So you’ve decided to sell your home. This is a life-changing decision, but if you want to get the most from the sale, it’s crucial to know what to do to get ready to sell your home. Usually, taking the time to prepare means you can sell it for the best value possible. Being prepared also helps you streamline the process and reduces the risk of delays. Although it might require some time and investment, preparing yourself and your home before selling can be worth it. The good news is that we have you covered if you don’t completely know what to do to get ready to sell your home. Here are the top nine tips that will help you get a better deal when selling your home.
Do Your Research First
If you want to know what to do to get ready to sell your home, one of the first things you have to do is to research as much as possible. Chances are you’re not familiar with the housing market in your area, especially if you’re selling for the first time. In any case, housing markets fluctuate, so it’s crucial to keep up to date with current trends. The first thing to research is to discover the average housing prices in your neighborhood. This involves checking to see the number of houses for sale in your area and how long they have been listed. You can also look for homes similar to yours to see if you can go against the competition. This will help you manage your expectations when it comes to how much you can sell your home for.
There are also a ton of ideas to research, such as what happens to your home owner insurance when you sell. Keep in mind that your policy is tied to your existing home, so it will not transfer to a different home. If you’re thinking of giving your home a new coat of paint to impress buyers without breaking the bank, you also want to research the cost of your local paint store products. There’s more you may have to research, and the point is to make informed decisions at every stage of the selling process. The more you understand what to do to get ready to sell your home, the higher the chances for a successful sale.
Find a Listing Agent
You may not be completely familiar with what to do to get ready to sell your home, but your listing agent might. Therefore, it’s good to consider hiring a listing agent even if you learn the process. Keep in mind that not all listing agents are made the same, so you have to do your due diligence to find a listing agent that will have your best interests at heart. The right agent can help you with many things, including pricing, staging, and marketing your property. If you want to find the best listing agent in the business, sometimes all you have to do is perform a thorough online search. Start by using Google to unearth reviews of local agents that might be suitable for you.
Google reviews are generally trustworthy and will give you a good idea of whether the listing agent has a good track record. You can also get recommendations from family and friends, and once you have narrowed your options, go ahead and interview potential agents. The best way to interview agents is to prepare a list of essential questions and then use the answers to make a smart choice. You can ask your listing agent about their pricing and marketing strategy, the stagers they use, whether they know any contractors to help prepare for the sale, and what they charge for selling your home.
Declutter Your Home and Remove Personal Touches
Do you have a well-decorated home? Do you love all the personal touches you have added and the way it comes together beautifully? Unfortunately, if you’re going to be selling your home, you’ll need to remove those personal touches you love. It’s what to do to get ready to sell your home because you need to make your home as appealing as possible to a wide range of buyers. If you want to effectively sell your home, you want to leave your home open for interpretation. If your home has too many personal touches, the buyers might fail to visualize themselves living in that home. So, if your home has that lived-in look, be sure to declutter and depersonalize to encourage buyers to view it as an empty home waiting for occupation.
To achieve this, one of the first things you have to do is to declutter. The last thing you want is for buyers to be distracted by the number of cushions you have on your couches or all the accessories lying around. While decluttering, it also helps to give your home a deep clean. You can even hire a professional cleaner who will leave your home squeaky clean without a speck of dust to be seen anywhere. Once you have decluttered, it’s best to find safe storage for your items, or you can sell unwanted items. This can be the hardest part for most people, stripping their home of personal touches, but it’s important to take a step back and start seeing your home as a money-making product.
Improve Your Property’s Interior Condition
The topic of home improvements that increase value is always an interesting topic for homeowners. It’s also something you want to familiarize yourself with if you want the best ideas for what to do to get ready to sell your home. Home buyers will scrutinize the interior the most, so this is where you want to focus most of your improvements. One of the most important areas that will require your attention is the kitchen. The kitchen has earned a reputation as the heart of the home, so be sure to focus on updates to the kitchen that pay off. The list includes upgrading the kitchen cabinets and countertops. It also helps to install energy-efficient and modern appliances to make your home more functional.
