Congratulations! You’ve made the decision to put your home up on the market and sell it! Some people may be under the impression that listing the house is the only thing they will have to do, but that’s not the case. Home sellers must maintain the home and make it presentable to prospective buyers.
We’ve come up with an essential guide to making your home sellable and impress agents and buyers who tour it.
Prospective home buyers will be looking in every room and every closet in your home, so you want to make sure that your home is organized and clean. This involves getting rid of clutter and knick knacks that take up space on dressers and tables. Put them away in storage so the room looks cleaner and bigger.
You may have to rearrange some furniture in order for a room to feel big. This may involve removing some large pieces of furniture that make the room feel crowded and small. It may also mean adding furniture from another room to pull the look together. You must be open to change if it means getting your house under contract.
Make sure to also organize your bedroom closets, coat closets, and kitchen cabinets. Buyers will be looking behind every door to see the space behind it. Don’t clutter your closets with large winter coats and piles of shoes. Add a closet organizer or remove some items so buyers can see how big the space is.
Organizing and rearranging your home can mean putting a lot of your belongings away. This may be furniture, clothing, kitchenware, and trinkets. If you find that you do not have the space to store it in your home, you may want to consider renting a storage unit until the house is sold.
Scrub-a-Dub-Dub
Tidying up each room is just the beginning to cleaning your home and making it presentable to buyers. You will also need to thoroughly clean every nook and cranny. Rent a carpet cleaner from your local grocery store and spend a Saturday washing all of your carpets. Not only does this force you to tidy up your rooms, but it helps you to rearrange them too.
Dust everything! Wipe off anything with a surface. This includes railings, tables, chandeliers, windowsills, and baseboards. You don’t want buyers who are viewing your home to see that your house is dirty. If you saw a piece of clothing with a stain on it at a store, would you buy it?
Small (or Large) Repairs
There may be some minor repairs that must be done in order to make your home sellable. This can mean fixing a creaky door or patching a hole in a wall made by a doorknob. Make sure to replace burned out light bulbs.
Talk to your real estate agent about what kinds of repairs should be made or if they have any suggestions. Some may suggest that you repaint a certain room because the color is off-putting. Don’t take this as an insult, it’s purely to attract people to your home.
Find Out How Much Your Home's Worth
Staging
Staging the home is an option for home sellers. This means a professional company will come in and either rearrange furniture or bring their own to place it in the house. It is typically very minimalist. They may set out table settings or a coffee basket on the counter.
If you have the extra money to spend and do not have small children, this may be an option for you to make your home sellable. It can be difficult to live in a staged home, especially when it must always be kept pristine. The rearrangement of furniture may mean that electronic devices are moved away from outlets, making them useless.
Before deciding to stage your home, do a little research and see if it is the right option for you.
Updates and Renovations
Depending on the location and age of your home, you may have to put in some extra work and renovate or update some aspects. If most of your home has carpet, you may decide to rip it up and replace it with hardwood floors. If it feels like you’ve just stepped back into the 1970’s when you walk into the kitchen, you may want to update it with new appliances and granite countertops.
These renovations and updates will affect the listing price of your home. This also depends on how other listings in the area are priced and what they look like. If there are updated and modern homes on the market around you, then buyers will expect that your listing price is lower.
If you have the money and time to spend making updates and changes, it will help sell your home faster.
Professional Photos
Once the necessary changes have been made, have a professional photographer come in and take photographs to attach to the listing advertisement. We’ve all experienced the frustration of taking a good picture of a room, especially when there are many corners and sunlight coming through the windows.
Luckily, for Agent Lady’s clients, she knows some great photographers and will hire them, at no cost to you, to have pictures taken of your home for her marketing material.
Planning on Selling Your Home?
Are you planning on selling your home in Philadelphia? Reach out to Philadelphia’s leading real estate agent, Cherise Wynne, today to schedule a free listing consultation!
About Agent Lady: Cherise Wynne is a leading real estate agent in Philadelphia, helping home buyers and sellers navigate the City of Brotherly Love, with a special focus on first time home buyers. To chat about getting started with your first time home buying experience, click here.
