Steps to Get Your Home Ready to Sell in Today’s Market

If you’re ready to sell your home or just thinking about it, here are some helpful steps to take…

1. Get a Comparative Market Analysis on Your Home.

Find out what your home is worth in the current selling market by comparing it to similar homes near you. A realtor can provide you with a CMA with a little bit of information, such as square footage, number of bedrooms, build year, and property acreage.

2. Remove Any Liens on Your Home.

Talk to a realtor who can help you find out if you have a lien on your home or land. A lien is debt on your home imposed by a contractor, home seller, or tax collector that must be paid before you can sell your home.

3. Prepare Your Home For Sale on the Inside

Fixing and cleaning your home can increase its value as much as thousands of dollars.

Cleaning - Have carpets and floors cleaned, as well as walls, windows, blinds, and lighting fixtures.

Furniture - Consolidate furniture to create more space and less clutter.

Appearance - Brighten up rooms and hallways by raising blinds, opening drapes, and using light colors. Repainting dark rooms can help with their appearance.

Kitchen and bathrooms - Clear countertops and create more space. These areas need to be extremely clean since they’re where food consumption and bathing take place.

Closets - Remove out of season clothing and reduce clutter. Organize clothing and keep shoes on the floor.

Repairs - Repair dripping faucets and doors that creak. When potential buyers see disrepair they may wonder what other problems may exist throughout the home.

Front entry - This is the first area buyers see, make it feel welcoming, clear, and bright.

Yard - Mow the lawn, weed the flower beds, trim shrubs and trees. Hiring a landscaper can be well worth the cost as it can increase your property’s value, not just your home. Clean or clear outdoor furniture to make the yard look more welcoming.

Garage and Storage - Discard virtually everything in the garage, it should look as empty as possible. Rent an off-site storage unit while you’re showing your home for sale, if necessary.

Home - Look around to see if the little things can be repaired or replaced to spruce up the home, such as your mailbox, exterior light fixtures, rain gutters, loose shingles and shutters. Wash the windows on the outside as well as the inside.

You can do a lot to improve your home’s appearance and increase its selling price. In this market of higher home inventory, the little things can make a difference to get your home sold over others.