Preparing Your Home for a Quick Sale
Kathy Mendham-Meathrel
A buyer will usually fall in love with your home the moment they walk through the door. Make sure their first steps into your home are memorable. There are many simple things you can do to prepare your home for sale. Getting your home ready will take a lot of time so give yourself a few weeks to get in tip top shape.
First of all is declutter and get rid of all the extra things you don’t need, after all you have to start packing sometime!! It is important to keep in mind when decluttering you want to have potential buyers to come in and see lots of space.
You want your kitchen counter to have only the bare essentials remaining on it, once again highlighting the amount of counter space you have.
Updating the counter top and painting cupboards is an easy way to make life come back to a dated kitchen.
Have your bathroom neat and tidy with all your toiletries put away so both the counter and shower area is free from products. Fresh caulking around the bathtub also gives the bathroom a fresh and clean feel.
Packing away all of your personal items and photos is essential. The buyer wants to come in and envision themselves living in your home.
Bedroom and linen closets should be purged so they show the buyer how spacious they are.
Think of repainting some rooms to a neutral colour and touch up paint as needed throughout your home. You want the buyers to feel that all they need to do is move right in.
Have your carpets steam cleaned and stretched if necessary.
Upgrading light fixtures in key rooms is a quick way of modernizing a space and making it more attractive to the buyer. Remember that you can exclude lighting fixtures and take them with you after you sell, just replace with the old fixture so the buyer will still have a light to use.
Ensure you home is clean and tidy for all showings. Think of having a non intrusive scented plug-in.
Make sure all you curtains and blinds are open to make you home look bright and airy. Cracking the windows open for fresh air also makes the house smell fresh.
Remember to leave lights and some background music on.
Be honest with yourself for the potentials of smoking, pet or other odours and make all efforts to remove them as they are major deterrent to a buyer.
If your basement has a damp smell consider getting a dehumidifier to reduce the smell as basement dampness is a big concern to buyers.
For my clients I hire a home stager to come into a property at my expense
to give a more detailed and advanced advice on what can be done to a home
to make it more saleable. Ask you agent if they also provide this service
to their sellers. I am a firm believer in this as it assists in a quick
and easy sale.
Kathy Mendham-Meathrel
Sales Representative
Realty Executives
515 Wellington Rd S
London, ON N6C 4R3
519-854-1974