Spring is almost here, and soon it will be home selling season. You will only get one chance to make a good first impression in real estate and if you want to stand out from the competition, maximize your sale price and sell quickly, your house needs to go on the market in tip top condition.
As soon as the listing of your home goes live, the days on the market start ticking. In the current Internet age, with easy access to a lot of up to date information, home buyers will definitely punish any seller whose house has been on sale for many months. If you cannot make the effort to ensure that your home is in its best condition, you should hold-off on listing it.
Prepping the house rarely occurs within one weekend. It takes thoughtful planning and time. If you are planning to sell your house this spring, below are a few steps you should take now.
- Inspect
It might seem counter intuitive to spend your cash on a property inspection, but you should know about the condition of your home. If there`re issues – big or small – you should address, it’s better to know about them early enough so that you can either account for them with a lower-listing price or remedy them before going to market.
The last thing you want is for the home buyer to discover flaws once they`re under contract. For example, the inspection enable’s you to know about your home’s nearly-dead furnace or bad roof now instead of being surprised later. You’ll get stuck paying more under these conditions than it would cost you to resolve the issues now.
- Stash
As you are preparing to sell your home, you should think of it as an investment and begin to look at it through the eyes of the market and the potential buyers. When you are trying to sell your house, the less is more approach applies.
Put away personal items and big furniture. Put away or store all the things you will not be using until you move into your new house. In the kitchen, you should make space in the cabinets for the items you’ll want to use every day, but will want to put them away for the showings.
- Improve
It is quite common for home sellers to make cosmetic-improvements before they list their homes. Bathrooms and kitchens sell your house. You should plan to have the grout in your bathroom cleaned and have some of the walls of the home painted so that you can give it a fresh look. By doing this, you also enable the potential buyers to more easily imagine how they can adapt the rooms to their requirements.
You should also take color down a notch. You may like your lime green bedroom, but it might sour the buyers. Paint the walls a neutral color which will appeal to a wide range of home buyers.
Consider painting kitchen cabinets, cleaning rugs or refinishing hardwood floors. If you are planning to list your house in the spring, you probably already have a good local estate agent helping you by now. Get their advice and ask for referrals to do the work. There are lots of inexpensive contractors who can help spruce up your home quickly.
- Research
Today’s home buyers have research in their DNA and most of them will investigate all they can. You should check with your local building department and make sure that there are no unresolved issues with your house.
Verify that the property records reflect your house accurately, and prepare to remedy any inconsistency. Ensure that your title-report is clean, and talk about the potential disclosure items with your real estate agent. Banks will not lend if there`re unresolved issues, and you do not want to have to jump through hoops at the last minute. By conducting your researching now, you will be able to be a step ahead of the home buyers.
The sale of your house is probably one of your largest financial transactions. You should get a real-estate agent on your side early, and also make a list of the tasks you have to complete before listing your home this spring. Now is the right time to have these discussions. A good strategy and some smart planning will ensure a profitable, quick and painless home sale.
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