Want to know the top tips to selling your house? You’ve come to the right place! I’ve got the top 20 tips to help you get your house ready to sell. These are the best return for the hard work, time and energy it takes to get your home sold. I’m also including a Get Your House Ready to Sell Checklist that you can download for free.
Moving Prep Checklist
Getting ready to sell? Download my FREE checklist that tells you exactly what you need to do to get your house ready to sell..
Top 20 Tips for Selling Your Home
- Professional Photos – most buyers find their home online. And one of the best ways to market online is through photos. You want light, bright, and engaging photos that builds an emotional connection with the buyer. Enough so, that the buyer is eager to go and look at your home in person. In fact, spending the money to hire a great photographer that understands real estate photography will go a long way. In some instances, by the time the buyer is at the house, they’re already sold. They’re just matching the images they saw online with what they see in person.
- Clean – no one likes anyone else dirt, trash or junk. And let’s keep it real. Its easier to see someone else’s dirt than it is to see our own. So, if at all possible, get your home professionally cleaned. And ask for a deep clean. This includes ceiling fans, windows, baseboards, curtains or blinds, appliances and all the other nooks and crannies.
- No clutter – get rid of as much as you can. You want potential buyers focused on the beauty of the house. Not your stuff. Having too much stuff will draw their eye away from what matters. Plus, having strangers look at all of your personal items takes away some of your privacy. So, work with your stager to determine what remains, and then put everything else in storage.
- Depersonalize – again, this isn’t about you, this is about having the buyer feel like this is the home for THEM. Think model home. Thing HGTV. When you walk around model homes, you’ll see that art work is beautiful but generic. So are the towels, bed comforters and other decor. So, remove all of your personal items. Photographs, trophies and other personal memorabilia. Once the buyer is able to picture themselves in the house, it’s all but sold.
- Light – unless your target buyer is a vampire, they’re not looking for a dungeon. The lighter and brighter the house, the better. If your current light sources don’t emit enough light, see if you can increase the wattage. You may even need to change or update the light fixture itself. At the very least, consider upgrading your actual light bulbs to LED daylight bulbs. They provide the same wattage but give a lot more natural looking light to any room.
- Availability – this goes back to removing emotion from the home selling process. I’m not asking you to allow anyone to come into your home at any time of day or night. I’m asking you to make the home easily available during reasonable hours. Easy access will go along way in getting more buyers into your home. And them having a good start to the process of working with you and your agent. Complicated showing instructions and limited or delayed hours turn buyers off. Even in a seller’s market. If a buyer only has a few hours a day to look at a home or finds your home at the last minute. Having them wait 2 hours or give 24-hour notice could potentially cause them to miss your home or look at another property.
- Proper Pricing – get your pricing right. There will be some agents that agree to the unrealistic price you want to list your home just to get the listing. I think that’s a little unethical. I can also understand that a seller would want to list their home as high as possible. However, overpricing rarely works. A home that is listed with a price that buyers feel it’s worth, will go much quicker and potentially even cause a bidding war. A home that is overpriced will just sit on the market for a long time.
- Marketing – proper marketing of the home is a process that combines staging, photography, networking, online marketing and traditional offline marketing. Talk with your agent about their marketing strategy and what they feel will work best for your home in the current market, based on its price, location, features and target buyer.
- Interior Paint – most buyers want to move into a home that’s “move in ready”. Meaning, they don’t have to do any work to feel like the home is habitable. They’ll be excited to host friends and family and showoff their new space as soon as possible. Buyers also want to be able to envision their furniture in the space. So, if you have old paint, dingy walls, bold paint or outdated colors, it will make it more challenging for the buyer to envision their items in the house. And make it harder for you to sell.
- Exterior Appeal – first impressions matter, right? Tighten up the front yard so when buyers drive up, they’re excited about looking inside. Make sure the exterior looks as put together as possible. This can be the first area where the buyers fall in love or where they see a lot of deferred maintenance and work that needs to be done. Keep the buyer excited about looking at the entire house by focusing on the landscaping and front door appeal.
