Preparing to Sell Your Home

Spring is lurking just around the corner, which means if you plan to sell your house during “moving season”, now is the time to start getting your ducks in a row. If you are like most homeowners you want to make sure you get a great price for your home, so you need to make sure you plan accordingly to bring in the absolute best offers possible.On the other hand, you want a smooth stress free move into your new home so you don’t go totally bonkers.

So how do you handle it all? What sort of things should you be doing RIGHT NOW to get the highest price for your home and get successfully moved before the summer?

Moving Plan

Before you get to cleaning up or making repairs on your house, you should come up with “moving plan”. A moving plan doesn’t need to be formal, but is more of an exercise to make sure you’ve thought of everything in the big picture. Consider these questions to help you come up with a plan.

How much will my house sell for?

What will my NET proceeds be?

Are you going to buy a new house or rent?

Do you need to sell your home first in order to qualify?

Can you buy and sell a home concurrently?

Do you know that you qualify for a new home?

How much will you qualify for?

Can you really afford the home that you want? (Prices have gone up!)

If you do plan to sell your house AND buy a new one, take a look at an article I wrote called How To Buy and Sell A Home At The Same Time Without Anxiety

Figure out the answer to all these questions, and you’ll find you will have clarity on WHY you want to move, and exactly HOW you are going to do it.

Prepping the House

Once you have an idea of your moving plan, it’s time to shift your attention to the house itself. The reality is, how we live our day to day lives in our homes is not how people want to see it. They want to see a clean, light, bright, beautiful home that they can imagine themselves living in. that means no kids toys, dirty dishes, or laundry laying around.

Take these steps to make sure your home looks its absolute best before listing it.

Clean – Entire house, top to bottom and no cheating! Buyers are particularly interested in clean kitchens and bathrooms.  Some of the common areas missed are baseboard, fans, and air conditioner filters. Home buyers associate a clean home with a well taken care of home. Cleanliness goes much further than you may realize, and it is worth every hour you spend (or penny if you hire out, which I recommend!)

Staging – The power of staging is impossible to deny.  Staging can refer to the rearrangement of your furniture and décor in the home, or bringing in entirely new décor to the home.  For a full, very detailed article on staging your home, check out 10 Staging Secrets – Prepare Your House to be Sold .

Paint – If you have any unusual colors, or maybe that one room that just didn’t come out like you envisioned, but left it anyways, it might be time to paint. Touch up paint to hide big nicks and scratches go a long way.  Remember you should be appealing to all buyers.  The mentality of “it’s just paint, they can change it if they want” is perfectly understandable, but unfortunately many buyers don’t see past something as simple as paint.

Declutter – Home buyers don’t want to see your things.  It’s always better to be slightly barren than have too many things. Remove pictures, personal objects, clear off the countertops, thin out shelves. You can leave some art on the walls, but keep them light and appropriately sized. I know it doesn’t quite feel like home, but trust me, buyers do NOT want to see your things and DO get distracted by them.

But these are just the basics, download this checklist I’ve put together HERE  that includes 4 pages of items to go through and review. Take the time to FULLY follow it, and you’ll be on your way to selling your house for more than your neighbors in no time.

Improving the House

We need to be a little careful here.  You see just about all home improvement project have an ROI of less than 100% by themselves(usually between 60-90%). This means you are technically losing money by doing them so don’t necessarily assume it will be worthwhile.

Now, this is where a professional really can help.  In a lot of homes, there are improvements that can be done, which elevate the home in its entirety which will be worthwhile.  For example, a beautifully remodeled home except the bedrooms which have old stained carpeting and 30 year old ceiling fans.

The cost to do these updates to match the new move-in appeal of the rest of the house will be well worth it.  You should be able to sell at the top of the range for your home to a buyer looking for a 100% move in ready home.

Flip the scenario, and say you have an original 30 year old home, and want to replace the flooring in the bedrooms. That might cost you $2,000 – $3,000, which you will not be getting back, sorry!

Lastly, it’s time to do any repairs you’ve been putting off. Again, you need to be careful on the type of repairs. Repairs that are going to be evident and easily visible by a buyer touring your home should be taken care of. (stretching carpet, holes in walls, broken front door knob, seized sliding door, etc).

Inevitably your home will go through a home inspection, and there will most likely be issues you didn’t even know existed come up. The point for today is, fix the things buyers will notice right up front.  You don’t want to scare them off or give them a reason to not be interested.

When you put it all together, there’s lot to do when planning and executing the sale of a home. It really does come down to putting in some work, and giving attention to the details in order to secure the best price for your home. Just remember, a good Realtor will help you with ALL of this, so you never need to tackle it alone. My door is always open, please let me know how I can help you plan your next move.

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