When you’re preparing your home for sale, there are plenty of things you need to deal with. After all, putting a house on the market comes with a lot of work. However, that doesn’t mean you can solely focus on the business practicalities of your future sale – there are plenty of stylistic and aesthetic choices to make as well. In fact, all estimates show that home staging can significantly influence your selling price.
Remember, the first impression people have of your household will be the most important deciding factor in their purchasing decision. You want to make the new buyers feel like this is a home of their own, and a place they feel welcome and comfortable in. These days, people don’t just buy a home – they want to buy a lifestyle that goes along with it. And that’s why we’ve prepared some useful tips on getting your home ready for sale in its very best state!
Much-Needed Cleaning
When thinking about preparing your home for sale, it’s not always simple to know where to begin. However, that’s why we’re here to tell you that it’s always smart to start with a good old spring clean. Regardless of which of our other tips you decide to follow, they simply won’t be as effective if you don’t present a spotless household. Many buyers judge a home on the merit of its current owners too – buying a house from tidy owners is important for many people, so you want to leave the best possible personal impression as well.
With that in mind, start by cleaning the interior and doing as much decluttering as you can. Remove any of your personal possessions to make the space as open as possible. Plus, this will allow your buyers to view the home as a blank canvas on which they’ll write out their own story, rather than usurping yours.
Naturally, many people don’t have the time to do this, especially in the midst of other preparations for the home sale. In that case, consider hiring professional cleaners to take care of this one-time tidying up, particularly if you’ve got a bigger home to sell. This will also help you take off some tension and stress that can mount if you’re short on time.
New Aesthetic
Speaking of time, if you’re able to do this within your schedule, consider giving your walls a new coat of paint. Giving your interior aesthetics some sprucing up is always a great idea. Plus, if you’ve enjoyed some more radical color choices while you were living there, you may want to consider changing these to something more neutral, a palette for everyone’s taste.
While we realize your taste is important to you, there will soon be a brand new home you can imprint your personality on. For now, it’s more important to suit the needs of the average buyer.
Opening The Place Up
So far, we’ve already mentioned that you should declutter when preparing your home for sale, in order to make it seem bigger on the inside. Another thing that can help open your home up visually is a lot of natural light. In fact, when it comes to smaller spaces, this works absolute wonders in terms of making them look more appealing and inviting.
If natural light isn’t an option, installing better overhead lighting or just putting in another lamp will actually make a world of difference.
Smaller Repairs
Many people are handy around the house, but they usually don’t have the time to deal with smaller repairs on a regular basis. This means dealing with some outdated home features that you stop noticing after a while, like rusty handles, rugged doorknobs, etc.
Seeing as most people hire professional home inspectors to gauge the condition of the household before buying, we advise fixing your home up as much as possible. Sure, you may not have the time, resources, nor the inclination to take on a full renovation before the sale, but even the smallest changes will go a long way towards making your home feel as modern and fresh as possible.
Repurposing Where Needed
As we’ve said when talking about different aesthetic choices, there’s no one that knows your household better than yourself. However, a sale may require you to look at things from a different point of view. A fresh look at your interior design may give you ideas on how to do some things better.
Sometimes, rooms may have better purposes for the average buyer than you’ve initially envisioned for them; if you can make the change without too much effort before attempting to sell, there’s no reason not to go for it.
Increasing Curb Appeal
Remember the importance of first impressions we’ve mentioned right off the bat? That’s as crucial as it ever was, which is why we recommend rethinking the changes you need to make in order to increase your home’s curb appeal.
Regardless of what you do with the interior, it won’t do much good if your exterior is in disrepair; people will be put off from purchasing your home before ever having stepped foot inside it. Considering that, try to find the time for some landscaping and facade repairs, if you judge that your home is in need of them.
Make The Home Inviting
Much of the tips that we’ve given you have had a single purpose – removing the traces of your personality from the household so that potential buyers can make the space their own and imagine themselves living there. However, that also means straddling a thin line – you don’t want your home to seem too sterile and impersonal either.
So, once you’re done decluttering and removing the unnecessary items, try to use a few choice finishing touches to give your home the pop of color it needs; that will certainly make it as inviting as possible. Whether it’s indoor plants or some warm-looking cushions, scattering these around the house will make it seem like a home anyone could enjoy!
Author Bio: Graham Samson is an economist and a freelance author, most often writing about real estate and moving companies such as Pro Movers Florida. In the future, he hopes to work on his writing skills and eventually start his own business.