- Agent – good agents are worth their weight in gold! An agent can share their knowledge and give you good insight and perspective on the home selling process. Sharing the specifics of your home and what to expect goes a long way. As well as being your professional guide and negotiator. Rely on your agent’s professional expertise and understanding of how to properly market the house.
- Well maintained – when people look to buy a fixer upper, they’re also looking for an awesome deal. But a well-maintained home commands it price and showcases its value. Take the time to look around your home to see what needs to be fixed, repaired or replaced. A properly maintenance home may just be the thing that tilts the buyer’s decision in your favor when considering multiple properties.
- Odor free – make sure you don’t mask any odors but neutralize them. Keep the home smelling fresh by opening up your windows. Based on psychological research, some of the best scents to help sell your home include citrus like lemons and oranges, refreshing herbs like basil, vanilla and pine or cedar.
- No pets – some buyers don’t like pets, only like their pets, or are just down right allergic. So, it’s not enough to remove your pets from the home during showings. I recommend removing your pets from your home during the entire sales process. See if they can stay with a family member or friend. And once the pets are gone, then get your carpets and all other fabrics in your home clean. And paints your walls. Removing all signs of pets is a great way to open up your pool of buyers.
- Professional Staging – your stager will help you with the visual marketing of your home. Understanding your target buyer, they’ll be able to guide you in the best way to showcase your home and its features. Make sure you take their advice on which furniture should go or stay. And take them up on their offer of using their furniture and décor to bring your home to life. Remember, this isn’t about your taste, but what will appeal most to your potential buyer and get them to fall in love.
- Prepare for the sales process – there’s a lot that happens during the selling process. Ask your agent to walk you through the process beginning to end so you know what to expect in terms of paperwork and timeframes. As well as what to expect of your agent and walk their expectations of you.
- Review your listing online – oh my gosh! I can’t tell you how many listings I see online and think to myself, “the seller or agent didn’t take a look at this listing or they don’t really care about selling the house”. If you’re going to take the time to get your home ready to sell, PLEASE make sure it’s being marketed properly. Are all of the intended photos in the MLS? Is the description filled out properly? Are all trending features mentioned? Is the address correct? Is the properly showing the correct schools? For top school areas, is this highlighted in the description? Is the listing showing properly on the map? You get the idea.
- Remove the emotions – the house you’re selling is no longer your home. Ouch! If you’ve lived there any length of time, I’m sure that statement hurt a bit. But really. The house you’re selling is now a product listed for sale. So, you’ll do yourself a favor if you keep in mind why you decided to sell. Take the emotions out of the deal. This includes how your home will be depersonalized and staged (part of marketing), the best offer price to set (to get buyer’s attention) and negotiating the offer price and repairs.
- Understand the market – including researching your competition and understanding what current buyers want. Also knowing and understand your target potential buyer and what they expect. Your stager or agent may recommend updating certain items in the home. Remember, kitchen and bathrooms sell, so expect to spend the majority of any updating in those spaces.
- Ask for feedback – getting feedback on how your homes looks and is marketed will go a long way to determine how it’s perceived. Ask your agent to seek feedback from other agents that have shown your property. These agents have insight into how actual buyers perceive your home against others they’ve seen. This will be invaluable feedback that you shouldn’t take lightly.
Moving Prep Checklist
Getting ready to sell? Download my FREE checklist that tells you exactly what you need to do to get your house ready to sell..
Top Tips for Selling Your Home
I’ve shared the top 20 tips to selling your house. I’m sure you learned a thing or two. And you have some actionable tips to add to your to-do list. The next step is to check out the Getting House Ready to Sell (Moving Prep) Checklist and download it for FREE now.
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- 15 Things to Do Before Putting Your Home on the Market
- Confessions of a Buyer: What Every Seller Should Know
- 5 Quick Tips on How to Impress Prospective Buyers
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