Preparing to sell your home: 5 things you must do

The process of selling your home can be a period of mixed emotions and stress.

The emotional weight can be enormous. Perhaps this is the only home your children have known. There may be a lifetime of memories in this home. The stress part comes when you try to figure out what will help your home sell quickly while also for the maximum amount.

If you have the liberty to move out and place your belongings in storage while your house is for sale, this list may not be for you. Perhaps you have already hired a painter to update inside and out. If necessary, you may have also hired landscapers to bring the outside up to tip-top shape. With this completed, you’re ready to hire a real estate agent and take their recommendations on staging, and overnight, your home will take on a new personality.

Unfortunately, many of us don’t have the liberty of doing all of these things. Instead, we will remain in the home until escrow closes. So how does one bridge the gap between these two situations?

There is no perfect list of what has the highest priority. However, there are a few universally recommended areas. Scroll down to see the five areas you should concentrate on when preparing to sell your home, and a few other relatively easy and cost-effective ideas that may also help your home present better to prospective buyers.

1. Declutter

Decluttering your home is perhaps the most essential step on the list. You want your home to appear spacious and open. Nothing closes in a home visually more than a lot of clutter, except perhaps too much large furniture. The top areas to clear of clutter include kitchen countertops and bathroom vanities. When done with the kitchen and bathrooms, think about removing some furniture. Take a look at each room from the entrance doorway. Can you move freely? Are you looking at items in the room instead of the room itself? In the kitchen, are you saying to yourself, “Wow, I forgot how large this kitchen is?” If you hear yourself saying this, you’re on the right track.

2. Depersonalize

Taking down family photos is frequently the most challenging part of the process when preparing your home for sale. By leaving all of your family photos displayed, child growth measurements and other highly personal items, your home is still yours in the eyes of prospective buyers. Instead, you want prospective buyers to look in each room and envision their family photos and memorabilia in the home. This step will go a long way towards better showings.

3. Deep-Clean

If you don’t have time to do a complete repainting of the home, replace damaged or worn flooring and other expensive and time-consuming updates, a deep-clean is essential. If you have the time, this is something you can do yourself. However, hiring a professional cleaning company to come in might be the most time and cost-efficient way. A deep-clean is especially important if you have pets. You want your home to not only look clean — with floors, carpeting and fixtures, especially in the kitchen and bathrooms — but you also want your home to smell fresh.

4. Clean Windows

Yes, “we do windows.” Depending on the time of year, outdoor light might be in short supply. Cleaning the windows inside and out allows for a much brighter presentation. Cleaning windows also allows for a more open feeling in each room, allowing the outside to become a closer part of the inside. How many times have you read in real estate listings “territorial view?” Why not bring the outside view inside and make the home feel larger?

5. Add Curb Appeal

This one can be another challenging project, depending on the time of year. The goal is to ensure that a prospective buyer is interested from the moment they first see your home. The front of the house is where this can happen. If your walkway has moss, either rent a pressure washer or hire a landscape team to remove it. Trim back the bushes so you can see the house. More importantly, trees and bushes that block light from coming into the home should be cut back. Bright and airy goes a long way towards showing well.

Taking this short list into consideration and finding a quality real estate agent are the first two steps in the selling process. A quality agent or broker will further prioritize what needs to be taken care of before listing your home for sale.

You also may want to visit other areas in your home, including removing old dark window coverings that make rooms feel small and dark or adding them for a level of privacy where necessary. Touching up chips in paint and molding throughout the home is always advisable.

While you may place your extra furniture and boxes in the garage, if you can, it is better to clear out the garage and put everything into storage. And while simple, if there are any squeaking doors or cabinets in the home, use a little oil. No detail is too small. Sometimes the most straightforward fixes will get you the most important result, a buyer.