A Guide to Preparing Your Home for Sale

If you are in the process of long-distance moving and planning to sell your old space in order to buy a new one, you will have to plan ahead and get organized quickly. Some things you can do alone, but you will have to seek professional help for others. Here is what you have to do when preparing your house for sale.

Before You Start Preparing Your Home for Sale, There Are a Few Things You Need to Do First

Before every major undertaking, you have to organize yourself. And there’s no better way than creating a checklist of things to do. You will need not only tips for preparing your home for sale but also some packing tips and tricks. Every relocation is exhausting, and there are a lot of things you have to do, and house-hunting and home-selling are some of them. Here are some of the first preparing your home for sale tips you have to implement.

Divide and Conquer Your Obligations

The first thing we will advise you is to help yourself in the best way possible. This means you will have to make some choices about things you can do alone and things you will need help from professionals. So create a list of services you will need before you start the relocation process:

• Find a cross-country moving company – If you are relocating to another state, you will have to find a company for long-distance moving services. There are a lot of things in relocation you will have to think about, like auto shipping service, so it is better to hire one long-distance moving company to do everything. Once you do it, you can start arranging other things.
• Find a real estate agent – You can try and sell your real estate alone, but this process can take a lot of your time and energy. With an agent, listing a house will be much easier and quicker. Also, agents can help you to find a new place to live as well.
• Find a contractor – If you wish to do some minor renovation to raise your real estate value, now it’s time to do this.

Prepare Your House for Potential Buyers

This is crucial because you have to check out your place to see if it has some major flaws before calling a real estate agent. As you may know, potential buyers can hire a building inspector to see if there are any problems with your real estate. Inspector will check out electricity, plumbing, heath and cooling systems, roof and roof sheets, waterproofing, sewage, and any other things that have to adhere to your municipality’s building code. Most unexpected problems that can affect your price and your selling are major foundation shortcomings. This is why it would be good if you have someone to check this before you list your house.

Prepare Documentation of Your Family House

One of the most important things in preparing your home for selling is to have all the documents in place before any potential buyer comes. This means you must have all permits at hand if you had any renovations. If someone sends a building inspector to your place, the whole process will be much easier if you have all the documents ready. Also, people would want to know if the mortgage is paid off and if there’s any lease on the real estate, so prepare bank records, too. In fact, you should have these as soon as you meet with your agent. And if you don’t know where these documents are, now it’s time to learn how to organize important papers.

Tidy Up Your Rooms

No matter the time of year when you move, be it moving in wintertime or not, you will have to do some work on your old place if you wish to sell it at a good price, and this will involve some investment and handy work. The basic rule is simple, the more you invest, the higher price will be, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that you made a profit because some renovations can cost quite a lot. So the only way that you can earn some actual money is to do it all alone or have a friend who is a contractor and can help you with this matter. This will reduce your costs significantly.

Refurbish Your Kitchen

If you have old kitchen elements or worktops, you can remodel them. For example, you can paint over your cabinets and kitchen island. Not only can you do this in your garage, but it will also help you cope with relocation stress. Indeed, completely changing old countertops might be a good investment, as it will definitely raise the price. But, as we mentioned before, if your profit will be the same as your investment, or lower, it is not worth doing it.

Paint Your Rooms in Neutral Colors

This is something that everybody is doing not only for hygiene but also because it looks better and cleaner. Paint your rooms in neutral pastel colors, and white may be the best choice because potential buyers would probably want to repaint as they prefer. But you can go with some other color as well. If you have some cracks or holes in the walls, fill them up before you start painting. Also, if there are any other issues like moisture in the walls, fix them as well.

Do Smart Renovations

The renovation has to be worth your time and effort. The key is to invest a small amount of money and see a significant return in the realty value. And the best way to save money is to do this alone or with the help of friends. But if you have to renovate something, only change things you have to, and concerning the damages that can not be easily fixed. Also, don’t forget to change your light bulbs and to put new batteries in your smoke alarms. You will want everything to be in working condition once your potential buyers set foot in your place

Clean Everything up

You will have to clean everything from top to bottom. Even if you are relocating at the last minute, this is a really important thing to do. A clean place is the first impression people will have when they come into your place. If there are stains on the carpet, call some agency to do a deep cleaning. And if you are relocating with dogs or indeed moving away with any pet, clean every room from their hair and smell.

Declutter Your Place

If you are relocating to a smaller place, you will have to get rid of all unneeded items. So, estimate the value of your household goods and decide what to do with the surplus. You can always donate unwanted items or organize a yard sale and earn some money along the way. If you don’t want to move your IKEA pieces, you can donate furniture or leave some behind. Make sure you leave the furniture that is in good condition and that the pieces look well together. Buyers will surely look for this kind of detail, and if the first impression is not good, it will probably repel them from buying.

For more tips on DIY renovations, check out this video for more tips.

Do the Same With Your Exterior

Tidy up your exterior as well. If your doorway is covered with moss and leaves, clean this up before people start coming in. If you have a backyard, mow the grass if there is any. There are companies that can clean your concrete with a water compressor. It will make your driveway look brand-new. Also, paint your mailbox or buy a new one, as it will look nicer. And seeing a shiny mailbox might remind you to change your address after your move.

Check Your House for Mold and Other Issues

We already talked about some of the things you should keep in mind when selling your home. Buyers will probably hire a building inspector to check out real estate. Once he is inside your place, all the records he makes in there will become public, and if you have some major issue with your real estate, your price will go down, and the selling will be much harder. So it would be good to call someone to check out this stuff unofficially so you can repair them before. But checking your rooms for mold shouldn’t be hard, and this issue can be dealt with.

Make your Home Look Less Yours

This step is crucial in preparing your home for selling, and it should make its way on your preparing your home for sale checklist. As you know, even if you wish to rent your house, you will have to make your home look like no one is living there. For example, if you are moving cross country with kids, you wouldn’t want their toys to be all around the place. Start packing little by little, and not only that your place will look better for potential buyers, but you will have more of a stress-free move since there’ll be fewer things to pack as the relocation day approach. While you are tidying everything up, create your household inventory list. With this list, you will have a much easier time hiring cross-country movers for packing service because you will know what exactly you want them to pack – like your fragile items, among other things.

Put Your Stuff Away

If your new place is not ready yet, but potential buyers are due to come over, you will have to depersonalize your place a bit. Put away all the photos and other personal items. Remember, your place has to look as neutral and minimalistic as possible. If you are in the middle of packing, you can put some of your stuff in storage facilities and ship them to your new location later on. And if storage space is included in your chosen cross-country moving services, even better.

Make Some Photo Shooting

Now that you have done all the preparations, your place is ready for a photoshoot. Making a good photo gallery is always better if you have professional help, and your real estate agent will probably cover this part of the job. But you can do this by yourself as well. And the whole purpose of these photos is to sell your real estate online. When taking pictures, let a lot of natural light inside your rooms. Tidy up everything and take pictures that will show each corner from a good perspective. Don’t take pictures in the dark or don’t do pictures of part of the room.

Be Ready For An Open House Day

For this, you will need to have everything in place. Double-check if you have already packed all of your valuables and personal belongings from every room. Before people start coming over, open all the windows for fresh air, put curtains away, and let the natural light fill the entire house, since good lighting and the view are big selling points. And, as a final touch, decorate your living room with some flowers and candles, and maybe some paintings as well or some fresh baked cookies. No one can say no to that, right?