Depending on the state of your home, you can also make a wide range of upgrades, including a small bathroom makeover, window replacements, basement waterproofing, and HVAC repair. Components of your home like the HVAC system are especially important because most buyers are not looking to make major repairs when they buy a home. Instead, they want to move into a home where the air and heating system is working properly. Therefore, it’s essential to look for the best HVAC companies to perform HVAC maintenance to ensure prospective buyers don’t get worried when checking out your home.
Spruce Up Your Home’s Exterior
Besides making improvements to your home’s interior, focus on sprucing up your home’s exterior. After all, that’s what curb appeal is all about, and curb appeal has been known to increase the chances of selling your home. Curb appeal can give you a competitive edge in a tough housing market by simply creating a favorable impression in the buyer’s mind. Great tips for boosting your home’s curb appeal include replacing the front door, painting the walls, replacing your siding, upgrading your landscaping, replacing your garage door, or investing in a garage floor epoxy coating.
Hire a Pest Control Company
Do you have a pest infestation in your home? Then hiring a pest exterminator should definitely be on the list of what to do to get ready to sell your home. If you have pests overrunning your home, it’s easy to make a bad impression on home buyers who have shown an interest in your home. Imagine showing off your beautiful kitchen to a serious home buyer, and there are roaches scurrying up the wall and walking on the countertops. Similarly, you may be eager to show off your thriving garden and landscape, but a rat problem can potentially scare away buyers. To avoid this, make sure you hire a pest exterminator to come in well before your listing date. The biggest benefit of hiring a professional is that they can help you get rid of the problem once and for all. You will also be treating the next owner considerately because they won’t have to deal with a problem that you should have addressed.
Make Your Home Smell Nice
Your best bet when selling your home is to create an environment that makes an all-around positive impression. Sight is just one avenue you can use to impress your home buyers. You do this by making your home visually appealing and increasing curb appeal as much as possible. If you want to make your home smell nice and create an even lasting impression, you can also focus on making your home smell amazing. You can begin by using baking soda, activated charcoal, or vinegar to remove unpleasant odors. Then you add wonderful smells that most people love. For instance, you can roast coffee beans, warm up vanilla extract, and use some essential oils.
Understand Your Home’s Value
If you have been concentrating on making home improvements with the intent of boosting resale value, you also have to adjust your home’s pricing to reflect the changes you have made. Perhaps you have hired roofing services, and your home now has a brand new shiny roof that oozes curb appeal. In that case, it’s crucial to price your home as accurately as possible to avoid a scenario where you sell your home below market price and lose money, or you price your home too high only to struggle to find a serious buyer. Both scenarios can be avoided by doing a comparative market analysis of the homes in your neighborhood so you can set a price that reflects what’s on the ground.
Usually, if you’re not sure how to price your home properly, it’s better to err on the low side because if buyers see value in your home, you’ll receive multiple offers. If there are buyers competing to buy your home, this will help drive the price up in your favor. Another tip to help you price your home correctly is to not only analyze similar homes that are listed in your area. Instead, you can get additional insights by reviewing the final sales prices of homes similar to yours that have recently sold.
Hire a Moving Company
Besides knowing what to do to get ready to sell your home, you also have to think of the big picture. Once your home has been sold (congratulations!), you have to think about moving all of your remaining possessions to the new location. While you may not always be sure of the exact moving date, this won’t stop you from searching for the best moving company for your needs. If you have already done a lot of work preparing your home and you feel like you could use a break, the good news is you can always hire a full-service company. These professionals will take care of the packing, unpacking, loading, and unloading, and they will even help arrange your items for you. You can also hire a moving company that specializes in moving specialty items to make your life easier.
Sometimes, selling your home isn’t the easiest process in the world, especially if you don’t know what to do to get ready to sell your home. Thankfully, you’re now aware of ways to maximize the value of your home before selling. Applying these tips will give you all the confidence you need to push for a successful sale. If your home isn’t in the best condition, one of the best things to do is make repairs and updates so that your home looks appealing to home buyers. The most serious buyers with the highest level offers tend to value a functional home with killer curb appeal. Hence your biggest job is to create the right impression at first sight. This will go a long way towards making the process go more smoothly.