8 Fast Fixes that give you Big Money!
“77% of buyers’ agents said that staging a home made it easier for buyers to visualize the property as their future home.”
If you are selling your home of course you want it to sell for top price! However, as you look around your house trying to get it ready to put on the market, you realize that there are many features that are completely out of your control to change: neighborhood, lot size, layout, and room size to name a few. Still, there are some easy things you can do to increase the perceived value of your house so that each room looks its best and, most importantly, it is viewed as a house that another family can picture as their own.
Remove all clutter or distracting items- Let’s be honest, no one wants to see your clutter. The image you want to portray to prospective buyers is clean, clutter-free, and well kept.
Don’t show signs of pets- Hide the cat climbers! If you can at all help it, hide any sign of a pet. Cages, food bowls, litter boxes, etc… Not all buyers are pet-friendly! Pet items can be a huge turn-off to some buyers. If you can eliminate these types of pet items from pictures or during showings, all potential buyers will be able to picture themselves living in your house.
Take away the ‘excess’ to make the room look bigger, this includes closets- Even if your clothes fit nicely in your closet or books, games, and knick-knacks fit nicely on a bookshelf, fireplace mantel, or open cabinet space, if you remove at least half of the items, it will immediately make the space appear larger.
Take away items that reveal personal photos or names- Depersonalizing your home is an important step in trying to sell it. Even though the picture might look great, it makes it more difficult for the potential buyer to visualize the house as their own.
Take magnets off the refrigerator- This is easily overlooked as a way to declutter your kitchen. Keeping pictures or reminders on your fridge might be useful in your everyday life, but not a good impression on the home buyers.
Close the garage door-This might seem trivial, but first impressions are everything! When they walk up to the house, they will notice how well ‘put together’ the house looks at first glance. This will set the tone for how they feel about the rest of the home.
Open all curtains and blinds-Natural light coming in through the windows will immediately make a huge difference in how your house is perceived by the buyers. Natural light feels fresh, open, and welcoming.
Replace burnt-out light bulbs- Make sure the colors of the light bulbs match! This might be an easy one to overlook, but light bulbs give the overall sense of clean and welcoming.
In the 2017 profile of home staging at nar.realtor “the most common home improvement items agents recommend to sellers were decluttering the home (91%), entire home cleaning (89%), carpet cleaning (81%), and removing pets (80%).”
The biggest thing to remember is that you are trying to create a ‘feeling’ for home buyers. You want them to realize that this is a place they could picture themselves living. Nar.realtor also reported that 77% of buyers’ agents said that staging a home made it easier for buyers to visualize the property as their future home. All buyers will have an emotional ‘pull’ towards or away from a house. If you present your house as warm and comforting, the buyer will most likely get a ‘good feeling’ and notice the nice features of your house. However, if there is a bad odor, items that are a huge turn-off, or a generally ‘cold’ feeling the buyer will quickly move on to the next listing. If you want top dollar for your house, think about what you could do to welcome the buyers ‘home’.
If you are interested in reading a comprehensive breakdown to get your house ready to sell visit www.nar.realtor.