Maybe you're a pro and this is old hat for you or maybe you've never sold a home before. Either way, every seller needs to know these 13 things to do before selling a home. At Best Florida Realtors, we love to help. It is our pleasure to walk sellers through the process of preparing their home and getting it sold with a strategic pricing and marketing plan. Let us know how we can help!
1. Clean
After living in a home for a period of time, sometimes we don't realize the spaces we don't see everyday have gotten quite dirty and grimy. The first thing buyers do when they walk into a home is start looking at functionality; air-flow (vents & fans), lighting, closets, cabinets, refrigerator, microwave and all of the other things that make a house functional. The last thing you want is to have a buyer turned away because the microwave has spaghetti splatters on it from a month ago. Often times, it's advantageous to hire a housekeeper to do a deep clean after you declutter your home and do a weekly or bi-weekly clean to keep up so it's always ready for buyers. This will help you sell quickly and at a better price because buyers won't be looking at the work they need to do and will instead be planning where the furniture will be placed.
2. Remove Personal Items
You've probably heard this before; remove family photos and very personal items so that buyers can envision themselves in the home & picture they own personal items placed on the walls or surfaces. It's 100% true. Your family photos are precious, I assure you, but when buyers see them, it makes it feel like someone else's home and subconsciously, they don't want to take it from you. If it were me, I'd remove every family photo, every personal piece of art and any other non-generic items and go ahead & pack them up. This goes along with decluttering and you're going to have to pack it all up anyway, you might as well get a heads start. Additionally, grab a fake plant or two and put one in the kitchen and one in the bathroom. Stage your home with generic decor instead of your personal style so a buyer can really visualize putting their personal twist on decorating the home.
3. Simple Updates
Is your kitchen more then 10 years old? Are the edges of your bathroom mirror eroding from moister? Are your shower heads or bathroom sinks out of date, stained or eroded? Simple updates like cabinet nobs, buying a new bathroom mirror or installing a new light fixture over your dining room table can make a world of difference. Now, I must warn you, please do not install a super contemporary chandelier over your dining table and leave the kitchen cabinets from 20 years ago, that will just highlight the age of the kitchen cabinets. You'll want to do something complementary. For instance, you can get a simple black chandelier and replace cabinet knobs with new black ones so they match. If you have a bronze bathroom fixture, you may choose to just upgrade to brushed chrome. You don't have to go over the top, but new fixtures can really give your home a nice updated feel without breaking the bank. We also suggest if you have all stainless steal appliances, except one, that you go ahead and invest in that one appliance so they all match. It's amazing the difference it makes when all of the appliances match in the kitchen.
4. Finish Unfinished Projects
First, I'm going to apologize for this, because if it were me, this is the last thing I would want to do before moving out of my house, but...it's really necessary. Buyers don't want to see work to do when they walk through a potential property, UNLESS you are giving a seller's concession in the contract. Often times, sellers decide that instead of finishing a sizable project, they'll give a credit to the buyer to help them fund the completion of the project. In our professional opinion, it will save you more money to complete the project and put the cash in your pocket. Unfinished projects include shelving that has fallen off the wall, closets that didn't get painted at the same time bedrooms did, holes that need patched and painted, outdoor areas, like decks that still need railing, etc. The honey-do list usually never goes away, but if you can finish up the obvious projects, that will help you get top dollar for your home when you sell it.
5. Replace Lightbulbs & Strategically Place Lamps
Light it up! I personally like low-lighting in my home, but when selling a home, you want to replace your lightbulbs with higher wattage bulbs. Why, you say? Because light makes rooms appear bigger and happier! Light has a tendency to bring joy and happiness to a space. It allows everything to be seen easier and feels light and airy. If you have two lamps in one guest room and none in another guest room, you may consider moving one of the lamps so when the home is shown, there's additional light in the bedrooms. If there are low-light areas in your home or if a closet doesn't have light, consider extra lamps or even the stick on press-on lights in closets, attic spaces, crawl spaces, etc. Good light is aways a plus. Make sure all of your interior and exterior lights & ceiling fans have bulbs in them so when buyers flip the switch they can see the home is fully functional.
6. Deodorize & Neutralize
I can't stress enough how important it is to not only deodorize so that there are no personal sports, kid, pet, smoke, or food odors but also neutralize. Buyers have sensitive noses and sometimes even the pleasant smells that we enjoy can be offensive to one's nose. Our favorite product is called R86 Industrial Odor Eliminator. Use as directed for eliminating odors and then sprinkle some in a small dish & leave it on top of your kitchen cabinets or up high in the bathroom or bedroom. It will keep the home neutralized. If you have a particularly smelly space, place the dish high & central in the room, cut off all airflow & shut the door for a day or two. You will be amazed! It is kid friendly, pet friendly, doesn't have a strong odor, can be used in a million different ways and has worked for us for cigarette smoke, severe pet odor (as in 8 cats in a 550 sq ft. apartment), marijuana and many other odors. In all the years of property management and real estate, we've never found anything that works better - including our Ozone machine!
