Key Factors to Selling Your Home
Thinking of selling your home? There are three key factors to prep your home and get it ready to put on the market. The three factors are staging, cleanliness, and curb appeal. While each seems like a no-brainer, they can often be overlooked. While each one is important in its own right, the combination of all three can lead to great results. Prepare yourself and your home and you’ll find that selling your home doesn’t have to be a difficult process.
Staging Your Home
Everyone loves to view model homes because all of the key factors are taken care of in meticulous detail. You too can have that model home appearance if you take a little time prepping prior to selling your home. Staging your own home can sometimes seem a little difficult, especially when it contains items that have been collected over the years. Eliminating pieces of furniture, packing away family photos, painting rooms, or just simply placing items in different areas may seem simple to others, but as a seller these items have meaningful memories and are just too hard to store away. Since we have lived with these items in the same position or room, we as sellers may not know how to properly place them to appeal to a buyer. You may find it easier to hire a professional stager or designer to help with that difficult part. Staging can make rooms appear larger, as well as more inviting and allow the potential buyer to view the important features of the home – which is always the ultimate goal.
Cleanliness and Your Home
No one likes to hear that their home is dirty…and in reality, your home probably isn’t, but the perception of the buyer is what counts when you’re selling your home. Buyers love to walk into a sparkling clean home. A clean home eliminates distractions and allows the buyer to focus on the main features of your home. A few areas to focus on are soap scum in the tub and on shower doors, cleaning all of the windows (inside and out), wiping down doors and handle areas, changing A/C filters and cleaning the dust from the vents, and clean and clutter-free countertops. Each of these items are areas that are constantly brought to my attention when showing homes. The longer a buyer stays in the home looking around, the more drawers are opened, vents are checked, and the more time they will spend on details.
The Curb Appeal of Your Home
When the buyer and their agent pull up to the home, the very first thing a buyer notices is the yard, trees, and general look of the front of the home. On the way to the front door, they’ll walk down the sidewalk and notice flowerbeds and maybe comment on the porch or front door. This is known as curb appeal – the appearance of your home from the curb as the buyer pulls up and parks. When selling your home, this first impression can make or break a deal – you want the buyer to be in love with the home before they even step foot inside. A well maintained yard can be the most valuable tool for selling your home. Remove the overgrown plants, trim the bushes, plant some new flowers, clean out flowerbeds of dead leaves, keep the grass green and mowed, and raise the canopies on tress – each one of these items help accentuate the look of your home and put buyers at ease as they prepare to look at what could possibly be their next home. Keep the front of your home looking neat and clean and buyers will not walk in your home with a negative vibe, but rather be excited that you took the time to take care of the curb appeal of your home, so you probably kept the home in great shape too.
Keep it Clean and Neat When Selling Your Home
All three key factors boil down to one simple idea: keep it clean and neat. The better your home looks, the easier it will be to sell and you’ll be more likely to get more money from selling your home. Buyer’s perceptions will affect their offer, so the better you can make that first impression, the better your chances are of them having positive perceptions.
I work with many in the industry who offer services that can help you with getting everything just right before selling your home. If you are in need of any of the services mentioned above please feel free to call and get quotes from these companies.
JB Designs Home Staging
Jenny Bartholomew
(210) 313-2717
The Cleaning Lady
Tina Stone
(210) 535-7424
Yard Works
Chris Jones
(210) 639-6936
image courtesy of kevinspencer
