Important Tips for Reading Your Home to Sell

Posted on August 14, 2008
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by Rocky Spurrell
Preparing your house for a sale is often more complex than you might think. You will need several people to help you prepare the house for sale including a house inspector, a contractor to make the necessary repairs, a good realtor to list the property, and then lots of potential buyers viewing the house. Sound like a lot? It doesn’t have to be if you do a few things to make your home feel clean, uncluttered, and comfortable.

Make sure your house is spotless. People think that the realtor as well as potential buyers should see the house in its “normal condition” with clutter and personal items lying about. Buyers realize that there is always clutter, especially with children. What they would really like to see is how much potential the house has, and scrubbing and cleaning will help to bring out its true potential.

Make sure the carpets are cleaned. If you have hardwood floors, use a nice floor polish. If you have rugs or carpets, however, your best bet would be to contact professional cleaners. Although you can go to the local store and rent a steam cleaner for occasional cleaning, if you have tough stains, you need a professional deep cleaning to impress the people who are thinking about buying your house. You want your carpeting to look fresh and clean for the “new owners” in order to avoid “needs new carpeting” as a condition of sale.

Put a fresh coat of paint on the walls. If your house was recently painted, you may be able to omit this step. But if the color you painted your house was an outlandish shade of pink and you added sponge-painted stars to the ceilings all over the house, you’ll need to repaint everything in more neutral shades. For most places, the paint should have a neutral color. Exceptions are the kitchen, where you would use brighter colors, and the office, where you would use professional looking colors. In addition, if your house contains accent walls, you may want to paint over them. Remember, you might enjoy them, but your buyers might not see past them. For example, if you have one wall of your living room painted a dark red in order to accentuate the Asian furnishings and themes of the room, it might detract from the appeal of the room for some buyers making them feel yours is not the home for them. A simple rule to keep in mind is to make the house seem as “buyer-friendly” as you can.

Do some de-cluttering. You must remove all clutter and unnecessary items lying around. It is also a good idea to remove most of the books from your bookshelves. This will make it easier for them to imagine how their own furniture would be arranged in the house.

Arrange props throughout the house. Make the house more appealing by leaving a few items around the house. A few nice looking books on a bookshelf, nice hand towels hanging in the bathroom, a magazine or two on the coffee table, and fresh flowers on the dining room table. Take out any furniture that doesn’t match or detracts from the supposed value of the house. For example, even if you have a treasured old sea chest that’s been handed down in your family for generations, put it into storage. Believe me, it won’t do anything to add to the attractiveness of the room. You want to make every room in the house comfortable and inviting.

Bake some cookies in the oven. If you can’t bake homemade cookies, you can purchase frozen cookie dough from the store and put the cookies in the oven at least 20 minutes before people come to look at your house. The cookies will have finished baking and cooling off, and you will have time to go away, allowing the potential buyers to come and look at your house. You may be asking what baking cookies will accomplish. Well, with the aroma of freshly baked cookies and the appearance of new paint, professionally cleaned carpets, rearranged furniture and room decor, any house will seem like a friendly environment and a joyful home.

Rocky Spurrell is a successful real estate investor who knows the value of a welcoming home. When searching for Durango homes, he looks no further than Kristen Westlund, a Durango CO Commercial real estate with a passion for selling Durango homes. Kristen is also very knowledgeable about Durango commercial real estate and land near the Durango mountain resort.

Article Source: Article Junction