Selling your home doesn’t have to be a complete headache, if you get properly prepared to put your house on the market.
If you get your home ready to sell, it’s going to be more appealing to buyers and you could get a faster sale and a better price for your home. Once you’ve sold your house, you can get on with the important part of finding your dream home.
Deep Clean
The best place to start for prepping for a sale is with a deep clean. A clean slate shows your home off to its best advantage.
Clean everything, even the spaces you usually skip, like in the kitchen cupboards and behind the fridge. Mop the floors and consider steam cleaning things like your curtains and sofas.
If you have pets or are smokers, definitely steam clean soft furnishings to get the smell of animals or cigarettes out. You should clean the carpets too with a Steamaster to remove any stains, dirt or smells.
Don’t forget outside. If you have furniture in the back garden, make sure it’s clean and in good repair.
Give the patio a good clean too, so it looks less grubby. Tidy up the shed too, so it doesn’t look messy.
Give It Curb Appeal
You want the house to look good as soon as a potential buyer arrives for a viewing. Make sure the outside looks as good as the inside.
Cut back any overgrown plants and mow the lawn. Get rid of any weeds.
If your patio has seen better days, hire a pressure washer and give it a clean to get it looking like new. If you have decking, make sure it has been recently stained and is in good repair.
Check the fence panels or hedges for any disrepair. Replace any broken panels in the fence and trim back hedges.
Move your car, so the viewer can park on the driveway when they arrive, helping them to get a feel for how it would be if they bought the house.
Make sure the garage is tidy so the viewer can see the space properly and repaint the garage door.
How is the front door looking? Could it do with a coat of paint?
If you have a brass letterbox or a metal house number, give them a clean so they look shiny and bright. To add some color, you could put out a couple of pots of flowers by the door.
Make Repairs
Many homes are in need of a few small repairs that homeowners don’t quite get round to.
When you live somewhere, the fact that the bottom kitchen drawer sticks or the lock on the bathroom door needs replacing is easy to live with, but for a potential buyer, seeing small repairs that need doing is off putting.
If a buyer walks around and can see a few jobs that need doing, they’re going to be thinking about having to sort out these problems, putting you in a worse position than a house they see that is ready to move in to.
Go around and look for these little jobs and get them sorted now.
Depersonalize
Your buyer wants to be able to picture themselves in the house. Try to remember that you’re selling it, and want to make that easier.
You should try and depersonalize the house a little. It should still look welcoming and like a family home, but put yourself in the shoes of a buyer and imagine what might put them off.
If you have walls painted in an unusual color, consider a repaint. Return your walls to a neutral shade, so someone viewing the house can see it as somewhere they can move straight in and not need to redecorate immediately.
Thin out your personal belongings from around the house. If you like clutter, put away a few ornaments and trinkets so the house doesn’t look too full.
Take down a few family pictures so your viewers aren’t distracted by too many pictures.
Selling your house doesn’t have to be stressful if you get organized in advance.
Try not to get sentimental about your house and resistant to making changes. You want to sell your home, and some small changes won’t hurt you.
You can personalize your next home as much as you like. In the meantime, do what you can to make your house as appealing to a potential buyer as possible. Keep it clean, in good repair and not too personal.
