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5 Things To Do To Get Your House Ready For Showings
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Guest Blog by Cat Dobson
Getting your home ready to sell can be a stressful and overwhelming experience. After first choosing the right real estate agent to represent you and market your home well, these 5 tips can get your house ready in no time!
Declutter & Donate
First up, declutter! This is above and beyond the best thing you can do to get your home ready to sell. If you think you might want to list your home within the next year, start by going through one space a week and donating or selling things you don’t need or use. Even if you’re short on time and need to move suddenly, decluttering needs to be a priority! Consider storing oversized or excess pieces of furniture to help spaces feel roomier. File and store all papers, as well as clear the outside of the fridge of anything on it. Additionally, make sure your kitchen counters are clear and all small appliances are put away.
Stay Neutral
In order to have your home appeal to the largest amount of prospective buyers, it’s important to neutralize your decor and interiors. While this can be hard for some sellers to do, it can help to think of the home as no longer yours as soon as it hits the market. It’s there waiting for its next owner! Neutralize any shocking paint colors that may be off-putting to buyers (your son’s room that is bright orange, or your living room accent wall that’s deep red), and take down any overly personal bold artwork. While it’s not necessary to replace every single small family photo, make sure large scale portraits are taken down. From a security standpoint, don’t leave up any family photos or items that could release personal information (for example, job certifications, or photos of your children in their school or sports uniforms).
Check Out Your Curb Appeal
Thirdly, make sure your curb appeal is up to par! The outside of your home is the first thing buyers see, and often they may skip entering your home altogether if the exterior is lacking. Invest in some fresh mulch to draw attention to outside flower beds, and brighten your entrance with some potted flowers. Make sure your front door is fresh with no peeling paint, and that the door handle is well attached and secure.
Along those lines, make sure all the quick fixes around your house are completed! Any burnt out lightbulbs need to be replaced, all interior door knobs secured, and trim and wall paint touched up. Often buyers who find low-level maintenance hasn’t been completed are left wondering if there are more serious things wrong with the home. As a seller, you always want to make sure your home is presented as fresh and well-maintained as possible. It can sometimes be easy to overlook little things such as scuffed walls when you live day in and out in a home – to get fresh eyes on what you might need to touch up, invite a close friend over to critically examine your home.
Highlight the Best Features
Lastly, make sure you show off the best features of your home! Look around your home and decide what are the selling points (you can ask your real estate agent for help if you need) and make sure you’re showcasing them. Buyers will miss out on seeing your amazing transom windows if they’re crowded and full of knick-knacks. Consider picking up small throw rugs and runners to make sure your floors are the star and removing curtains or blinds if you have a spectacular private backyard view. Above all, remember that the buyers are looking to buy your home, not your things! Showcase the great things about your house, and make sure your personal things don’t detract from them seeing and loving your home.
These fixes are often easy and mostly free. They can make a big difference in getting your home market-ready and under contract faster. It may be more work on the front end, but the potential for a faster sale and an easier less stressful move can be worth it!
cdobson@cbeva.com | 703-582-8509 | Massaponax Office
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Preparing Your Home for Showings During a Pandemic
Putting your home on the market and preparing to move on to a new place is always tough, but it’s especially difficult when you’re in the middle of a global pandemic! Covid-19 has certainly thrown a wrench in all of our plans but it doesn’t have to ruin your home sale experience.
When you use a Coldwell Banker Elite Home Safe™ Certified Agent, you can breathe a little easier knowing that your agent is doing everything they can to keep your family, your home, and potential buyers as safe as possible. They’ve committed to following industry best practices to promote a safer experience and virtual solutions to minimize in-person interactions. Here we’ve gathered our best tips for sellers to help keep their home as healthy as possible during showings!
Let the Air In
Everybody’s heard about the importance of good ventilation by now! If the weather allows, open up all the windows and doors to let fresh air circulate! Your Home Safe™ Certified Agent will let buyers’ agents know about the need to limit the number of people in the home which will help cut down on the concentration of airborne pollutants brought into the home while good ventilation will help move the contaminants out.
Open Everything Up
We’re all about eliminating the number of potential surfaces that buyers will need to touch! Go ahead and leave any interior doors that a potential buyer might need to access open. You probably don’t need to open every cabinet and drawer but just leave the doors to any important rooms open: bathrooms, bedrooms, any large closets, and pantries!
Now’s not the time to worry about the electricity bill–leave the lights on for the potential buyers! We recommend turning on any necessary lights in advance so that the buyers don’t have to touch them.
Hospitality in the Time of Covid-19
Your Home Safe™ Certified Agent will help you decide what to provide for buyers to encourage healthy practices during their showing. Home Safe™ Certified Agents will have informed everyone that enters the home that they are required to wear a mask but if you’d feel more comfortable offering buyers protective booties, hand sanitizer, or other safety items–go for it! These little touches will definitely help your buyers feel more at ease during these difficult times.
Clean & Disinfect
Cleaning off high-touch surfaces is second nature to everyone by now, but it’s always good to have a reminder! Anything you suspect may have needed to be touched during the showing should be cleaned off and then disinfected. The disinfectant may need to sit for a bit longer than you might think in order to be effective, so double-check the bottle before use!
We hope these tips have been helpful while you’re preparing to put your home on the market! If you’d like to be connected with a Home Safe™ Certified Agent who will take your safety seriously, please click here!
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