Preparing Your Home to Sell

Inside your home:     

Check all the basics around the house, all doors, windows and cabinets, to make sure they don’t stick, squeak or are loose, and that all the hardware is in good condition.

Kitchen & Living Areas

Remove any items on top of cabinets, and any extra décor on countertops and shelves.  For selling, minimal is best.  It helps the buyer imagine their personal items in the space.

Determine whether you really need that blender, canisters, rooster, and all those other things that clutter up your countertops sitting out.  Put them away or pack them away.  You now have much more usable counter space and buyers will notice.

Replace all burned out light bulbs.

Carpets, draperies, and furniture should all be professionally cleaned and look their best.

If you have a fireplace, clean, and remove any smoke stains.

Clean your water heater, and replace furnace filters as needed.  All buyers are looking at these things and are impressed by a home that shows good care and maintenance.

Does your home smell pleasant? Place diffusers or air fresheners with a pleasant, mild scent around your home.  The old adage of enticing buyers with the smell of ‘fresh baked pies’ is a good one.

Bathrooms

Thoroughly clean, make the bathrooms shine.  If you have grout, then scrub away.

Replace shower curtain and bathroom rug with something fresh.

Fix any faucet leaks or drips.

Check the caulking around the tub and shower and replace with fresh caulking where necessary. Any caulking with mold on it has to go.

Closets

Pack away everything that you are not going to need for the next few months.  Neatly store in a storage area, or rent a storage facility.  Remember that closets are never big enough, and the least amount of items that are taking up space, the larger your closets look.

Organize your clothes and shoes neatly on bars and racks.  The more organized and clean and better!

Outside your home:

Keep entryway clean and freshly painted.  Including the front porch, pillars, stairs, and door.  Once it is clean and painted, dress up the front door with a potted plant or two. Your entry  makes a great first impression.

Check that house numbers, mailbox and exterior lighting are all in good condition.

Thoroughly clean all windows and screens, and re-caulk or repaint where necessary.

Stand back at the street and take a good hard critical look at your property. Do the roof, gutters, downspouts, siding, and chimney look good?  Would a good cleaning do them wonders?  Are repairs in order?  Get the cleaning, repainting, repointing and repairs done.

Keep the lawn, flowers, and trees maintained.

Garage

If you’re a packrat, get a dumpster and get rid of all the items taking up space in your garage. Buyers need to see that their cars will fit in the space.  If you can’t part with the stuff, then rent a storage unit for a few months while your home is for sale and take everything there that you don’t need right now.

Thoroughly clean the walls, shelves and floor, and repaint where necessary.  It’s not difficult or expensive, but having a freshly painted garage floor leaves an amazing impression.

Ensure the garage door opener is working properly and put some WD40 on a squeaky door. 

Apply fresh paint where needed.  If a room needs re-painted, use neutral-toned paint to brightened up the space.