- Declutter and Clean
Declutter
The reality is that over the years sellers accumulate A LOT of Stuff. It is all very personal and meaningful only to the seller. When you have decided to sell your property you need to declutter. This means that you should remove everything that will make the house feel cluttered and overwhelming with Stuff. You might want to rent a storage unit for out of season clothes, decorations, sporting equipment, furniture and other items that do not add any value or appeal to a potential buyer.
Make the house feel spacious. Keep it simple and basic. Depersonalize the house so that potential buyers can visualize themselves as being the owners of the house. If you have to many personal items, such as pictures and memorabilia will make it harder for the buyer to see themselves as living there.
By the way decluttering also applies to the outside. Clean up the yard.
Selling your property can be emotional. But once you have decided to sell, now it becomes business decision and transaction. To get the most money for your house is to make it appealing to most buyers. Decluttering is step one.
Clean
Once you have completed the decluttering phase you start to the cleaning phase. You must clean everything in the house. This includes the floors, the windows and window sills, kitchen cabinets, furniture. I mean everything. There are services that can provide a comprehensive cleaning service to prepare the house.
Cleaning also means painting in some cases. You may have repaint some walls or doors, including door frames and baseboards. This can make a HUGE difference.
Try to paint the walls with neutral colors. This is always more appealing to a potential buyer. If the exterior needs painting, this should be considered. Again, stick to neutral colors.
- Staging
Staging is the process of creating an appealing environment to help buyers envision themselves living in your house. To keep your costs down you can use accessories and furniture you already have. You may use lighting enhancements, plants and mirrors and window treatments. The idea is to make the house bright with natural lighting or you can use daylight LED bulbs to give you a bright look and feel.
All the bedrooms should have the beds made so it looks and feel like a nice hotel room that was just cleaned by the housekeeping staff.
Also, make the house smell nice but not overbearing. Use a neutral scent. No incense please. Creates smoke and some buyers may be allergic.
- Pricing
Home pricing is a science. The price is established by the comparable sales in the area.
There are many internet platforms and access to public records where sophisticated buyers do their homework to know values of properties. Buyers today are well informed and smart. There cannot be any emotion involved in the pricing process. Nobody is going to pay for your emotional value in the house. Just like You are not going to pay for someone else’s emotion when you buy your next property.
Many homeowners make the mistake of overpricing their property at the beginning. Obviously you can always the lower the price but you can really damage the appeal of the property to many buyers. The house that remains on the market for months can prevent you from moving into your next home. Time is money. Interest rates can fluctuate and change the dynamics of the market and prices of property.
Once you decided to sell price it right and sell when the right offer comes in. Do not be penny wise and pound foolish. Always talk to a Realtor that knows your market.
