Did you know that selling a home is one of the most stressful things that you’ll ever do? According to a 2017 study, home sellers stress out about everything from coming up with the right price for their home to selling their home in a reasonable amount of time.
There’s no way to 100 percent eliminate the stress associated with selling a home. But you can bring your stress levels way down by preparing your home for sale before you put it up on the market. You’ll have a better chance of selling it when you’ve made the proper preparations for your house.
Here are 7 tricks for preparing your home for sale that will help you manage your stress more effectively.
1. Update Your Landscaping
In life, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression on someone. And that same thinking applies when it comes to preparing your home for sale.
If someone pulls up in front of your house and it doesn’t look great from the outside, there’s a good chance they’re not even going to bother checking out the inside. It’s why improving your home’s curb appeal is so important.
You can improve your curb appeal by:
- Replacing your home’s old windows and front door
- Putting up new siding
- Adding a new roof to your home
But one of the least expensive (and least stressful!) ways to improve your curb appeal is by updating your landscaping. You’ll be surprised by what a difference it’ll make when you mow your lawn, replace your old mulch, and put up a new tree along with some shrubs.
2. Paint Your Front Door
We just mentioned the idea of replacing your home’s old front door, and there’s a good reason for that. Your front door is a great place for you to make a strong statement. You can make your whole house more inviting by freshening up the look of your front door.
The problem, of course, is that it’s not cheap to do front door replacement. It costs, on average, almost $1,000 to do it.
So rather than replacing your front door with a new one, why not just put a new coat of paint on your old one to bring it back to life? You might not want to go too bold when you choose a new color, but you should look for something that’ll stand out on your block.
By taking this approach, you’ll ensure that it’s impossible for people to miss your home when it hits the open market.
3. Get Rid of Clutter and Personal Items
Updating your landscaping and painting your front door will both help to bring more attention to your home and get people interested in taking a tour of it. But you’re going to have to keep them interested by sprucing up the interior of your home.
Start by getting rid of any and all clutter that you have lying around. This includes everything from the stack of magazines you have on your coffee table to the pile of empty boxes in the corner of your home office.
You should also take down any personal items that you have throughout your home. This includes the family photos on your living room wall, the awards hanging up in your den, and even the family calendar in your kitchen.
4. Wipe Down Everything
Before you allow any potential home buyers to begin walking through your home, it’s essential for you to scrub it from top to bottom. Specifically, you should wipe down every surface you can find so that it shines.
You’ll want to clean surfaces like kitchen and bathroom countertops and hardwood and tile flooring. But you’ll also want to wipe down ceiling fans, windowsills, bookshelves, and any other surface that attracts dust.
This will go a long way towards making your home look and feel cleaner than it is right now. And it won’t go unnoticed by those walking through your home for the first time.
5. Eliminate Bad Smells
Your house has a very distinct odor to it. Science has shown that you yourself can’t detect that odor when you walk through it. But it’s there, and buyers are going to smell it!
Getting rid of that smell is going to be an almost impossible task. But if you have any other smells permeating throughout your home?like the smell of cigarettes or the smell of kitty litter?make it your mission to get rid of it ASAP.
Bad smells will send home buyers running for the hills. They’ll be worried about those smells sticking around once they move in your home.
6. Make Minor Repairs
Unless your home was built within the last year or two, there are at least a few repairs that need to be made to it right now. Making major repairs can add to your stress when you’re selling your home, but completing minor ones should be more than manageable.
If you’re working with a trusted real estate agent like Laddi Dhillon, they’ll walk through your home with you and suggest some repairs you can make to improve the appearance of it. Simple things like tightening doorknobs and fixing a leaky sink can help sell your home.
7. Do Light Staging
Hiring a professional stager to stage your entire home can cost a fortune. But there are some ways you can do light staging yourself.
Define each room in your home and then arrange your furniture in the room so that it serves a clear purpose. Get rid of any bulky furniture that will make a space look smaller than it is, and clean furniture so that it looks its best.
The goal should be to create an environment that makes people feel comfortable. It’ll encourage them to think about what it would be like for them to live in your home based on the way you have it set up.
Start Preparing Your Home for Sale Today
Selling a home doesn’t have to be one of the most stressful events of your life. You can make everything go smoothly when you begin by preparing your home for sale.
Once that’s done, you’ll feel much better about showing your home off to buyers. You’ll also feel more confident at the negotiating table later on.
Read our blog for more tips on selling your home fast.
Faster Than Lightning: 9 Tips to Sell Your House Fast