Top 5 Things to Do Before You List Your Home

Listing your home to sell can be overwhelming; I can help you keep the process streamlined. You want to make your home appealing to the most amount of buyers, without breaking the bank. Here are my top 5 things to do to get your home ready for market with the highest return on investment.

MINOR REPAIRS-Now is the time to address any of those small home maintenance items that you may have been putting off for another day. When buyers see things like broken trim, loose fixtures, or leaky faucets, they wonder what else has been neglected. Taking care of minor repairs can be low cost, but make a big impact on how your home is perceived.
PAINT-If your home needs a paint refresh or you have painted in taste specific colors, you will want to consider the impact that will have on the sale of your home. Most buyers in today’s market do not want a project as soon as they move in. Your home’s first impression will be from online photos. If buyers think your home requires work simply from viewing the photos online, they aren’t even going to come see it in person. Paint is the least expensive way to update your home.
DECLUTTER-You’re going to be packing anyway, so start now. A home on the market is different than a home being lived in. To maximize your home’s potential, you want to stop thinking of it as your home and think of it as the most valuable asset you own. If you’re selling it, it’s now a product and you want to present it that way. We are proud of our homes and the way we have decorated and we want to show it off, but as a product, we need to de-personalize, and declutter. And when I say declutter, I am not necessarily talking about actual clutter. Some people have no clutter, but too much décor can make a room look cluttered in a listing photo.

Options for Storage

Pod Rental-This is your most convenient option and of course with convenience comes cost. The Pod is delivered directly to your driveway. You fill it up at your own pace and then schedule the pick up. It is stored off site until you need it to be delivered to your next driveway. So there’s no driving back and forth from one location to another with load after load of boxes and furniture.

Storage Rental-This is less expensive than renting a Pod, but it does require making numerous trips.

Garage or Basement-This is the least convenient option, but it is certainly doable. Buyers are pretty forgiving of a stack of boxes in the garage or basement, as long as they can see mechanicals and such. You will want to keep that in mind for later too. Once your home is pending, and the buyer is scheduling inspections and the appraisal, the inspector or appraiser will need to be able to access the attic and mechanicals. So, you don’t want to block those areas.

DEEP CLEAN– A deep clean not only takes care of the aesthetics, it also freshens your home and gets rid of any odors from cooking, pets, and such. It is the least expensive thing you can do to prepare your home to sell, but it is one of the most important.
STAGING-I offer a staging consultation with all my listings. What a staging consultation involves is I will meet with you and do a thorough walk-through of your home. Together we make a list of all the items I recommend you address to prepare your home, including suggestions on what items to pack away, repair, and update. I also advise on furniture placement to maximize your home’s best features. I provide a comprehensive report which will include absolutely everything I think will be beneficial. You will make the decision on what recommendations you act on.

The consultation is a service I offer for all my listings.

However, I do offer other paid services, if you choose to utilize them.

Those services include:

Occupied Staging

Vacant Staging

Furniture Rental

Artwork and/or Accessories rental

Redesign-I can help you redesign your new home

With the right strategy, we’ll make your home the clear choice in today’s market!