5 Things A Seller Must Do Before Listing Their Home

Once a seller makes the decision to sell their home, the seller and their real estate professional must make sure the home is market-ready. 

There are five things to always be certain of:

• Curb appeal: Is your home appealing to the potential buyer as they drive up for the first time.  There’s a couple of ways to enhance curb appeal.  One way is to spruce up the exterior landscaping.  Take a moment and stand back in the street.  Think about whether your landscaping seems overgrown, too sparse, frost bitten or colorless.  Buyers love fresh annuals so plant a few gorgeous, colorful small annuals near the front door.  If you have dead trees, pull them out and replace them.  A big no-no is empty planter pots or droopy or dead plants in those planter pots.  Too many planters look cluttered and messy.  Thin out planter pots, place them strategically, plant new plants in them or get rid of them all together.  Do not line or stack them up outside the home at the back or side.  It tells the buyer that you don’t take pride in the exterior of your home.
• First impression: First impression is all about the front door.  The front door should be an appealing color that contrasts nicely with the main color of the home.  The lock should be shiny and new, not rusty or full of mildew spots.  Even worse is a lock that sticks or doesn’t work easily.  An easy and cheap fix is a fresh coat of paint for the front door.  If you have a front porch make sure it’s broom swept, free of mud wasp nests and cob webs in the alcove and has matching outdoor furniture with pillows in an eye-catching pattern or color.  A seller wants the buyer to feel great about the outside before stepping inside.
• Tidy and de-clutter: A home on the market should be super clean and de-cluttered.  You want it to look like someone lives there but it shouldn’t look “lived-in”.  So what does that mean?  Pieces of furniture should be placed well throughout the rooms to show what will fit in each room but there should not be too much furniture.  Staging professionals claim that empty rooms look smaller and that buyers can’t envision furniture in the room.  But too much furniture can make a room shrink too!  Furniture shouldn’t block door ways or views to the outdoors.  Kitchen counter tops should be clear with the exception of a couple of small attractive items that create a good look.  Bathroom counter tops, showers and baths should be free of products. Put all products under sinks and in cabinets during the sale period.  Definitely put away jewelry and prescription drugs to avoid temptation.  If walls or baseboards are scuffed, they should be touched up or re-painted entirely.
• De-personalize: When a buyer is touring a home, the seller wants them to focus on its floor plan, amenities and whether they can see their furniture and family living in the home.  Remove all the personal photos, diplomas, trophies and other interesting items that will distract the buyer.  A seller doesn’t want a buyer stopping to admire photos, figuring out where they went to school or what they do for a living to try to put together pieces about the seller.  If a buyer is doing this, they aren’t focusing on the home.  If a buyer identifies with a seller too much they may have difficulty seeing themselves in the home or what they learn may influence their negotiating tactics.
• Kitchen and baths:  Kitchen and baths are big hot spots for buyers.  Buyers love to see upgrades in these areas.  Today’s trend in kitchens is granite and stainless steel appliances.  If a seller can swing these upgrades, the upside to the “wow factor” will likely be a larger percentage increase in sale price than the actual cost of the upgrade.  If the kitchen and bath feature dated cabinets think about re-facing, stripping, staining or repainting to give a fresh look.  Or add or replace pulls on the cabinets.  Update old light fixtures too!  Be really careful about adding a look that is too trendy.  A good example is a vessel sink.  They are lovely but not everyone likes them and how long will they be popular?  Stay simple and classy when making your choices.

A seller’s best resource is their real estate professional.  A top real estate professional has been in thousands of homes and heard the feedback from buyers.  The effort you put into making your home market-ready will pay off in the long run.  

Join me next week for my column where I will discuss professional staging and home managers, a new comer in the housing scene, and the pros and cons of this professional solution.