Selling your home can be an extremely stressful time. Even in our current market where some houses are sold within days. Believe it or not, some houses end up sitting without buyers because some people cannot see past cosmetic issues. I have 5 easy ways to prep your home to sell. A few tips are easy to overlook but trust me buyers notice everything!
My husband and I have been on both ends of the market recently. We had to put our house on the market to sell. And we also had to buy a new home in an entirely new state! I had to prep our home to sell, and I also was the one inspecting other people’s homes to buy. It helps that I can see past cosmetic things that need to be done with a home because I love to put my touch on a home. I love to decorate but I realize a lot of people have a difficult time with this. I recommend you try hard to get past cosmetics or another person’s style difference and look at “the bones” of a house!
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This is in by no way an all-inclusive list but a great starting point. I hope these ideas give you a little insight into what buyers are looking at when they tour your home.
Make The Entry Inviting
You only have one chance to make a 1st impression! The entry to your home is the first thing potential buyers will see and the last! You want to make it a good one.
- Trim your bushes & trees
- Add fresh mulch
- Plant a few flowers
- Buy a new welcome mat so it looks fresh and clean
- Clean your front door and get rid of spider webs and dead bugs that are hanging out.
Clean & Organize Closets
Let me cut to the chase, people are nosey! They will no doubt look in all your closets and cabinets. We had a neighbor come over to our open house and peak in our cabinets, it’s human nature! I recommend you take the time to do a little organizing and decluttering. I did a blog post on organizing that will help with this. You can find that post here, My Top 5 Home Organizing Tips.
Peeking inside your closets can also give them a glimpse into the “real” you. Did you just shove everything into your closets and how clean is your home really? Organized cabinets and closets will also show how much storage space they have to work with. You know, how much junk they can store! Lol.
Don’t forget:
- Junk drawers
- Tupperware, organize those lids and containers!
- Shoes, line them up neatly in your closet, or better yet get a shoe organizer!
- Closet, get rid of unused clothes, and organize by color
Keep It Neutral
This is something to keep in mind always. Even when you are picking a color to paint when you move into your new home. It is a good idea to choose neutral colors. We saw a few homes that had bold dark colors in every single room in the house. I can look past cosmetic things, but I don’t know if you have looked at paint prices lately, but paint is expensive. And every single room in a house takes a lot of time and a lot of coats of paint!! Have you ever tried to paint over red? I have, it is extremely difficult.
Neutral colors are generally brighter and more pleasing to the eye. They can be coordinated with a lot of different decorating styles also. So, the house hunters that have a difficult time picturing their things in your space will struggle less with neutral colors.
Clean Your House!
I love a clean house even when I am not selling my house! Most people do not want to see a home that looks “lived in” when house hunting. I would suggest hiring a professional to do a deep clean prior to putting your house on the market. They will do all the spots that you might miss, and you can maintain it from there.
A few spots not to forget
- Light switches – we saw so many dirty light switches, please give them a good cleaning!
- Baseboards
- Ceilings – cobwebs hang out in the corners
- Under & behind furniture
- Oven – yes, they will look in there!
- Windows and their tracks
- Door jams
Pay Attention To The Smell
A strong scent of anything is not good. What you think smells good may be a turn-off to another. I also wouldn’t recommend having plug-in air fresheners in every room because my first thought is, “what are they trying to cover up!”.
I think the best smell when walking into a home is a neutral smell if possible. Invest in a home air purifier. We had one added to our air conditioning unit and it works amazing it also helps with killing bacteria in the air. They also make portable ones now.
When all else fails … bake chocolate chip cookies! A big thing to remember when in the trenches of showing your house be aware of what you are cooking for dinner daily. Smells can stick around for days! Try not to cook things that can be strong or be off-putting to some people. Remember, what you think smells good may bring back bad memories to another! Lol!
These were just a few ways to prep your house to sell quickly and be appealing to most people. I know it is typically recommended to remove most of your personalization like family photos, but I don’t agree with that. If your walls are covered in photos okay, you may need to tone it down a bit, but I think you should have a few family photos up. I think it shows that a family lives there and that will give a potential buyer a glimpse at what their family might look like there. What are your thoughts on that?
Great Tips!
Thanks Bill!