Get Your Home Market Ready

So, you’re selling your home. Did you know that in today’s market, it’s particularly important to get your home looking like a showroom to garner any interest? In this “instant gratification” society, people want to buy a home that looks like it’s ready for them to move in.

For you, this means that there is a great deal of preparation you need to do to get your home ready for the market. We are here to give you ideas for the easiest and least expensive ways to make this happen. Just follow a few of these rules and your home will be snatched up in no time.

Clear It

We are going to assume that cleaning your house before putting it up for sale is a given. There are few people reading this that don’t already know that step. Yet, we think this is the time when you should start clearing out your home. There are several things you should clear it of.

Mold

Do you live in a humid climate? If you do it’s possible mold could be growing in the walls of your basement, a room that tends to be more susceptible to mold growth than other areas of the house. Check your walls thoroughly for signs of mold, which can resemble black stains.

If you suspect that you have mold in your basement you need to do what you can to start getting rid of it. Bleach can help as well as white vinegar. If the problem seems to big to do on your own you may want to get professional help.

Another way to combat mold in the basement is to invest in a dehumidifier. The Good Air Geeks have checked out a number of basement dehumidifiers, which they reviewed here. This is a great way to prevent mold growth in the first place.

Clutter

While your house may be clean, is it clear of clutter? Getting rid of any clutter in your home will make the difference between whether someone buys it or not. No one wants to look at a home that is filled with boxes of stuff and old magazines, newspapers, or whatever you may be stacking up in your place.

The key here is to create a space that looks ready to move in, which is the opposite of a room filled with clutter

You and Yours

By this, we mean you need to take away a great deal of your personal items in your house and make it look like a showroom more than a house where people live. To do this you could take down a good portion of the family pictures you have on the refrigerator and leave a few.

By doing this you show how happy you have been in your home but you aren’t over crowding the house to possible buyers. You want to give them room to create images of their own family making a home out of your house.

Memories

Clutter and personal artifacts aren’t the only things you should be freeing your home from if you are ready to put it on the market. Anything you might be saving, from the macaroni necklace your daughter made you for Mother’s Day when she was 7 to the photo albums of your family’s trip to Hawaii ten years ago, all must go.

You don’t need to get rid of these things for good, but get them out of the house so when they are looking at the size of the closets things don’t fall out when you open the door. If you have tons of things that you are storing for nostalgia’s sake, find a place to keep them temporarily while you try to sell your house.

Curb Appeal

Not only is it important to make sure the inside of your house is clean and attractive to prospective buyers, the outside of your home is just as crucial. When your realtor puts on an open house you want to hook those buyers in before they make it into the front door.

Clean It

Just as you need to clean the inside of the house, keeping the yard clean and the lawn tidy is an obvious step when you are trying to sell your house. If it’s overgrown and has evidence of neglect than you can kiss those buyers goodbye, or a few thousand dollars off their asking price.

Make It Pretty

It doesn’t cost much to plant a few perennials, if the season calls for it. If you have a garden in your yard do your best to make it look as beautiful as possible. We may be risking redundancy but today’s buyer isn’t looking for a fixer upper, at least not for a hefty price. To get all the money you want you need to make the place look ready to move in.

Conclusion

Getting your house ready for sale isn’t easy. Yet, all the work you put into prettying up your home will pay off in the end when a buyer agrees to a price you have decided on. Without staging it, you aren’t giving your home the best chance to find a new owner. There are also ways that you can increase the value of your home, which you can read about here.