Selling your home is a big decision accompanied by many smaller decisions. One of the smaller, but meaningful decisions to be made is how to get your home into showing condition. After all, a clean, presentable home will help sell your home far faster than nearby homes with homeowners who just slapped a for sale sign in the front yard without thinking ahead. Here are seven tips on what you should do before selling your home:
Clean the windows on both sides. - A big no no when showing your home is to have dirty, grimy windows. Depending on the climate you live in your windows may need to be cleaned more often. The worst thing that can happen during a tour of your home is for a buyer to look through the window and see the last three years of pollen instead of your beautiful backyard. Clean, clean, clean!
Power wash the exterior siding. - Buyers are very perceptive to even the most minor details about your home including dirty siding. If a buyer sees siding that doesn't look like its been cleaned recently they become set in the idea that you may not take great care of the rest of the home. Power wash the siding at least once every 3 months while your home is on the market.
Replace the kitchen appliances. - This isn't an absolute must but if your appliances are more than five years old and/or heavily used then your $5,000 investment into new appliances will pay off three fold when you sell your home. Often buyers look at your appliances and try to assess whether they'll need to be replaced soon after they move in. Take this worry off their mind so they don't take thousands off their offer price.
Professionally clean the carpets. - If you live in your home then you are almost guaranteed to have a few carpet stains from muddy days or accidental spills. Hire a professional cleaning service or rent a carpet cleaner from a home improvement store to freshen your home's carpeted surfaces.
Re-purpose multi-use rooms. - Everyone has a catch-all room that pulls double, triple or even quadruple duty as a home office, dining room and rec room. Redefine this room for a singular purpose so that home buyers don't need to think about what the space is supposed to be used as.
De-clutter workstations and busy places. - Have you ever come home and dropped the mail in one spot while you get settled in? That's a workstation. Mail drops, key hangers and other central stations in the house are prime clutter zones and serve as eye sores to buyers looking for the best value per square foot in a home. Keep these areas clean while showing your home and you're likely to sell your home sooner.
Put new comforters on all of the beds. - Comforters are a lot like family heirlooms in that they tend to stick around for a really long time. Sometimes it's a pass down from an older sibling or family member but after a while you'll end up with an eclectic collection of bed covers in your home. Spend a couple hundred dollars on stylish, up to date comforters that fit the ambiance of each room. Your guests and visitors will appreciate it!
Now that you have seven new ways to improve upon the first impression your home makes on a buyer you can get out there and get your home sold sooner with an offer price much closer to what you're asking.
Joshua Ferris is an associate real estate broker in New York who assists buyers and sellers looking for Hudson Valley real estate. Learn more about Monroe NY real estate and Newburgh NY real estate by visiting HouseMeetsOwner.com.
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