Preparing Your Home For Sale

Selling a home takes a lot of hard work and preparation, unless your home already looks like a model in a new home development.  Here are just a few of the many items to consider.

·        Clean, clean, clean.  Prospective buyers will be poking everywhere.  They'll be wondering if they need to replace the carpet. 

·        Deodorize.  Do you have pets?  Is their a lingering odor of tobacco smoke?  Are there traces of cooking odors.  You may have no allergies or be sensitive to smells, but many of your buyers will not consider your home if it aggravates their nasal passages.

·        Declutter.  The kitchen counter will look larger if all your appliances are stored.  Your bedrooms will please more eyes if all the knick knacks are off the surfaces.  The wall of family pictures may not help sell the home, especially if the wall looks smaller because of them.

·        Trim, water and mow.  Make certain the plants in the yard are healthy and trimmed.  Keep the lawn closely mowed.

·        Sweep the roof and clean the gutters.  Roof replacement is expensive.  Savvy buyers are conscious of how much life the roofs have in them.  Clogged gutters suggest poor roof maintenance and potential hidden water damage. 

·        Consider making the obvious repairs in advance.  Fix cracked windows, replace burnt out bulbs, caulk and repaint small nail holes in the wall.  If  you can add $5,000 to the purchase price by having a handyman do $2,000 worth of repairs, do it.  If you are short of cash, good listing agents will have a list of trades people who will wait until closing to be paid.  An experienced agent can guide you on the purchases and repairs that will put dollars in your pocket.   

·        Consider having a home inspection or staging at your expense.  This will take the guesswork out of the inspection process, and let you know what a buyer will likely ask you to repair.  An inspection may also help you correctly price your home. If your furniture doesn't measure up to your home, talk to your agent about staging.  Regardless of the price range, paying anywhere from several hundred dollars to $50,000 may make sense if your home sells quickly at a much higher value than it would have unstaged.