3 steps to prep your home for sale

Preparing your home for list is one of the more time-intensive parts of the entire sales process — but it’s also one of the most pivotal parts. Primarily because it sets the trend for the remaining part of the listing experience; think of this portion of the process as building the foundation for a stable house. These three steps will allow us to best market your home effectively — in turn, helping sell you home as quickly and efficiently as possible.

1. Touch-ups: Deferred projects, maintenance, paint, repairs Etc.

Before you list you’ll want to address as many deferred maintenance items as possible. This could be anything from fixing that broken dishwasher to servicing the HVAC. It also means finishing up those little touch-ups you’ve been talking about doing for the past few years. It’s essential to think about your home as a house on a shelf with 1000 other houses. Small items that need to be addressed may not be a big deal to you— because you’ve lived here for a long time and have learned to put up with them. But to a buyer, it comes across as additional work that needs to be addressed on top of moving. Most clients want a home that is ready for them to move into. So be sure to create a list of items that need to be fixed before listing.

2. Decluttering: Removing items from the home that are not needed or are taking up too much space.

Like touch-ups — decluttering is about looking at your house differently. It’s not about you and your stuff. It’s about what’s best for sale. So it’s time to take out the items that serve no purpose. Removing these or storing them in different locations (basement, garage, or storage unit) allows your home to be free of clutter and ready for the buyer to experience the house in it’s best light. These are typically excess items (photos, furniture, clutter). Once you’re done with this — it’s on to the final step.

3. Staging: Keeping your home show ready and creating a space that is warm and inviting.

Staging your home is excellent for creating an experience for the buyer. Once again, allowing them to see the home in it’s best light. Once you’ve done your decluttering and touch-ups, the staging will come naturally, and it will be easy to get the home show-ready. Keeping heavily trafficked areas open and spaces clean and organized is going to make sure your home will sell quickly. By no means do you need to live in a museum. But you need to remember that this home is no longer yours— it’s now something to be sold.

These three items will help you best prepare your home for sale. Make sure that you’re always differing to your agent during this process. Ask questions and explore different routes. Not every house is the same. Some will need more work than others. So be just know that this is a process, and it will likely take a few weeks of commitment.