Don't List Your Home For Sale Until You Do These Three Things
If you want to list your home for sale, first take each of these three steps to ensure it is market-ready:
1. Rent a Storage Unit and Put Most of What You Own Into It
While you may already know it will be necessary to remove your personal collections and family photos from your home to facilitate a future buyer being able to picture themselves living there, you may not realize that a large percentage of what you own should be moved out of your home and into a storage unit.
In fact, you should move more items out of your home than those remaining behind. Stripping out so many of your belongings and so much of your furniture will really open up the rooms and show buyers how spacious your home's interiors are.
As an added bonus, removing much of what you own and placing it into a storage unit before your home sells will make your move a lot shorter and easier. And, the relatively low cost of a storage unit makes an easier moving day well worth the added cost and effort.
2. Consult a Real Estate Professional for an Unbiased Opinion and Staging Suggestions
Real estate agents and brokers sell homes for a living, so they know exactly what things in your home that buyers will love and what they will hate. For a quick sale and a high sales price, bring in a broker or agent before listing your home and get their unbiased opinion on how to further stage your freshly purged space.
3. Eliminate All Odors in Your Home
One of the things buyers love about a brand new home is that it doesn't have any odors or smells other than those of the building materials used to build them. Since the buyers of your home aren't buying new construction, it's important to completely eliminate any odors in your home.
Common ways to accomplish this are:
- removing wall-to-wall carpet
- professionally clean area rugs
- dump all trash cans and then wash them out with bleach
- wash all dirty laundry
- find a cat sitter and remove the cat box
Finally, skip the Febreze, Pine Sol, and other "fresh-smelling" products. They give buyers the impression there is an offensive smell you are trying to hide. Instead, freshen your home with smells people are naturally attracted to, including:
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Freshly baked cookies
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Freshly baked bread
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Boiled citrus fruits with cinnamon
If your kitchen sink smells less than fresh, then try grinding up some lemons in the garbage disposal.
In conclusion, now that your home has been cleaned out and smells wonderful, it's time to get it listed and sold. Speak to a local real estate agent for more help.
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