How To Prepare Your House For Sale

If you are planning to sell your home in the near future, there are a few things you can do to ensure that it's ready for sale. 

One of these is getting an updated assessment of its value from a real estate agent or property appraiser. Selling agents will often provide this service free of charge when they have expressed interest in representing your home for sale. You will need to have a clear idea of how much the home is likely to be worth in order to avoid any potential disputes with interested buyers.

If your home needs a lot of work to be ready for sale, you might want to consider offering it "as-is." This means you are selling without having made any repairs or improvements, and buyers will have to factor in the cost of making these changes into their purchase offer. However, if you're hoping to get the best price out of your home, upgrading is necessary.

Try following this guide to ensure your house is completely prepared to wow any potential homebuyer! 

Clean your entire house. 

You need to make sure that you clean the house perfectly before selling it. This may require you to get a professional carpet cleaner, window cleaners, etc. Also, you will want to be present during the cleaning session because if there is even a single stain or spot on your carpet, the professional carpet cleaner might not clean it as thoroughly and concentration is required for thorough cleaning. Furthermore, you should ask the professional to do a stain test after cleaning so that you know if every single spot has been removed or not. 

You will also have to fix any damages in the house such as holes in the wall, broken locks, etc. This can help you to save a lot of money from the renovation in case some buyer is interested in your house, but does not want to do the renovations themselves.

After cleaning your house, you may find that some part of it looks oddly dull and this doesn’t look good at all. This is because when you clean a room, the walls will appear white in color due to excess dust being collected on the top of the paint. You might want to use a complimentary colored paint for walls to make them look shiny and beautiful again.

Stage your home, add new furniture, replace old decor. 

There's a process that many people choose to go with when they're getting ready to sell their house called staging. Staging means you highlight the positive aspects of your home and make it look more appealing. One easy way to do this is by adding new furniture or decorations to the house. Just one added touch can greatly increase the appeal of a room, so if you have any extra budget, try using that on furniture and decor or to hire a professional staging company to come and help you best utilize your space.

Replacing old furniture for new can really make a difference in your home! If you were planning on buying new furniture for your new place anyway, just buy it a little early and use it for the staging process. For wall décor, you should place paintings and wall hangings in a way that it does not give a cluttered and untidy look. If you’ve just bought new furniture, add a few new pieces of wall art to highlight the fresh new colors and really accent the room. However, for staging luxury homes, you have to be a little bit creative.

Don't forget about the exterior of your house

As well as the thorough cleaning you’ll need to do inside your home, the external portion of your house will need cleaning as well. This can be done by you or by a  professional cleaner just like how you cleaned the interior of your house earlier. You may also want to replace any parts of your house exterior which are broken or damaged and this can be done by you if you have the required tools and skills. In case you don’t know how to fix a certain part of your house or are unable to do so, then it is better to leave things as they are since you may end up making it worse instead of improving it.

You would be surprised how much of a difference a fresh coat of paint on your siding will make! That combined with any touch ups needed on the roof or to the windows and trim can make your house look brand new again, which will definitely up your selling price! 

Replace any damaged or broken electrical and gas appliances. 

You will need to replace any electrical or gas appliances which are broken or unsafe since you do not want your house to end up in the electrical or gas hazards category of the inspections. You may also need to replace any broken furniture and decorations which do not have a matching replacement for it.

It may also be a good time to check for structural problems and take any appropriate action, if necessary. An inspection performed by qualified professionals can save you money long-term by identifying issues before they become a problem.

This can be done by getting your home inspected by a professional to make sure that it’s sound and free of any major issues like leaks, cracks, or structural problems. You should also check for any issues that could affect the home's value such as zoning, problems with the property lines, or lack of necessary permits.

Declutter every room in the house. 

You will have to get rid of all the unwanted stuff from your house such as expired food items in the back of your pantry or fridge, unused clothing, old furniture, etc. This will create a lot of extra space in your home and just be generally more appealing to potential homebuyers. You should always keep in mind that your house will have to be clean and tidy for the buyer to like it. 

While you're getting rid of these items, you may also want to consider taking down any personal photos. Removing personal items and photos will better allow buyers to really picture themselves in your home. It’ll make it easier for them to think of the space as theirs instead of yours. 

There's a lot that goes into preparing your house for sale from getting rid of clutter and staging your home to giving the interior an intense scrub and making sure the exterior is in good condition. For all of those little dings and scratches you kept meaning to fix up, now is the time to do it before putting up “For Sale” signs on your lawn. When you're ready to put your house on the market, target all those little details and make sure that all repairs have been made and then all that’s left to do is wait patiently for buyers who will love what they see when they walk through your front door!

Pro tip: You may check out our top rated professionals to get your house ready for sale.