Selling your home is an exciting time. However, the process is a long one, and it’s important that you’re ready to go when your home hits the market. Fortunately, there steps you can take to make the process as smooth as possible even before you’ve hired an agent.
Here are a few tips to consider.
Prepare for Inspections
Inspections are an important part of the selling process, and buyers will want to know the house they’re paying for is in good shape. Have an expert take a look at your foundation for any signs that it’s in need of repair, and look for common signs of a gas leak on your property. It’s likely that you’ll need to have one or more full inspection during the selling process, but preparing early can ensure your home is ready to hit the market as early as possible. If your home has major problems that are expensive to repair, knowing this early on will help you get them fixed or prepare your listing in an honest way that won’t leave potential buyers surprised.
Perform a Deep Cleaning
You want to be prepared if a potential buyer wants to stop. Ask any real estate agent in San Diego or any other major city and they’ll tell you keeping a home on the market requires regular cleaning. To make later cleanings as easy as possible, perform a deep clean early on. Consider pulling out your kitchen appliances so you can reach difficult areas, and consider hiring experts cleaners who know which substances are best for cleaning difficult stains. You might also want to bring in a second set of eyes during the process. Over the years, homeowners often forget about carpet stains or marks on the wall. Getting an unbiased opinion helps you notice these small flaws so you can fix them.
Eliminate Clutter
Staging your home is invaluable for making a positive impression on potential buyers, and those hosting an open house can potentially use staging to launch a bidding war. By taking the time to eliminate clutter early in the process, you’ll make it far easier for your real estate agent to stage your home when the time comes. Furthermore, removing clutter will help you box up when it’s time to move. If you have any items you want to sell, listing them for sale early on improves your chances of selling at a reasonable price. Selling your home can be a stressful process. Having a clutter-free home can help you keep your mind clear as well.
Start to Depersonalize
One of the keys of staging your home is to give it a neutral, showroom-style look. Although family photos and other personalized elements make your house feel more like a home, you’ll need to remove them for staging. By carefully boxing up or storing more personal elements of your home design, you’ll make the staging process easier. Furthermore, you can ensure that your personal design elements are stored safely. Although it can feel strange at first, the flexibility of a depersonalized house makes it worthwhile.
Rent a Storage Unit
Staging your home for buyers means keeping items in storage. In most homes, however, there simply isn’t enough space to hold all of your items. Furthermore, storing items in a closet, basement or attic generally isn’t an option; potential buyers tend to snoop around and will want to check out every part of your house. By having a storage unit, you’ll be able to keep your items safe and not have to find creative or cumbersome solutions for staging your home. In addition, storage units provide one of the most valuable tools for sellers: flexibility.
Predicting how long it will take to sell your home can be difficult. Even if it will be some time before your home hits the market, you can begin preparing right away. Cleaning, simplifying and inspecting your home will go a long way toward making the selling and moving process as straightforward as possible.
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