How to Get Your House Ready to Sell

It's that time of year again! The leaves are falling, the wind is howling, and it feels like winter will never end.

Now is the perfect time to start preparing your house for sale. If you're looking for a quick and easy way to prep your home, here are some simple steps we’ve outlined in this article.

Preparing your home for sale is an important process that can help you maximize your home’s appeal, value, and selling price. While it requires effort, strategic renovations, staging, decluttering, and repairs pay major dividends with buyers.

Getting market-ready answers common questions like:

• What fixes or updates should I invest in?
• How much time will preparing my house take?
• What’s going to get buyers excited about my property?

This article breaks the process down into clear, manageable steps. Our guidance ranges from improvements with the highest ROI to expert staging techniques.

While it can feel overwhelming early on, we’ll equip you to get your home in prime shape to capitalize on buyer demand. Now let’s get started with one of the highest value areas – your yard.

Clean up the yard

Clean up the yard and make it look presentable. Your yard is the first thing potential buyers see when they drive up, and it has a direct correlation with how fast your house will sell.

A beautiful lawn acts as an inviting, expansive outdoor carpet to be welcomed into the space of your home and create a connection that isn't possible with a driveway or sidewalk alone.

Meanwhile, wilted plants and overgrown gardens say "welcome to my world." A good rule of thumb is to keep unnecessary branches trimmed away from doors so you don't have leaf piles obscuring pathways leading up the front porch door.

Clean up the house

If you are preparing for sale, the general rule is to clean up as much as possible before showing. Remember to remove any personal items and papers from the surfaces of desks or countertops, vacuum cords, and baseboards, increase lighting in rooms without natural light, and protect surfaces from excessive wear during showings (wipe down kitchen counters with vinegar water).

You need to make your home as attractive and seamless as possible so people can imagine living in your home.

This is especially true if your house has an unfinished look to it, like an unfinished basement where the pipes are exposed or a visible furnace in the basement.

If you did not have plans for finishing the basement then this will be a selling point and buyers will see that it would be a good central location for their movie theater room or game area of their future dream home.

It's also important that nearly all of your major appliances work properly so one doesn't have to worry about replacing anything soon after purchasing the property.

Clean between the last showing and the next one just before guests arrive. Keep remote controls off the table so they don't get fingerprints or unsightly smudges on them that buyers will not want either. Keep the house looking fresh and inviting.

Paint the walls

Paint rooms in neutral colors to make them more appealing for potential buyers. They say new paint on the walls will bring in an extra $3,000 - $5,000. You can't really tell from a picture what colors are hanging on the wall if it's not depicted in the photo up close.

When you do have a few pictures with details, many potential buyers would rather buy houses that are already painted and staged to perfection than homes where they're seeing old paint as-is with no detail to show how it may look inside when remodeled.

White walls make rooms look small and less appealing to people. If you want to paint, use a bright color such as yellows or blues on just part of the wall so you get a pop of color but still make the room look bigger than it is.

Having different colors makes people think there are different rooms while also giving an eye-catching effect that will bring in more potential buyers because they like looking at new things.

Fix any problems you can inside your home

Fix any problems that may be a turn-off for potential buyers from anything like peeling paint to a broken window. You should clean every room in your house. 

Clean the window seal on all ground-level windows, replace any caulking around the mirror and tub, and fix any leaky faucet handles.

You should also scrub or vacuum any rugs, swept and mop floors to pick up dirt from shoes, lint rollers throughout the house for pet hair that may have accumulated over time.

If you have carpet sweep it often so it doesn't get so badly stained as to need replacing (if they're really bad they may not even be worth wet cleaning). You may consider replacing the carpet to gain a higher selling price.

In order to make the house look its best, it's important to do a deep-cleaning by washing all of the floors with ground soap and water, scrubbing stalactites from corners in showers or tubs where you may have shampooed your hair, and cleaning out that dirty oven.

Dirty kitchens are one of those things that people notice immediately when they walk in the door - if yours is cluttered with dishes, crusted-over pots, pans, or fridges with many expired items on the shelves.... it might be time for a real deep clean!

With this simple routine procedure done before showing your prospective buyer around inside your home, you can achieve a much more appealing, cleaner living space!

Don't overlook minor repairs to plumbing, walls and cabinetry either. Taking care of smaller flaws reinforces that the home is well-cared for and in good working order. Avoid souring a buyer's first impression by showing cracks, leaks or maintenance issues.

Declutter your home

Every time you declutter your home, you make it easier to show the property and faster to find a buyer. If your home requires work before being put on the market, then submitting the property dirty or cluttered will discourage potential buyers who might be looking for a move-in condition "as is".

Offering an unkempt home may also lower its chance of being sold because many people only consider buying properties that can be easily customized when they're budget-conscious. Think about renters: most landlords prefer homes that are free of clutter and where little maintenance is required!

Get rid of old clothes, shoes, books, etc.; clean up after yourself; remove clutter from kitchen countertops by storing items in cabinets or drawers; organize closets so they're easy to navigate.

Clear out all personal belongings

Some people think it's cosmetic, but the truth is that if there are lots of personal items or family photos everywhere showing your life and personality in the home, a buyer might not be able to imagine living in your space at all.

Of course, if you have a lot of designer furniture with high price tags - then keep it! For everyone else - make sure you have moved out by either shipping things off to storage or donating them.

It will help create space for other buyers to imagine themselves living there and put their own personality into that space instead.

While clearing out personal items, gather documentation to pass onto the buyers including utility information, appliance manuals/warranties, and preferred local services. This small gesture can smooth the transition for the next owners.

List Savings and Resources

Compile helpful documentation on home utilities, warranties, and local services to leave behind for buyers. This reassures them on costs/coverage and helps their transition. 

Documents to prepare:

• Utility provider information and average costs
• Appliance manuals + active warranties
• Receipts for updates/repairs showing lifespan
• List of preferred local services (landscaping, maintenance etc.)

FAQs