Wednesday, November 2, 2022 / by Chantal Johnson
Top 3 Tips for Home Sellers
Preparing your home for sale is a big job. There are a lot of pieces that need to come together to get your property ready to be listed. Here are the top 3 tips that you should be focusing on now to get your home market ready.
Since this was mentioned in our last blog post 'Top 3 Tips for Home Buyers'
we'll just mention briefly that the preliminary step is to choose a realtor that is not only experienced and has a great reputation, but one that shares your vision and aligns with your goals. Once you've decided on a realtor that you are confident with, follow these Top 3 Tips to prepare your home for a successful sale.
1. Clean, Declutter, Depersonalize - When prepping your home to be listed, it is important to remember that you are getting ready for potential buyers to come through your home. These buyers are going to want to visualize, imagine and feel themselves living in your property. If they can do this and create an emotional connection, you are more likely to receive a good offer.
The first step to prepare your home for sale is to thoroughly clean your home. We recommend getting professional cleaners to come in before the first open house to make sure the little things are taken care of such as marks on the wall, finger prints on the light switches or smudges on the mirror, in addition to lifting some of the work off of your shoulders. Since the cleaners don't live in your space they'll have an objective eye to see what needs to be taken care of. You can of course clean your home yourself, just make sure that when you do you are imagining that you're walking through your home from the perspective of a potential buyer. This will help you to make sure you don't miss anything. Along with cleaning, decluttering and depersonalizing your space is important. You want to make sure prospective buyers are able to move freely throughout your home without bumping into anything. Put extra things in storage, in your garage, or in your closets for now. If you don't have that option, start to donate items that you don't want to keep and start to box up items that you don't need for the time being. This will also help to energetically get you ready for your move. Lastly, it's important that you depersonalize your home. You want to give the buyers the option of seeing themselves living in your property, and it can be difficult to do that if pictures of someone else's family are on the walls, on the fridge in the kitchen and on the nightstands. We recommend removing personal pictures for safety reasons as well.
2. Boost your curb appeal - When a buyer comes into your home for their first viewing, it's critical that they have a positive first impression. You want to make sure that the outside of your home looks as good as possible to create an inviting feeling for potential buyers. It may be too late or too expensive to do any major renovations, but small upgrades can make a major difference. Washing the windows, painting your front door, mowing the lawn or adding some decorative plants to the entrance of your home can make a great first impression. Along with creating a welcoming entrance, you'll want to take care of any small repairs that need to be done.
This could include:
You don't want to give the buyers any reason to offer less money on your home than what you are asking for. Giving an excellent positive first impression will not only make your home memorable, but it was also give you a leg up when it comes to negotiating, resulting in you getting more money for your home.
3. Price your home to sell - Whether it's a buyer's market or a seller's market, it I important that you price your home to sell. In order to do this you'll need to lean on the experience and expertise of your realtor, which is why we stress that the preliminary step is to higher a realtor that you trust and align with. If you price your home too high, you will detract buyers and delay getting people into your home. If you price too low, you may not be getting all of the money that you could from the sale of your home. Based on comparable sold properties your realtor will help you to come to a competitive list price. You want to stand out against your competition as well, so make sure that you review the current available listings that are similar to your home, and price your property accordingly. It's important to use data to come to a list price, this will add to your negotiating power when a buyer writes an offer. When you've come to a small price rage with your real estate agent, we recommend a 'just-below' pricing strategy. For example: if your realtor and you have agreed, based on the data and your goals, that your home could be listed for $2,010,000 think about choosing a list price of $1,999,000. $1,999,000 has a different psychological effect on consumers than $2,010,000.
These top 3 tips will help to get your home ready to hit the market, in addition for preparing you for a successful sale.
Since this was mentioned in our last blog post 'Top 3 Tips for Home Buyers'
we'll just mention briefly that the preliminary step is to choose a realtor that is not only experienced and has a great reputation, but one that shares your vision and aligns with your goals. Once you've decided on a realtor that you are confident with, follow these Top 3 Tips to prepare your home for a successful sale.
1. Clean, Declutter, Depersonalize - When prepping your home to be listed, it is important to remember that you are getting ready for potential buyers to come through your home. These buyers are going to want to visualize, imagine and feel themselves living in your property. If they can do this and create an emotional connection, you are more likely to receive a good offer.
The first step to prepare your home for sale is to thoroughly clean your home. We recommend getting professional cleaners to come in before the first open house to make sure the little things are taken care of such as marks on the wall, finger prints on the light switches or smudges on the mirror, in addition to lifting some of the work off of your shoulders. Since the cleaners don't live in your space they'll have an objective eye to see what needs to be taken care of. You can of course clean your home yourself, just make sure that when you do you are imagining that you're walking through your home from the perspective of a potential buyer. This will help you to make sure you don't miss anything. Along with cleaning, decluttering and depersonalizing your space is important. You want to make sure prospective buyers are able to move freely throughout your home without bumping into anything. Put extra things in storage, in your garage, or in your closets for now. If you don't have that option, start to donate items that you don't want to keep and start to box up items that you don't need for the time being. This will also help to energetically get you ready for your move. Lastly, it's important that you depersonalize your home. You want to give the buyers the option of seeing themselves living in your property, and it can be difficult to do that if pictures of someone else's family are on the walls, on the fridge in the kitchen and on the nightstands. We recommend removing personal pictures for safety reasons as well.
2. Boost your curb appeal - When a buyer comes into your home for their first viewing, it's critical that they have a positive first impression. You want to make sure that the outside of your home looks as good as possible to create an inviting feeling for potential buyers. It may be too late or too expensive to do any major renovations, but small upgrades can make a major difference. Washing the windows, painting your front door, mowing the lawn or adding some decorative plants to the entrance of your home can make a great first impression. Along with creating a welcoming entrance, you'll want to take care of any small repairs that need to be done.
This could include:
- Fix all loose tiles in the bathroom or kitchen.
- Fix all loose hinges on doors or cabinets.
- Unclog or replace stuck drawer tracks.
- Repair any leaky faucets and ensure all plumbing systems work.
- Remove carpet stains or refinish hardwood floors.
You don't want to give the buyers any reason to offer less money on your home than what you are asking for. Giving an excellent positive first impression will not only make your home memorable, but it was also give you a leg up when it comes to negotiating, resulting in you getting more money for your home.
3. Price your home to sell - Whether it's a buyer's market or a seller's market, it I important that you price your home to sell. In order to do this you'll need to lean on the experience and expertise of your realtor, which is why we stress that the preliminary step is to higher a realtor that you trust and align with. If you price your home too high, you will detract buyers and delay getting people into your home. If you price too low, you may not be getting all of the money that you could from the sale of your home. Based on comparable sold properties your realtor will help you to come to a competitive list price. You want to stand out against your competition as well, so make sure that you review the current available listings that are similar to your home, and price your property accordingly. It's important to use data to come to a list price, this will add to your negotiating power when a buyer writes an offer. When you've come to a small price rage with your real estate agent, we recommend a 'just-below' pricing strategy. For example: if your realtor and you have agreed, based on the data and your goals, that your home could be listed for $2,010,000 think about choosing a list price of $1,999,000. $1,999,000 has a different psychological effect on consumers than $2,010,000.
These top 3 tips will help to get your home ready to hit the market, in addition for preparing you for a successful sale.
