5 tips to prepare your home for sale

My husband is scheduled to PCS this year, planning for the move we decided to sale our current home. I have been looking for ideas on how to get the house ready and hopefully sell it right a way. I thought I would share my favorite tips here. I grouped them in 5 major areas or to do items: 

Inspect & Fix

Try to see your house through buyer’s eyes. What do you see that might detract buyers from buying the house? Check for leaks, cracked caulk in tiles, damaged wood floors, paint condition and every detail that the buyers will notice or that might come up during a home inspection.

Repair any items that you found faulty during your inspection.

Downsize & De-clutter

This is a good time to go through your stuff and get rid of those that you don’t need or use often. You can always take them to goodwill.  If you have extra or bulky furniture a good idea would be to rent a storage unit to store extra items.  Extra unnecessary furniture can make the house feel small, cluttered and with lack of storage. A good rule is to leave enough furniture in a room to showcase it’s purpose while allowing easy movement and flow. If you have an expandable dinning table, like we do, a good trick would be to leave it in its smaller size to help the room appear larger. Reduce clutter by putting away kitchen appliances that would normally be on the kitchen counter. Make sure you walk through and identify clutter areas and organize or eliminate them.

Clean & Organize

Potential buyers will have a positive experience when the house feels clean and smells good. A clean good smelling house can be perceived as that it was well taken care of. Make sure to dust off surfaces, clean the fridge and kitchen cabinets on the outside. Organizing closets will help make the house feel clean as well as show that there is plenty of storage room. Pay special attention to bathrooms, a good practice could be to keep the toilet seat closed.

Stage

When staging your home you want to make it appealing to as many buyers as possible, so it’s a good practice to keep décor and wall colors in neutral colors. Make sure bedspreads, curtains and towels displayed are clean and in good conditions. Open up the curtains/windows to let natural light in and include indoor plants to bring a sense of nature indoors. My environmental design psychology class couldn’t stress more how positive human response is to natural light and nature indoors; it just makes us feel better! By including these items potential buyers will feel happy and well in your home. 

Take the opportunity to create vignettes where potential buyers may identify with or visualize themselves in. For instance create a spa atmosphere in your bathroom by adding candles, fresh flowers, pretty soaps, bathmats with slippers on them and nice towels. Buyers will think of the relaxing time they will have in the bathroom.

Another idea is to make the home look lived in by showcasing how the space can be used. A comfy chair flanked by a reading light with a side table with books on it will create a reading nook where buyers may visualize themselves reading. Or a table displaying board games in the family room will remind buyers of family time and the memories they could make in this home.

Curb Appeal 

This is the first impression buyers will have of your home, make sure it’s a good one by making the outside of your home feel inviting, well taken care of and clean. Mow your lawn, clean plant beads and repaint any faded surfaces. Add yellow or red flowers, which are known to attract buyers.

Do you have any tips for preparing your home for sale that is not included here? Share it on the comments below!