How To Prepare Your Home For Sale: 9 Useful Tips

If you want to sell your house but it isn’t sale ready, then it’s time to change that. A house that’s poorly presented, no matter what local prices are, can be worth significantly less than one that has been cleaned, tidied, and maintained. Unmaintained properties are significantly more likely to have cosmetic and structural problems than properties that have been looked after. In order to get the most for your house, you need to prepare it for sale. If your house is already in good condition, then there’s not much that you need to do.

Here are nine tips for preparing your home for sale:

Sale Method

The first thing that you need to consider (and prepare for) is the method by which you will sell your house. If you are going to work with a home buyers company for example, then you won’t need to follow most of the steps outlined in this article. They are mostly for private sales. Working with an independent home buyers company is an extremely effective way of selling your house because you can get cash for it in as little as two weeks. Sometimes they will buy property for its market price, other times they will make a slightly lower offer. The offer made to you will depend largely upon your home’s condition, area, and demand for property there.

Decluttering

Regardless of whether you will be selling privately or through a home buyer’s company, you need to declutter. This is so that when an agent or company representative comes to view your house, you present it in the best way possible. If your house is overly cluttered then it may put buyers off from wanting to go ahead with a purchase. In addition to putting people off, clutter substantially increases the chances of pests and vermin from getting into your house. If they manage to get in undetected and live among your clutter, then you could have a very hard time selling your house.

Depersonalizing

If you are selling your house privately, then you need to depersonalize. This means eliminating your personal touches and changes to your house. The main reason for this is that if your house is incredibly personalized and a total reflection of you, people visiting will have a very hard time projecting their own personality onto your property—they will have a hard time imagining what the place would be like if they owned it.

Smell Removal

If your house has any funny smells, then make sure they are eliminated before people come in to view it. It can be hard to ascertain if your house does smell because most people become used to the smells in their house. This is called going ‘nose blind.’ The best way to determine whether or not your house smells is to ask a loved one or friend to come in and sniff around. Your loved one will be able to identify any areas that have bad smells, which you can then call a professional in to remove. If there are smells coming from your chairs, beds, or furnishings, be sure to give them a thorough wipe down and clean before anybody comes to see your house.

Improving Lighting

When people are buying a house, lighting is something that they take very seriously. Nobody wants to live in a cave. If you have curtains or blinds up that block out light, make sure that you remove them so that people can see how spacious and bright your home is. If your home isn’t very bright, then install lighting so that you can give them the impression that your home is lighter than it actually is. You should also dot a few lamps around your home’s interior, in addition to changing your light fixtures or fittings.

Neutral Design

Keep your home’s design neutral. If you have any show or statement pieces, remove them when viewings are taking place. As mentioned earlier, it can be difficult for people to imagine how they will transform a house if it is filled with other people’s things. Bright colours and eye-catching patterns should be removed because they can make your home look very complicated. All of these things can significantly impact a viewer’s impression of your home. Keep things simple, utilizing neutral colours and tones.

Modern Fixtures

If your house looks very old inside, then it might be worth modernising it a touch before people come over to view it. You can actually significantly increase your home’s value by modernising fittings and installing smart home features. Smart home features can significantly boost a property’s value. The reason for this is that most people want them and end up installing them in new homes. By doing this for them, you save them money, but can also charge more for your house. Smart fittings aren’t that expensive to install but add to your home’s value immensely.

Removing Pets

If you have any pets, it’s probably a good idea to take them out of your house – or to clean up after them – before people come in and view your property. The reason for this is that, for many people, pets are a big no-no. If they view a property that has pets in it, they won’t want to buy it out of fear of fleas, germs, and perhaps allergies. If you do have pets and won’t be removing them for viewings, make sure that you clean up after them and don’t leave any mess anywhere.

Cleaning Garden

Finally, make sure that you thoroughly clean your garden up. You want to give a good impression of your garden so that the people viewing your property can visualise what they will do with it. If your garden is overgrown and messy, then the people viewing won’t be able to get a good picture of how large it is and what its best features are. Keep your lawn mown, eliminate overgrowth, and plant some flowers if you have time to.

If you want to sell your house, then you need to prepare. Preparing can help you to increase the amount of money that you get from your property sale. It will also help you to prepare yourself mentally for moving out, which can be very challenging for a lot of people.