How to Get Your House Ready to Sell

Do you want to sell your house soon? Do you have a few repairs needing done before you sell your house? Maybe you don’t know what needs done to get your home ready to sell? There are definitely some things you can do to get your home ready to sell and it will help you sell your home faster and you can even sell your house for more money.

I want to go over a few steps you can take to get your home ready to sell. These will be simple tasks that anyone can do. I have a few articles that will give you additional steps you can take to get your house ready to sell. They will be a little more involved, but they will have a bigger impact as well. Check out “How to Sell Your Home for More” and “How to Sell Your Home Fast”.

I want to focus on a few simple tasks that will be essential to getting your house ready to sell.

1. Declutter

The first task you need to take on when you are thinking about selling your home is decluttering your entire property. This means inside and outside of your home.

Outside Decluttering

Do not skip this step! The first thing any buyer will see is the outside of your home. It is always the first picture on a listing so when a buyer is looking online at properties, they will see the picture of the front of your home first. Almost all buyers start their search online so plan for this to be your first impression.

Declutter means to have less. Put away anything that isn’t necessary or that isn’t helping improve the curb appeal of your home. When putting your home on the market less is better. Buyers want to imagine their own things in and around your home. This is hard for buyers when a seller has too many things cluttering up the place.

Inside Decluttering

When you want to get your home ready to sell you must go through your home and declutter. This means you should put away or put in storage anything that is not being used. You can leave a few decorations but use them sparingly.

Decluttering the kitchen is extremely important. You want to show that your home has plenty of counter space. Put away all counter top appliances and it will look like there is more counter space.

Buyers also love big bedrooms. If you want your bedroom to appear more spacious you can take out any large furniture. You will also want to clear off the tops of your night stands and dressers.

Remember less is better when getting your house ready to sell.

2. Clean

You may wonder why this is not combined with decluttering? This is two separate steps and they need equal focus to make your home ready to sell.

When I say clean, I don’t mean to just run the vacuum and wipe off the dinner table. You must do those two things but there is more to it then that. I am talking about deep cleaning. I am talking about renting a carpet cleaning machine or hiring a company to come clean your carpets.

You need to clean everything including the items you may often skip like the microwave and stove. Clean the bathtub and shower. Clean all the cobwebs out of the basement. Clean the garage.

You should even power wash the siding of your house, the sidewalks and driveway. Clean out the gutters and downspouts.

To get your home ready to sell you should do a deep clean inside and out.

3. Lighting

If you want your home to look great when it is listed for sale you should go through your home and check the lighting. The brighter the better!

Some of the newer lightbulbs, LED bulbs, are extremely bright. They can brighten up your home and use less energy at the same time. You should consider switching your entire home to LED bulbs. This will even be a good selling feature of your house.

If you don’t want to spend the extra money on new LED bulbs you could always stay with incandescent light bulbs. Just buy the highest watt each light fixture will allow. You should also go with a clear light because it will appear to be brighter then the “warm” or yellow light.

Brighter homes show better and sell faster. A bright home will leave buyers with the impression that the home is clean and there is even research that shows that a brighter environment is happier, and you want your buyers happy when they walk through your home.

4. Updating

Now you don’t have to put in new cabinets and granite countertops but sometimes that will bring you a higher return.

You can just do some simple lower cost updates that will make a huge impact on how quickly you can sell your house and you might even be able to get more money for the home at the same time.

You can update some lower cost things like area rugs, window curtains, light switch and outlet cover plates, door handles. You can even update a few items that cost a little more like light fixture, ceiling fans, screen doors, front entry door, doorbells and even your mailbox.

Not all of these items will be necessary on every home and some homes I have seen and listed for sale did not need any of these things. You will need to walk through and around your home to see what items that need updating and what items that would be worth you spending the money.

You Realtor can help you with this step.

5. General Maintenance

These will be tasks that you don’t want to skip if you want to sell your home fast and for as much money as possible.

General maintenance tasks include things like caulking around windows and flashing, scrapping and painting chipped paint, replace or fix any doors or handles that are in disrepair, checking that windows and locks are working properly.

You should lubricate any noisy hinges, don’t use WD-40 for this! Use White Lithium Grease. WD-40 will improve the noise for about two days then it will dry up and be noisy again. White Lithium Grease is designed to lubricate tight spaces like hinges, and it will stay lubricated for weeks and months.

While you have the white lithium grease out make sure to Lubricate the Garage Door while you are at it. Click the link to see my “How To” article for lubricating a garage door.

You will need to walk around the inside and out side of your home to check if anything is in disrepair. Anything that need attention will be brought up during a home inspection when you sell your home, so it is best to get it done before listing your home for sale. This way you won’t waste any time or worse the buyers might walk away from the deal.

6. Landscaping

We touched this topic a little in the decluttering your outside space section above, but I want to go into a little more detail.

You will definitely want to keep it simple especially in the front. You are wanting to Improve Your Curb Appeal here without breaking the bank. If you’re not aware plants and shrubs can get expensive.

Most of the time homeowners can just simply work with what they already have. You may want to take a few plants out to open the space up and trim any over grown bush. You can add a little color with a few annuals.

7. Scent of your Home

This is something that is often overlooked. The scent of your home can make a huge difference on showings. You can make buyers feel like it’s a pleasant home or disgusting home just by how the house smells.

You need to remember if you have pets you need to put some effort into not allowing you home to sell like you have pets. Not every buyer will like pets like you do and you want your home to appeal to all buyers.

You will want to but the carpet vacuum powder like the Arm and Hammer Pet Fresh Carpet Odor Eliminator. Febreze is always a good thing to spay a few hours before a showing.

You may also want to invest in an electric candle warmer like Scentsy. This is a great way to dictate the scent of your home. You can pick a soft pleasant scent, or you can even make your home smell like fresh baked goods which is always a hit when trying to sell your home.

These are just a few steps you should take when trying to get your home ready to sell. You could always sell your home as is as long as your list price matches the condition of your home.

If you are looking for more tips on selling your home fast and for the most money possible, I encourage you to read my articles “How to Sell Your Home for More” and “How to Sell Your Home Fast”.

If you are thinking of selling you home and you have any questions leave me a comment bellow or send me an email. If you have any other suggestions on how to get your house ready to sell leave me a comment.