With interest rates on the rise and the market reaching what could be a peak, many Americans are toying with the idea of selling their homes. But how many of them have performed the necessary improvements and preparations in order to fetch top dollar?
Eddie Santos, a real estate agent from the Bay Area of California, offers five tips for how to get your home in tip-top shape before throwing up that real estate sign. Be sure to catch them all at Brighteon.com below:
Ideas for maximizing the move-in readiness of your home
Your number one priority is to make sure your home is move-in ready. This means getting rid of all the clutter and making it look squeaky clean and well-equipped. Potential buyers want to be able to see themselves, and not your junk, living in your home. They also don't want to have to deal with a lot of maintenance, so make sure everything is fully repaired and intact.
Santos recommends getting a home inspection as a first step. While it's usually up to a buyer to have one done, a seller who provides a clean bill of health for his home will help to reassure a potential buyer that everything is in good working order, and that there won't be any unexpected surprises later on down the road.
It's always a good thing to perform as many upgrades as you can to your home to really make it shine. But if you can, be sure to get replacement estimates to help a potential buyer accurately calculate what it might cost them to do the upgrades themselves. This will greatly encourage a potential buyer to pull the trigger rather than think about it or look for something else.
Under no circumstances should you ever leave minor problems in disrepair. Things like fixing scratches and dings, throwing on a fresh coat of paint, and repairing a broken door handle or hinge are relatively inexpensive, and when they not properly addressed, people notice them and could be turned off from buying your home, believing it to be poorly maintained.
Check out this article for tips on how to maximize your investment in purchasing a home.
Getting back to the staging element, more often than not less is more. Put away those family photos, overflowing bookshelves, piles of paperwork, and dishes, because a home filled with clutter is not something that a potential buyer wants. Even though you'll end up removing all of these items anyway, a potential buyer could be overwhelmed at the sight of all the junk, not to mention the fact that clutter makes spaces in your home look and feel smaller and more enclosed than they actually are – and people like open, airy, and bright.
Santos even recommends removing as much as one-third of your furniture, putting it in storage if necessary. It might seem like an unnecessary expense, but renting a small storage space to make your home feel larger could mean thousands of extra dollars in terms of its sale value.
Finally, it's absolutely critical to make sure that your home is clean. Besides just vacuuming all floors and carpeting, make sure to dust all surfaces, wash all windows and screens, fluff up all pillows, and even remove all wrinkles from bed and table linens.
Santos suggests paying especially close attention to your kitchen, making sure that your refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, and all other visible appliances are as clean and shiny as possible. You may also want to wax your kitchen floor to add that little extra shine – because the more your home looks like something from a magazine, the more interested a potential buyer will be in making it their own.
Be sure to watch the full video at Brighteon.com.
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