A Brief History
The time has come, the research begins, and you are left wondering how to execute a timely and efficient home sale. Is your head spinning yet? Preparing a home for sale is a huge journey to embark on, and one that you will want to be prepared for. Knowing what steps to take and when to take them will save you a headache and a mighty expense, so let us cover these 7 simple ways to prepare your home for sale.
Digging Deeper
1. Clean your house
Your house needs to be immaculate for sale, in fact, it probably has to be even cleaner than you are imagining right now. If you are expecting the market to fall in love with your home, you need to invest in cleaning it to a presentable state, which means using carpet cleaners, washing walls, polishing floors and deep cleaning your appliances. Sure, it requires a lot of elbow grease, but when you think about achieving your desired sale price, that effort seems pretty insignificant in comparison.
2. Understand the market conditions
Your home means a lot to you, but how does it stack up in the market? Educating yourself on the national, state and local property market will give you a greater insight into what offers you can expect and how long your property might be on the market. Ideally, you want to be starting this research as early as possible so that you do not enter the process with a disadvantage.
3. Find and prepare for your next residence
The silver lining in all this sale preparation is that you have a new, and often better, residence awaiting you. If you are slow in making these arrangements, consider what you will do if your house is snapped from the market sooner than you anticipated, which would be a fantastic result, but not if you are not ready to move into your next one. If you are moving within the same area, you might find comfort in using the same agency (and even the same agent) so they can appreciate and work with your timeline.
4. Do not be a hero – get a removalist
It is incredible how many people avoid getting a removalist because of the cost as if their time and sanity is worth nothing! Using a removalist will keep you to a strict deadline, do all the heavy lifting and give you a written warranty that all your belongings will arrive in one piece… can you say the same for your friends and family offering to help? Your belongings deserve to be treated carefully, and the damages could cost far more than the price of simply hiring a removalist in the first place.
5. Landscaping
The inside of your home might be the selling point, but what is the first thing a potential buyer will see when they park outside? Your garden, lawn and landscaping. Don’t go to all this effort only for your thirsty lawn and overgrown shrubs to let you down. You do not have to outlay a lot of money here, just try to tidy and water what you already have, and lay some tasteful bark over dry soil. You shouldn’t even have to put more than a day into this exercise.
6. Fix all those niggly items on your to-do list
No house is perfect, and we all have those pesky tasks that we mean to fix, but then a year or two just rolls by. Maybe it is replacing a door handle, covering a wall hole or replacing a smashed window. Assess you home carefully with a fine-tooth comb and set about fixing all these things that might prohibit a sale. If you have a potential buyer who loves your home equally with another, that broken gate latch might give them the justification they need to make a decision and chose the other property.
7. Spread the word
Everyone engages a real estate agent, and we’re certainly not suggesting you should sell the home yourself, although there are ways to boost the visibility of your property. Tell your friends and family about your home being listed for sale and ask that they share the listing on their social pages. You can also request that your home be one of the homes that appear in the real estate windows, and press your agent to learn how they are getting the word out.
Selling a home can be stressful, but hopefully, you won’t have to wait long before it becomes home to someone else. Starting to prepare early will assist in the long run, so what are you waiting for?
Question for students (and subscribers): What do you when preparing to sell a home? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Brown, Ray and Eric Tyson. Selling Your House For Dummies. For Dummies, 2018.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by paulbr75, is licensed under the Pixabay License.
