A quick guide to house sale preparation

person cleaning kitchen floor

For a house sale, preparation is paramount. Even with an outstanding real estate agent and professional photos,
buyers will base an enormous amount of their decision on visiting your home. To help you get ready for your home
sale, here are the most important things to focus on:

Set the stage—make it feel like home

It’s important to make a good impression and attract the buyer’s interest. The best way to start is with a deep clean
of the entire home. Once everything is spotless, consider hiring a professional stager to help you get ready for the
market.

The key to staging a home is to make it possible for the buyer to imagine themselves living in your space. This means
it’s best to use neutral colors and simple furnishings that show off the features of the house without distraction.
It’s also important to put away personal items like family photos or hobby collections.

Focus on the front yard

Curb appeal can have a significant impact on people’s perceptions about your house. Take care not only to remove any
stains from your front door, but also to clean up chipped paint or apply a fresh coat. Use a pressure washer to
clean the siding, sidewalk and driveway to make them seem brand new again.

Emphasize whatever outdoor living space you have, even if it’s just a tiny porch. Consider replacing outdoor light
fixtures and adding simple patio furniture to create a clean and comfortable atmosphere.

Identify repairs & make a plan

Whether it’s a door squeaking or the toilet running, there are a plethora of small problems around the house you
might have learned to ignore. Now is the time to address those issues before they turn off any potential buyers.

Replace burned out lightbulbs, fix that leaky faucet, and tackle any other nagging task on your home improvement
to-do list. If you have significant repairs to make, budget carefully, so you don’t waste more money than you hope
to get back on the sale. Some problems may deter a potential buyer, so the more prepared you are to address them the
better.

With the right preparation, you can not only sell your home faster, but for a higher price. Do what you can to
impress buyers who visit your home, and you’ll reap the benefits.

Tips & tricks to simplify your home selling journey

How to simplify your home selling journey featured image

Preparing to sell your home is a huge undertaking, which can be stressful at times, both for new and seasoned home
sellers. 

However, with the right preparation and patience, you can sail into the process with ease and relieve some stressors
along the way.  

Make simple fixes

Before you consider making bigger home renovations, take a moment to make small fixes around the home. Perhaps
repairing the door that gets stuck in the winter time or fixing the blinds that creak when you open them. Fixing the
little things adds up and can contribute to a better impression of your home from potential homebuyers.  

Get a professional home inspection

Taking the time to get a home inspection before listing can be a game-changing experience for your home sell. An
inspection can alert you to structural issues or other problems you may have not known about, allowing you time to
make needed repairs before potential buyers view the property.  

Depersonalize 

When potential buyers can picture themselves living in a property, it may increase their chances of moving forward
with purchasing the home. However, having all of your personal belongings lying around can make this
difficult.  

When you depersonalize your space, you give the area more of a neutral tone, which can leave the home feeling more
comfortable for a diverse set of homebuyers. Depersonalizing the space may include taking down household photos,
hobby figurines, religious items and more. 

Rearrange & declutter to open up the rooms

In addition to depersonalizing the space, it’s essential to rearrange and clean your personal items for potential
homebuyers to view. This may include putting items into storage to create more open floor space. 

You may also need to rearrange furniture to open up the area even further, so it’s easier to walk through and view
the property. 

By using the aforementioned times and collaborating with professionals such as a real estate agent, you can smoothly
navigate through the home selling process.

3 Benefits of Hiring a Home Staging Professional

While there are many parts of staging you can do yourself, there are some important benefits to hiring a professional. A professional home stager can help you prepare your home for the market and can use their expertise to sell your home quicker and for a higher price.

Here are the three biggest reasons to hire a staging professional to help you sell your home:

Networking Power

If you’re working with a real estate agent to sell your home it’s likely they recommended you hire a staging professional to help. They might even have a specific individual or firm to suggest. Just by making that initial connection, you’re already benefiting from the powerful networking abilities that home staging professionals have. Home stagers “know all the right people” in the industry in order to do their jobs well. What does this mean for you? With access to a network of other professionals, stagers can help you get the best price for any materials or services needed to update your home. Painters, contractors or even furniture rental services are all examples of important contacts who can save you money. You also get the peace of mind that your staging professional has existing relationships with these other individuals or companies and knows what to expect in terms of service and costs.

An Objective Viewpoint

A home staging professional will provide you with valuable perspective. Having never lived in it, a stager won’t have the same emotional connection to your home. Even besides emotional attachment, they will see things you might miss as a homeowner simply because you see them every day. A staging professional will have a fresh and purely objective viewpoint on your home which will allow them to do their job to the best of their ability. They will identify potential issues, make suggestions or changes to prepare your home for potential buyers. The more experience they have in staging homes, the better: staging professionals are up-to-date on home trends and will cater to the current market with their knowledge.

Bringing Out the Best in Your Home

Staging professionals will see your home objectively but also strategically. When staging a home, it’s impossible to make everything absolutely perfect for every potential buyer. That’s why it’s important to find the best features of your home to highlight. Stagers can see the potential value in every aspect of your property and will know where best to apply your money and hard work. They might identify if you have under-used space and if you could rearrange your furniture to make your rooms seem bigger. They can replace or add new window treatments in order to emphasize a home’s natural light. A staging professional will identify and highlight what’s best about your home so that potential buyers will recognize and desire those features as well.

There are lots of details that go into staging your home for sale but the key benefit of hiring a professional stager is that they bring a fresh perspective. For example, what you might consider the best feature in your home might not be what buyers are looking for. You might need improvements in places you don’t notice because you see them every day. If you want the best possible price for your home, definitely consider hiring a staging professional to help.