7. Paint, Clean Carpets & Clean Grout
Of course this all depends on whether or not it's needed, but if it is, it's a must. We don't realize how the grout in our kitchen and bathroom not only gets dirty and dingy over time, but also holds a lot of odors that will affect the clean smell that we're going for when we list your home. There are grout cleaning solutions that will clean the grout easily and you can rent machines for both grout and carpets that are very reasonably priced. The cleaner the home, the more you can justify the price you want to get out of the house. Spending some cash and sweat-equity upfront can yield you a big return in the end. Same goes for painting. While decluttering and cleaning, you may notice scuffs and stains that you had not noticed before. You may not be able to get the walls cleaned enough and a fresh coat of paint goes a long way to get the home sold quickly and at a fair price. If you do repaint, make sure it's a light and neutral color. Or there's always the option to give a credit to the buyer for them to paint once they take possession, but as before mentioned, it's our experience that you will more then make up the cost if you do it beforehand.
8. Pressure Wash
It's kind of funny that we drive up to our homes every day, walk to the mail box, take the trash out, hang out in the back yard and don't realize that the driveway & sidewalks are turning black and the soffits are growing green by the day. It may not be that bad at your house, but do yourself a favor and take a quick walk around the house and see if the house needs a good bath. Pressure washing is so inexpensive and so worth it! Often-times you can ask the pressure washer to clean out the trash cans, hit the grill & other outdoor things to give everything on the exterior a nice clean look. It really is amazing how a clean driveway, siding and other exterior surfaces can change the whole look of the house. Give it a look and start here because this is your first opportunity to make a great first impression.
9. Curb Appeal
Along with pressure washing, keeping the lawn mowed, weeds down & driveway and sidewalk edged is a huge deal. Before an open house or before listing photos, I always bring my little Ryobi lawn mower, blower and weed trimmer and edge everything up. Clean lines and a fresh cut gives an impression of a well-kept property and less maintenance and upkeep. If there are dying or unkept plants out front, just tear them up. You don't have to be a gardener or make some elaborate, fresh flower arrangement in the front yard, just get it neat and clean and you'll be in great shape. Additionally, make sure that anything outside of the garage gets put up, trash cans, bikes, kids toys, etc. When things are outside of the storage space, it appears that there's not enough storage or garage space for personal items.
10. Make a List of Your Favorite Features & Local Amenities
Have you ever heard "teamwork makes the dream work"? It's one of my favorite sayings and we love to team up with our sellers to market their homes by noting the features and amenities that they love and makes it special to them. Chances are that the next owner will love the very same things! So, it's important as you prepare your home by decluttering, cleaning, touching up and making repairs that you make some notes about all the things that you love about your home, the neighborhood and the local amenities. When you meet with your Realtor it will be a big help to hand them this information so that they can market your home to the perfect relevant buyers. Additionally, this will help you prepare. For instance, if one of the favorite things is the large garage, you'll want to showcase it by making sure it is all neat and tidy, same for interior storage spaces or the backyard.
11. Collect Documents & Ages of major elements
Not only is it important for your Realtor to have pertinent documents like HOA docs, but your previous survey or repair receipts may come in really handy to sell the home as well. Anything that you have in regards to updates, recently major repairs like HVAC, septic, water heater, plumbing and electric will be important to note in the listing. Every buyer needs to know how old the roof, water heater and HVAC is because their insurance provider needs the information in order to insure the property. You might as well have that ready for your Realtor when you meet with them to sign the Listing Agreement. Having these documents ready will help answer a lot of questions and make the process go a lot smoother for you and your Realtor. Teamwork makes the dream work.
12. Tell Your Neighbors
They will most likely be sad to see you go, but they sure will appreciate the heads up! Your neighbors may also know someone who is moving to the area or has had the desire to move to the neighborhood and just waiting for a property to become available. Notifying them will also make them aware of unfamiliar traffic, buyer's agents and other industry professionals visiting your home and will help keep an eye on it for you. When we hold an Open House, we always offer a "Neighbors Only" sneak peek so that your neighbors can come take a look at the house (since we know they're curious anyway). If you want to go the extra mile, you can offer to introduce your neighbors to the new owners once they have signed a contract. Your neighbors will also be curious about the process and how satisfied you are with your Realtor/agent, so feel free to tell them about your experience and pass on our information so when they are ready to sell, they will know that we took good care of you!
13. Declutter
Why is this one last?! It should have been the first one, but since I truly believe these 13 things are all equally important, it really doesn't matter the order. It is really important to clear out your personal items from under the kitchen cabinets, bathroom cabinets, closets, attics, crawl spaces, garages and anywhere else that can get cluttered. Remove as many things from the countertops and surfaces as you can. For one, you want buyers, agents and inspectors to easily see that there are no leaks, insects, rodents or other issues in dark corners. Secondly, clutter makes spaces look smaller and like there's not enough space for all of the things. Thirdly, you want the buyers to be able to see the whole space and image how they would use it, so a lot of kitchen appliances or decorations will detract from that ability to visualize the functionality of the space. Go ahead and purge all of the old medicine and kitchen supplies you haven't used in 5 years, sports equipment, children's toys, hobbies that haven't been touched in years and other items that simply aren't going to be moved anyway. After you remove those things, go ahead and start packing the things that won't be used over the next few months, but that you plan to keep. Start stacking those boxes neatly in the garage to prepare for your move. If you need help with a checklist or process, feel free to reach out to us. We're always happy to help!
None of these things need to be done before you reach out to your local Realtor. Give us a call today so we can help you every step of the way!