How to Prepare Your Home for the Real Estate Market

Once you decide to put your home up for sale it becomes a product and products have to be appealing to the buyers, otherwise no one is going to want to bother even thinking about purchasing it, let alone making steps to buy. But, how do you make your home appealing to potential buyers? Well I spoke to some experts in the real estate world and learned some helpful tips for you.

Love at First Site

The first time a potential buyer looks at your property, they need to be wooed; otherwise you have to do a lot of work on the inside to cling on to them. If the exterior of your property isn’t great you can pretty much say goodbye to this sale. Here’s a checklist that you need to ensure you address:

• Mow the front lawn and de-weed
• Clip back any bushes or trees
• Clean the gutters
• Paint the window frames and the front door
• Power wash your paving slabs

Depersonalize

This is a tricky one to get right, because you are going to want to make the house look lived in and that it would serve as an excellent family home, but you want it to be blank enough so that the prospective buyers are imagining themselves in the house and not just seeing your family. This entry will divide people as some buyers will probably want to see how the previous family has lived in the house, so it’s really up to you on whether you present the house as more of a blank slate or not. Get some advice from the realtor and see what they think is best for your house.

Spring Clean and Declutter

It goes without saying, but please make sure that your house is spotless. Prospective buyers need to be enticed and if your house has got a funny smell or a big smudge on the wall, they’re just going to turn around and leave. Find every bit of dust and dirt and show it the meaning of pain. Eradicate any stains and cobwebs, too. It’s the same principle behind making the exterior look great. Decluttering is related to both cleaning and the point above. You need to clear away most of your ‘stuff’, it will make the house look better (and it will be easier for the new people to visualize), plus it depersonalizes the house. The worst bits of clutter:

• Children’s posters and drawings
• DVDs and CDs (what are they?)
• Tools and appliances left out (just put them away in cupboards)
• Clothes on the floor
• Children’s toys

You can always rent a storage container for a few weeks and hide a lot of your furniture that isn’t essential. Just don’t forget about it otherwise it will on that weird storage bidding show.

Get You and Your Pets Out

No one wants to look around a house whilst the current tenants and their seven Labradors are still home. Make sure you’re out of the house when there is a viewing, so the new people can really envisage themselves in the property.

Make sure you fix any cracks and cosmetics DIY issues as well as open up all the curtains and let in as much light as possible. Lastly, think like a buyer. Follow all this and you’ll sell your house in no time.