1) Call
your Realtor for customized advice before you start. These suggestions are general in nature and
are meant to be used as a guide-line, however, customized advice will get you
more for your home. You should start
working on preparing your home about a month before you put it on the market. If you have a good, experienced Realtor, your
Realtor can give you specific advice for your home.
2) Curb
appeal. Work on the outside of your home
first. Some things outside such as new
landscaping just look better a few weeks after you do them. Do not waste your time and money doing things
you don’t need to do or doing the wrong thing, before you get your customized
advice. Contact your Realtor first. You
will be so proud of your home when you are finished.
3) De-cluttering. Everything in your home is going to have to
be packed up and moved or disposed of in a very short time, so let’s get the
bulk of it done now. Go through every closet
and throw away, give away, or sell everything you do not want to move, leaving
only the things you are going to move. You
may want to put them in baskets on your closet shelves for a nice organized
look. Note: We will be staging your home with your own
things before we take the professional pictures for the virtual tour and the internet
advertising, so don’t sell the furniture yet.
4) Fix
everything. You know the things you have
been putting off fixing. Get it done by
a professional. Believe me, it will cost
way more if it is not fixed or if it is done wrong. Your Realtor can help you find the obvious
things. A home inspection is a good idea
to find the hidden problems, such as roof problems, a/c problems, plumbing and
electrical. Get it all fixed before
listing. Get your a/c serviced. These
are all good selling points.
5) Paint. A fresh coat of paint will do wonders for the
appearance of your home to a buyer and making it move-in-ready. Always select light, neutral colors. Your
Realtor will help you with that. It is way
better to paint neutral and bring in color with your accessories.
6) Clean. Clean equals Green. The more Clean, the more Green. Concentrate on the Kitchen and
Bathrooms. Make them shine. Windex works well on most surfaces, cutting
grease and leaving a shine. Scrub those
corners. Clean grout in showers and tub corners
WHITE! If you cannot clean it, dig it out with a small sharp knife and re-caulk
the area white. Have carpets cleaned and
if necessary replaced. Most Realtors
have a deal with a carpet resource to get carpets replaced at a very reasonable
price to sell a home.
7) Freshen
up. REPLACE your welcome mat, couch pillows,
and bed throw pillows, bedspread and window curtains, table cloth and kitchen
towels, shower curtains and guest towels with something that is up to date.
Pack up, give away or throw away that old stuff. You are going to be so proud of those
beautiful professional HD pictures and HD virtual tour all over the Internet
when you are listed.
These are all generalized
suggestions, and most of them don’t cost much money. Some elbow grease and a little work and you
will put Thousands of dollars of equity in your home. For your customized list of things to do
please contact me and I will be glad to help you get ready and put more equity
into your home before wesell it.
Magic... What is magic? Is it a cosmic
force we can sometimes count on to bring impossible things into being? Or is it a mix of experience, knowledge and wisdom, along with a spiritual
force that is always with us, that makes the impossible possible?
