You know you want to sell for the best possible price. You then need to Prepare your house for sale and get ready mentally.
Disassociate Yourself
Depending of your particular circumstances, this step could be the easier or the most difficult one. But if you are one of those people that love their home and every corner of the house brings a memory that you want to hold on to, then you need to make a brake or you will fail to sell fast and at top dollar.
People that are emotionally attached tend to overprice their house, and even look for problems so they can unintentionally sabotage a good deal if they did not prepare mentally to sell. Here are a few tips to help determine if you are ready:
- Think of the moment that you will be handing the keys of the house to another person. How do you fell thinking about that?
- Ask yourself if this your home or this is a house like any other and home is what you make of it.
- Don’t look backward – look to the future!
Depersonalise
To prepare your house for sale, the first step is to depersonalise it. Pack up personal photographs of your daughter, husband, wife and other people. All of them! in every room including your bedroom. Buyers need to place themself in your house and can’t see your personal photos if we want to help them. You want the buyer to say or think: “I love this room for my daughter”, or “This master bedroom is what I want for me and my husband”.
Clean the clutter
Sellers don’t realize how much stuff they have accumulated over the years and how it deters most buyers. To prepare your house for sale you need to make it as lean as possible, it is now time to a) pack it up and move some boxes out of the house, b) give it to church or another charity, c) sell it or d) if nothing else work throw it out.
I am talking about books, some furniture like extra coffee tables, the stuff in the garage OMG, hair dryers hanging in the bathroom, shampoo bottles, those towels drying on top of the shower door, all those appliances on to of kitchen counters.
All surfaces should be cleared pay special attention to:
- Potted plants
- Ornaments
- Kitchen tools and appliances, specially if they are on conuntertops
- Posters and other ornaments on children’s bedrooms
- Also, be sure to put away any personal effects. razors, hair dryers, shampoo bottles, toothbrushes.
Control your pets
I know you love your pets, and most people love animals but for some buyers been greeted at the door by your dog or your cat might ruin the visit right there. Having a animal fence installed is ok, but the best is to take your pet for a walk while the house is been shown.
And that brings me to the next point.
Better if you leave
Once again it is important that you disassociate from your house regarding this point. Most Buyers don’t feel at home if the current owner is there following them everywhere. This is a psychological. They need to feel that the home is theirs.
Repair and restore
The devil is in the details, to prepare your house for sale at the best price, try looking at your home from the perspective of a buyer, look for things that over the years you have stopped paying attention, here is a list to get you started:
- Replace broken light bulbs
- Fix leaky taps
- Fix doors and drawers that don’t open or close properly or are noisy.
- Touch up paint and repaint altogether where necessary (bright neutral colour)
- Hang up fresh towels in the bathroom
- Get a new shower curtain and bathmat.
- Eradicate odours. Sometimes we become accustomed to them, so is best if you ask a friend to help identify them, specially cigarette and pets odours.
- Replace cushion on and remove or replace old sofa pillows
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