Are you getting ready to put your home on the market? If you’re looking for a more favorable outcome, you may be wondering what to do when getting ready to sell your home. This is a smart consideration to make because your home is typically one of your largest financial assets, and preparing to sell your home the right way can help you get the most from the financial transaction. Taking the right steps before putting your home on the market can help you attract better offers and sell faster. Here are some tips to keep in mind when it comes to what to do when getting ready to sell your home.
Understand How Much Your Home Is Worth
If you need to know what to do when getting ready to sell your home, the first thing to figure out is how much your home is worth. Generally, there are three types of home valuations. Your home’s fair market value is relative to other similar homes in your area. The appraised value is provided by a licensed appraiser who assesses your home and determines its value based on various factors such as location, size, home improvements you have made, and the overall condition of your home. If you’re planning on taking out a mortgage, keep in mind that the appraised value is what the lender considers when reviewing your application. Then there’s the assessed value is the value used by local tax assessors when calculating property taxes.
Generally, there are various ways to find out what your home is worth. You can enlist the help of a local real estate agent who is familiar with the prices of similar homes in your area. An experienced agent can perform a comparative market analysis by looking at data related to recent property sales in your area. They will use this data to provide an estimate of your home’s value. If you want to see what tax authorities think your home might be worth, you can also look up the information on your county or municipal auditor’s website. In any case, all this should give you a good idea of what your home is worth. You can then adjust your home’s pricing depending on the offers you’re getting.
Enlist the Help of a Professional Real Estate Agent
Knowing what to do when getting ready to sell your home is crucial, so it makes sense to seek help from a professional that understands the process. If you want a professional that can help you with the best industry insights, then you should consider working with a real estate agent. Whether you’re a first-time seller or you have been down this route before, the right real estate agent can link you up with serious buyers and can guide you through the selling process while also negotiating the best offer on your behalf. Additionally, a real estate agent can help promote your listing, evaluate your home’s price, stage your home, and make valuable recommendations.
The trick is to find the right real estate agent in the first place. There are several ways to find a listing agent that’s right for your needs. You can start by getting recommendations from trusted family and friends. You can then look up these referrals online and make comparisons to narrow your options. It’s usually a good idea to meet with at least three questions and ask the right question. Be sure to ask the agents about the amount of experience they have, whether they regularly work with sellers, how they will help you market your home, and if they can provide you with some references. Once you find an agent that uses your communication style and agrees with you on all the important details, you’ll find that relying on their expertise and experience can make your life easier in many ways.
Perform Repairs Around Your Home
As you consider what to do when getting ready to sell your home, don’t just focus on improving your home’s aesthetics. You should also keep in mind that your home needs to be as functional as possible. So if you have the time and money, you can invest it into making crucial repairs that can have a big impact on the final price of your home. For instance, it’s generally a good idea to focus your repair projects on your roof, plumbing, electrical systems, and HVAC. You can enlist the help of professionals such as HVAC cleaning services, roofing contractors, plumbers, and electricians. If you’re looking to sell your home fast, it’s better to focus on minor repairs that can make a big difference.
Clean Your Yard and Interior
First impressions are crucial when selling your home, which is why exterior home cleaning should be part of your plans before putting your home on the market. Power washing your home and cleaning up your yard are two of the top ways to give your home a brand new look. While on it, don’t hesitate to hire professionals that specialize in junk removals to get rid of debris and clutter in your yard. Overall, this will give buyers confidence that the property is well maintained. It also signals that your home has a beautiful interior which encourages buyers to approach the viewing process in a more positive frame of mind.
Since selling your home takes a lot of work, you can ease some of the burdens by hiring a professional cleaner. Depending on how much cleaning needs to be done and the size of your home, you might want to hire a commercial cleaning service that has all the right equipment and can help you turn your home into a flawless presentation. A professional home cleanout service will help you save time and energy. Because they’re experienced, professional cleaners will pay attention to every detail such that not a single speck of dust can escape their notice.
