10 Tips To Help Sell Your Home Sooner
If you’re thinking of selling your home, these tips will help you get the best price and help you sell in the fastest time. The first 30 days you have your property on the market are the most crucial. You should use a professional real estate agent to promote your property. They’re the experts on things like:
- How to place your advertisements
- Writing editorials to explain the great things about your home to create interest
- Creating promotional material
- Negotiating the sale
It’s your job to make sure the property presentation matches the image the agent has created to make sure your property sells. If you follow these 10 steps you will compliment your agent’s advertising and be signing the contract of sale in no time!
1. TIDY UP
Make sure you have really tidied up around the house and be scrupulous! If you come across something you haven’t used in the last two years, chances are you won’t in the next two so throw it out or donate it to a local charity.
2. DECLUTTER
Box up anything that you don’t use on a regular basis and stack it up in the garage or move it to your family or friend’s home until you sell. Items like books and toys can take up a lot of space and make your property look cluttered. When people look at your home, they like to imagine what their things will look like there, so keeping your property clutter free allows them to use their imagination.
3. LIGHTEN UP
Check every light fitting in the house and make sure you have bright light globes installed in all rooms. The last thing a real estate agent needs is to open your home to the public and find out there are light globes that don’t work. The brighter the light, the more attractive the room will look creating depth and making the room look bigger.
4. SPRING CLEAN
Get the duster out. Nobody likes to see cobwebs hanging from the ceiling or hiding in the corners so get the ladder out and do your spring cleaning. People love seeing a home that’s been well cared for.
5. OPEN UP YOUR HOUSE
Make sure all the curtains and blinds are open on the day of the open inspection and most importantly, clean your windows perfectly. Again this will make your rooms look bigger and natural light is always more attractive than artificial light.
6. THE LITTLE THINGS ALL COUNT
Make sure your walls are clean and mark free. If any touch ups are required to the paint, do this before your open inspection. It’s little things like these that give buyers ammunition to try and knock down the price. When a buyer is looking through your home, they will try to find reasons to offer you less and the expense of painting is a common reason. Spend a bit of time on the little things and you could save thousands in the long run.
7. FIRST IMPRESSIONS
First impressions are important. Most people start to form an opinion of your property even before they get out of their car. Make sure your garden has been trimmed and cleared and you have kept the water up well before the open so the garden looks its best. If required replace any dead plants or fill in any blank areas. Colour is also great to make the place look attractive and if you have a picket fence or similar, make sure the paint is good. Tidying the immediate entrance way to your home is also important to a great first impression.
8. EXIT MOULD
It doesn’t matter how good your bathroom looks - if there’s mould on the walls or ceiling that’s what a buyer will remember. Bathrooms are generally one of the smallest rooms in the house however they are one of the most important rooms when it comes to selling your home. Bathrooms can rate just as highly as the kitchen in the eyes of a buyer. Get this wrong and you may lose a sale.
9. DONT BE TEMPTED TO CHEAT
While you’re tidying your home it could be tempting to try and take a shortcut by putting stuff under beds and in cupboards. This can backfire on you because serious buyers like to open cupboards to see how much space is inside. Make sure the inside of your cupboards are clean and organised to impress your buyers.
10. MAKE IT SMELL GREAT
Last of all cooking a cake in the oven on the morning of an open will always go down well. People want to feel at home when they walk into your property and nothing feels more homely than the smell of a freshly baked cake.
Good luck with your sale!