Get Your Home Ready To Sell With These 6 Steps

In the current market, home sellers have quite the advantage. Even with inventory slowly turning the corner and beginning to rise, buyer interest is still high - keeping home prices just as high (if not higher) and allowing sellers to field multiple offers over asking and taking their pick. But, regardless of the current state of the housing market. Getting your home ready to sell is still a must, so here are my 6 steps to prepping your home to get it sold quickly and for top dollar.

Why Do I Need To Prepare My Home to Sell?

One of the top questions about selling a home I get is what you should do to get it ready to list. But with the speed at which homes are going under contract in today's market, you may be wondering why it would even be necessary to talk about making sure your home is in its best position to be sold. The fact is, whether it's a seller's market or not, home sellers should still take steps to ensure they get the most return on the sale of their home and lower their risks associated with unqualified buyers or unfavorable negotiations.

Placing your home on the market without first addressing some simple steps could put you in the crosshairs of potential issues with a high-risk buyer who can squash the deal if there are problems with the home if they don't have available funds to address a discrepancy between their mortgage and appraisal values and more.

The 6 Steps to Getting Your Home Ready To Sell:

Let's take a look at how just 6 steps can make sure the sale of your home is almost bulletproof.

Step 1: Repairs

This one may seem obvious but it's important you address all the glaring issues with your home that need to be repaired. The basic act of living in your home day-to-day will inevitably cause wear and tear that all homes experience like a leaky faucet, doors that don't catch, and loose cabinet handles.

These little things you've come to accept can add up to a long list of requested repairs a buyer can use to lower the offer on your home.

Structural issues such as the floor, roof/windows, doors, and things like plumbing and electrical will all need to be checked and repaired if needed. Some home sellers will even have a pre-listing home inspection to get ahead of the curve.

Check out my post on what to expect from a home inspection for more information.

Step 2: Declutter

As potential buyers walk through your home, they'll be visualizing themselves living there and considering the possibilities of each room in the house. It's difficult to do that when you've got every room jammed to the hilt with the things you've collected over the years. According to opendoor.com, professional home stagers recommend removing 50% of the items within your home before showing.

Walk through each room of your home and make a list of unnecessary items to remove while it's listed and being shown. Consider what can be donated or given away, and store and organize smaller items in bins and baskets to tidy the room up.

Buyers are going to look in closets, garages and storage sheds, so don't resort to cramming everything out of the direct line of sight - they'll find it eventually.

Removing larger items may result in the need for storage space. The hutch your grandmother gave you may be lovely, but if it disrupts the flow of a room or blocks access to something - it should go.

Step 3: Depersonalize

Part of your decluttering and organizing process should include depersonalizing your home. This removes all the personal items within the home that distract the prospective buyers while they're trying to visualize themselves living in your home. You don't want a buyer turned off by taking offense to your lifestyle or feeling as though they're guilty of being in a home with your presence looming over them.

Remove family and personal photos, religious symbols, music, movies, and anything else that places the focus on you.

Step 4: Curb Appeal

Of course, the first impression a potential buyer has of your home is the outside. As they pull up to the home with their agent, you want them to feel as welcome and impressed as possible to start things off on the right foot. A study from Texas Tech University says the appearance of your home's exterior can mean an increase of your home's value of up to 17%

Examine the exterior of your home from the driveway around the house including the yard and physical exterior of the home itself. Is the home in need of a good cleaning from a pressure washer? Paint touch-ups? Trim away overgrowth that makes the home feel hidden and small, remove yard debris and any dead limbs on surrounding trees.

A thorough mowing with edging along with new mulch, fresh shrubs, and flowers will do wonders for the curb appeal. A couple of flowerpots on each side of your front door full of colorful or tastefully arranged flowers is always a winner.

Step 5: Professional Cleaning

Once the legwork of decluttering the inside and sprucing up the outside is complete it's time to consider the thorough cleaning of the inside of the home. I highly recommend hiring a professional cleaning service to ensure no stone is left unturned. They'll scrub the home from top to bottom, scrubbing tile and baseboards, windows, and little details you may miss.

If that's not possible for some reason, you can certainly do the work yourself but you have to make sure you're thorough. Keep in mind buyers will be inspecting your home to decide if it's worth the asking price, so you shouldn't be surprised if they're peeking in/under and behind things.

Once the house is clean - keep it that way. Make sure you're even more vigilant than before about keeping things put away, cleaning up after yourself, and keeping a weekly schedule for cleaning the inside and mowing the outside.

Step 6: Staging

The icing on the cake before listing your home is having it professionally staged. "...staged homes fetched between 1% and 5% more in dollar value than similar homes..." (forbes.com) that didn't get staged.

It's more important to address the rooms of the home that interest buyers most like the kitchen, master bedroom, and bathrooms than to complete a whole-home makeover. It's certainly possible to attempt to stage your home yourself but I recommend the use of professional stagers. An experienced and reputable stager will know just what the spaces in your home need to look their best based on their experience with multiple homes.

I talked a lot about all the things you SHOULD do before listing your home for sale, so let's go over a few things you should NOT do.

1. Don't Price Your Home Incorrectly

Nothing will prevent your home from having a full schedule of showings than pricing the home incorrectly. Choosing a great real estate agent will allow you to lean on them to advise you on setting a fair market price for your home. While you may think your home is worth its weight in gold, the reality is that a competitive selling price will get you the most interest and the best sales price possible.

2. Don't Take Bad Listing Photos of your Home

A real estate agent snapping shaky images of your home with a smartphone for the listing simply won't cut it. Not only does it do your home you've worked so hard on to get ready a disservice - it will immediately turn off otherwise interested home buyers if they can't even see the home. Make sure your agent hires a professional photographer as part of their marketing/listing service so your home is shown in its best light.

3. Don't go without Homeowners Insurance

For simple liability reasons, just confirm that your homeowner's insurance policy is up-to-date. You don't want to deal with a lawsuit from a potential buyer if they injure themselves in some way while viewing your home. It's unlikely, but be "Better safe than sorry".

4. Don't Be Difficult about Showings

If you've completed all the above tasks and listed your home, you should be dealing with lots of requests for showings. I understand showing requests can come at inconvenient times and there's nothing wrong with some compromises. However, the best plan of action is to try and accommodate every showing that comes up and make sure the house is tidy before they come! The goal is to get the house sold after all.

Final Thoughts on Preparing Your Home To Sell

Preparing your home for sale doesn't have to be a difficult or stressful process. Using just the info I've outlined above can create the most interest in your home by presenting it in its best light. It also puts you in the best position for buyers to envision themselves in your home and reassure them your home is in great shape to start making memories in. As a result, your home has the potential to see fewer days on market, more showings and if all goes well - several offers to consider.

If you're interested in finding out if now's the right time to sell try my free home value tool to see how much your home might be worth, then get in touch for a more in-depth estimate of your home's value.

Get in touch today!