Look for Upgrades that Add Curb Appeal
Most of what to do when getting ready to sell your home is centered on attracting the right buyers and creating the right impression. One of the best ways is to ensure you add as much curb appeal to your home before selling. The good news is that there are many easy and cost-effective tips you can apply to boost curb appeal. The point is to make your home stand apart from the rest and to show that your home is well taken care of. Curb appeal generally begins with your home’s exterior because this is the first thing that buyers lay their eyes on before they enter your home. Many people love flowers, so you can add a pop of color by planting more flowers in your yard.
You can also install a new front door or place a new mat outside of your front door. Be sure to look for a mat with a warm and inviting message so that buyers feel truly welcomed. To make your front door even more noticeable, you can even add a seasonal wreath to your door. Upgrading your hardware is another easy tip that can work wonders for your curb appeal. For instance, upgrading your door knobs, knocker, house numbers, or even mailbox can increase the visual appeal of your home.
Hire a Moving Service Ahead of Time
When you’re looking for what to do when getting ready to sell your home, you also have to think about long-term plans. For instance, how do you plan to move to your next home? Moving alone can be a stressful experience, but when you throw selling your home into the mix, things can get quite hectic. This is why it’s such a good idea to engage a local moving service. If you’re looking for the right local moving service for your needs, the good news is that you can find many options, including budget movers or specialty movers depending on your needs. These professionals can make life easier for you by doing all the heavy lifting. Whether you need a professional to help you pack, unpack, load, unload or arrange items, don’t forget to hire a moving service while there’s still time to avoid last-minute, panic-inducing arrangements.
Depersonalize Your Home and Eliminate Odors
Before you can stage your home, you’ll have to depersonalize and remove odors first. Depersonalizing is about encouraging homeowners to see themselves living in the home. Buyers will likely not find your home attractive if they see all your personal touches. So it’s imperative to remove all distractions, which you can achieve by deep cleaning your home and decluttering. You should also remove some of your personal items and put them in storage or sell unwanted items. Additionally, keep in mind that depersonalization is about keeping the appearance of your home as neutral as possible, so it appeals to a wide range of buyers.
While you’re depersonalizing your home, you might also want to close your pool if you have one on the property. The process of pool closing is identical to the one you go through when winterizing your pool. That means doing things like balancing the pool water, cleaning your pool thoroughly, adding the right chemicals, removing drain plugs, and more. One other thing you might want to take off before staging your home is getting rid of odors. Sometimes, it’s easy to get used to the smell of your home, but buyers might notice the pet smells and other musty odors, whether from your garbage disposal or other sources. To prevent this, you can clean up and remove the source of bad smells. You can also use lemons, roast coffee beans, stovetop potpourri, and heated vanilla extract to make your home smell heavenly.
Stage Your Home
When discovering what to do when getting ready to sell your home, one of the steps you can’t afford to not know about is staging your home. Staging your home helps you attract better offers, and it can also help you sell your home faster. You can enlist the help of your real estate agent or another professional when staging your home. Alternatively, you can do most of the stuff yourself if you know the right tips to apply. Of course, staging only works effectively if you have already cleaned, decluttered, and depersonalized your home, which is something you should already have taken care of by the time you get to this point.
When staging your home, it’s crucial for each room to have a defined purpose. That means knowing the right furniture arrangements to make. For instance, if you think that the finished basement is better off used as a game room, then you can set it up as a game room so that you can really sell the concept to the buyer. When staging your home, you should also focus on flooring and lighting. Perhaps you have hardwood flooring. In that case, you could benefit from cleaning the floor so that you can create the right impression with buyers that overanalyze and inspect every detail. The right amount of artificial and natural lighting can also help you showcase your home to its full effect.
As you can see, there’s quite a long list of what to do when getting ready to sell your home. The good news is putting effort into the process increases the chances of getting a better deal and will make the whole process more efficient. A bonus tip is to also familiarize yourself with the steps you need to take when navigating the home selling process. For instance, once you have a more accurate value of how much your home is worth, it’s time to properly advertise your home and wait for the offers to come in. From there, you’ll negotiate with buyers until you’re satisfied with the offer before finalizing the deal. The bottom line is to research as much as possible about what to do when getting ready to sell your home and then apply the best tips you have learned. Start now by applying the above-mentioned tips to bring in the best offers.