home should highlight eye-catching details for buyers while also giving them ideas for how to best use the space.

This goes hand-in-hand with staging your home to sell. Potential buyers need to envision what their belongings will look like in this space, not yours.

Personal Items to Remove:

• Family photos
• Favorite knickknacks
• Monogrammed décor

Pay attention to the smells in the house. You want to make sure the home has a pleasant aroma and you can’t smell where the cat had an accident on the carpet, but you also don’t want to overwhelm buyers with different scents from wall plug-ins, candles and air fresheners.

How to Make the House Smell Fresh:

• Try not to cook meals at home.
• Spray a room deodorizer with a mild scent, like lemon.
• Leave the windows open for 30 minutes before the open house.
• Remove pets, shoes, gym bags and anything else that holds odors.