Tips to Sell Your House!!

When you are ready to sell your house you’ll want to enlist the help of a REALTOR®. He or she will provide the professional advice and service you need to make the selling process go smoothly. Before you list your house, you will need to think about a few things to get your home ready for sale:

Clean everything in and out of sight:

Take a tour of your home. Take note of every opportunity to remove clutter and dirt. Rooms, closets and cupboards will appear larger and more inviting when you get rid of unnecessary stuff and tidy up what’s left. Remove bulky or unused furniture and rearrange the rest to make the best use of space.

Apply the following test to every questionable time. Have I used this in the past six months, or will I need to use it soon? If the answer is no, throw it away, store it elsewhere or sell it in a yard sale. 

It never ceases to amaze me how many homes I view that are dirty, cluttered, and NOT ready to be sold. If you aren't known for your housekeeping abilities, hire a professional clean team to do a thorough clean.

Be aggressive in disposing of clutter:. Pay particular attention to the two most important rooms in a buyer’s mind: bathrooms and kitchens. Once you’ve removed all the clutter, keep everything clean, every day. You never know when the person who will ultimately buy your home will visit.

Repair as much as you can.

Identify the things that are broken, cracked, stuck or just plain don’t work anymore. These can include leaky faucet, holes in window screens, stuck or broken windows, lights that don’t work, doors that squeak or don’t close properly, missing or broken cupboard handles, cracks in the walls and ceilings, and dozens of other “little things” you’ve been meaning to do for years. Now is the time.

Room or basement leaks, must be repaired, along with any water damage. Electrical or heating system problems must be fixed. Some repairs may not be necessary. Will that hairline crack in the driveway really make or break the sale? How about a chipped floor tile in the entryway? Some buyers will have their own ideas about how to deal with these problems. You may find it easier to adjust your selling price to reflect the cost of these repairs, rather than pay for them yourself.

De-personalize your home.

Your house reflects you. Grit your teeth and store all personal items (framed family photos, trophies etc) out of the way.

If you have brightly coloured accent walls or heavily patterned wallpaper, consider repainting or wallpapering these areas with light, neutral colours that enhance a room’s size and make it more flexible to receive any kind of furniture. Remove area rugs, light fixture and other items that buyers might find too difficult to imagine in “their home”, even if you were not intending to include these in the sale.

Beautify the house and yard

Peeling dry paint is relatively easy to fix or replace and can make all the difference in your home’s appearance. If your carpet or other floor covering is in really bad shape, consider replacing it. The same holds true for badly tattered window coverings such as drapes and blinds.

Outside the house, weed the flower beds, remove dead tree branches, keep your lawn well-mowed and edged, trim the hedges, rake the leaves, sweep the sidewalks, fix and paint the deck or fence, plant a few flowers and do anything else you can think of to enhance your home’s curb appeal. People often drive-by a home that is for sale to see if they even want to look inside - curb appeal is VERY important!

Paint, paint, paint!

If your paint is old (5+years) or too intense, it can turn people off as the house will appear dated. A fresh paint job in key rooms can help to 'stage' your home for sale. Paint in neutral colours (nothing too bright) and if you aren't sure what tones are currently popular, ask for assistance at your local paint store. It doesn't matter if you don't like the colour - it is what a buyer will like.

These tips and the assistance of a REALTOR® will help you sell your current home quickly so you can move on to your next dream house. Adapted from the Woodstock-Ingersoll District Real Estate Board.