Preparing Your Home for Sale in Three Easy Steps
Preparing your home to be put on the market can be an intimidating task. The preparations going into selling are usually stressful and trying. That's especially true if you're like most sellers and don't start to prepare your home until a week or two before putting it on the market.
Make a list well in advance
Planning ahead while preparing your home for sale will reduce stress, expenses, and will allow you to do a far better job at doing what needs to get done. Write down a list of projects that need to be fixed now, and get to them a weekend at a time every couple months. By setting aside small amounts of time here and there to do a few tasks over the several months before selling your home, you will be saving yourself a lot of headaches when it comes time to put that sign in the yard. Not only will you be more relaxed, but you won't be as hasty to get things working and consequently you'll do a far better job. Another benefit of careful planning is that if you hire someone to do the work for you, you can save money by scheduling them during the slack times of the year instead of the peak summer season when they are all booked solid.
A picture is worth a thousand words
In this online world, buyers have access to hundreds, or even thousands, of homes for sale. With so much information at their fingertips, no one bothers reading about homes. They first skim through pictures and read about those that interest them most. One of the best things you can do to prepare your home to go on the market is to keep a camera handy for taking photos when lighting conditions are optimal. Murphy's Law says that if you wait until you put the sign in the yard to take a picture for your home, it will be dark and cloudy the day your agent shows up to take a picture.
Even if you're not planning on selling in the immediate future, next time after it rains, see if you can take a picture of a rainbow that "just happens" to end right behind your home. In the spring, make sure to get an early morning picture with the sun casting its gentle rays down on your award-winning flower bed that buyers won't see if you sell in the winter. Tiny details like that make make a big impression.
Put anything you don't use regularly away.
Take an inventory of your home and get rid of all unnecessary stuff possible. If it's not something you want to sell, but it's taking up space in your home, rent a storage locker and put it there until you move. If you don't use that breadmaker taking up space on the kitchen countertop daily, put it away or store it. (Even if you do use it regularly, if it could be easily stored out of sight -- store it!) The less "stuff" is cluttering up your countertops, the more attractive your kitchen (and house) will appear. If you have toys that are sitting around the family room, sell them! The less stuff you have around in your home, the bigger it feels!
With just a little advance planning, you can take a great deal of stress out of preparing to sell your home.
Visit http://www.AutomatedHomefinder.com for all of your Colorado real estate needs.|
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Linda Zimmerman, GRI, e-PRO, SRES |
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