Preparing Your Home For Sale

You have loved your home; the location has been great, it’s been perfect for your family, Fred the cat loves that window sill, then one day you realize this doesn’t work anymore. The children have grown up and Fred, well ——.
Now you’ve made the big decision to move to your next dream home. First, you’re going to need to sell this one and you wonder, what are buyers looking for?

Well, they are NOT looking to fill their weekends with house chores for the next two years with that spare time they don’t have. Buyers are short on time, also usually short on cash and want to start enjoying the home as soon as possible. So what do you need to do to make someone WANT your house?

First consider the outside, particularly from the curb. How does it look? Do the garden and driveway look maintained and attractive? Has the exterior been recently painted and is in good repair? Buyers are looking for cues and if they don’t like what they see from the curb, they may not even get out of the car. Who cares if you just installed that incredible hardwood flooring, added tray ceilings and a new kitchen if you can’t entice them out of the car? Paint the exterior if needed, weed the garden, sweep the driveway. It goes a long way.

Now the inside. Try and look through buyer’s eyes as they enter the front door. You have FIVE SECONDS to convince them that this could be the one. Is the entrance way warm, inviting and well lit? How does it smell? The number one missed opportunity, and most offensive to prospective buyers, is odour. You might not be able to smell your pet’s bedding, but they can, and they’re not interested. Do a walk through. Does anything need a touch up of paint, a small repair?

Finally, reducing clutter will make your home feel larger, more peaceful and remove distraction from the architecture. Move what you can into an off site storage facility, or even better, have a giant garage sale and make some money. Once you have cleaned out the clutter of everyday living it is time to clean, clean and, you guessed it, clean. Here’s a big motivator, buyer’s will pay $5000 – $10,000 less for a dirty home or not buy it at all. So have your home sparkly clean!

Congratulations! You are ready to impress the pants off any Buyer and blow your competition out of the water. It’s time to get your outstanding home on the market.