Get your home ready to sell

How to get your house ready to Sell this Spring!

Spring is the undisputed champion of seasons for selling a home – not only are flowers in bloom and the sky blue for some great marketing photos, but home buyers are coming out of hibernation and excited to shop around.

As a homeowner, it's so easy to overlook little things that you've grown accustomed to that could be a major turn-off to a market filled with picky buyers with high expectations. If you're willing and able to walk through your house with a critical eye, you can likely find all kinds of things that you can easily change and that might just be the difference between an offer and a pass. Don’t let something you can control potentially cost you the sale of your house.

Lets start outside:

Refresh your curb appeal

The front of your home is the first thing potential buyers will see. “The importance of first impressions and the increasingly fussy buyers in a very competitive market, place sellers under great pressure to put their best foot forward when showing their home,” says Steve van Wyk, Seeff's MD in Centurion.

The condition of the driveway leading to the home is very important as this is the first thing that prospective buyers will see. Keep the driveway neat and tidy at all times and consider minor renovations before a show day if necessary. Ensure that all the paving is level and flat. Read some tips for show days here

Pool and Garden

The back yard should be tidy. If you have a pool, keep it freshly maintained and constantly cleaned. For those that have dogs, be sure to constantly keep the area clear of "debris".

Window Cleaning

Have your windows professionally cleaned to give your home a lighter feel. Clean windows will let in more light and make your rooms sparkle - and buyers will definitely notice if it's not done.

Exterior Wall Clean

Over time your outside walls can become soiled with things like pollution, dirt, dust, mildew, mold, cobwebs and bird or bat feces. This can accumulate and make your walls look old and dirty. Clean or re-paint the exterior of your home to give it a shiny new make over.

De-Clutter Everything!

Have you seen those pictures of living rooms in the furniture advertisements? They look fantastic, don't they? Take a look around your living room and see how close you can get to that picture.Linger in the doorway of each room and imagine how your house will look to a buyer. Examine how the furniture is arranged and move pieces around until you achieve visual appeal.

It’s important to remove clutter and depersonalize your home. Removing the clutter gives your home the feeling of having more space.

Depersonalizing your home will give home buyers the opportunity to imagine living in your home and making their own memories there rather than taking a tour down your family’s memory lane.

Pack up things you don’t need and stage your home. Give your home a clean, minimalist appearance. If you have a dusty bookshelf of old books, pack them up and put the book shelf into storage. Kitchen: First, get everything off the counters. Everything. Even the toaster. Put the toaster in a cabinet and take it out when you use it. Find a place where you can store everything in cabinets and drawers. De-clutter as much as you can before you sell it, and when it sells you will be well on your way to being packed to move. Now that you've tidied up and gotten everything organized, it's time to move on to painting and cleaning.

Revive your rooms with a fresh coat of paint

Freshly painted rooms look so clean. Every single little mark or scratch that have added up over the years will disappear, and your walls will once again look vibrant and new. Bold colours are bound to be a turn-off to some Buyers, so to appeal to the most people possible take the time to re-paint that red bedroom and blue bathroom. (Tip: light colours will help small rooms look bigger). Stick to neutral colours.

Don’t forget about baseboards and ceilings – they might need some paint too. Buyers will be mentally keeping tabs on how much work needs to be done if they were to move in so try to minimize it as much as you can. For recently painted walls that look dull, you can consider just having them professionally cleaned to bring them back to live.

Spring Clean

Invest in a deep home cleaning before you list your home (and keep us in mind when you move into your new house too). This is a huge deal. Having a quick sale of your house means having a ‘brand new to them’ house. New home buyers will see everything that you don’t.

Go through each room in your home and make sure every inch of it is spotless - even the closets and under the beds. Bathrooms and kitchens are usually the main focus, they need to be flawless. Buyer’s will most likely open every door, drawer and cupboard they see - nothing is off limits.

For professional help, contact us for a full house clean. One of our trained managers will inspect the home with you and give you the best advice on what areas are in need of a deep clean. This investment makes it easy to maintain cleanliness, and the buyers know they are getting a home that was well taken care of.

Carpet Cleaning

You will be amazed at what a difference it makes. Buyers make unconscious conclusions the moment they walk into a potential new home.

The cleaner a space looks, the more appealing it will be to potential buyers, making it feel like this could be their home.

Use Fragrances

Make your house smell good. If you’re a dog owner, wash any couches, beds and surfaces where the dogs sleep. You may not smell him anymore, but Buyers will.

Tuck the litter box away (and clean it twice a day while your home is on the market).

Spruce up Tile & Grout

Tile and grout gets dingy due to natural wear and tear on your home. Over time the chemicals we use to clean tiles build up and form a layer of wax on the tiles and grout that can be difficult to remove with ordinary house hold products.

Having your tiles deep cleaned or polished will bring them back to live.

Take care of the small details

Discerning buyers often look at properties with the goal of finding flaws that suggest the home hasn’t been kept up. That’s why it’s important to check for small flaws that could be big red flags.

Should you do repairs before selling your house?

Adrian Goslett, Regional Director and CEO of Remax of Southern Africa, says that it goes without saying that a home in good repair will achieve a far higher selling price than one that needs attention.

In most cases, homes that are in good repair will appeal to a greater number of buyers and will be sold in a shorter time frame than a home in need of repair.

Read the article here

Do some research on staging

Do a quick google search on home staging and you will find lots of free advice and info out there :

Think of fresh white towels and throw rugs in your bathrooms. Keep them in the closet, and when you have a showing throw your old ones in the hamper and put the new ones out.

Hanging mirrors is also encouraged on show days because prospective buyers can then literally “see” themselves living in the home.

Consider putting fresh flowers out as well.

Open all your blinds and curtains to let as much natural light in as possible.

Make your space look bigger: Lay down a striped rug to make your floor seem more expansive.

Use a clear shower curtain to open up a small bathroom.

Interview agents

As you are preparing your home to list for sale, go ahead and start interviewing agents. Everyone knows someone who has their real estate license, but don't just go with the first person you think of. Interview at least 3.

Have the agents come out to your home to tour the property. Ask about their experience in the neighborhood, their professional advice on pricing, their philosophy about working with other agents and of course, see who has the best marketing plan for selling your home quickly.

Photography

When your house is de-cluttered, cleaned and ready for prime time, it’s time for the photographer to work his magic.

This will happen a few days before you list your home for sale, and may include a virtual tour or video. Make sure to tell your agent the times when the light is best – that’ll make a big difference in the photos.

Also Read: Moving into a new Home

Moving should be an exciting and joyous event, a time for new beginnings, not a negative or unpleasant experience that leaves you drained and regretful.