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Joan Keating, a real estate broker with William Raveis Real Estate, has been helping prepare home to sell for 20 years. Having seen it all, she stresses the importance of sellers taking the time to prepare their house before ever showing it to a potential buyer. She offers several deal-boosting tips below:
Maximize the light in your home. After location, good light is the one thing that every buyer looks for in a home. Take down the drapes, clean the windows, change the lampshades, increase the wattage of your light bulbs and trim the bushes outside to let in sunshine. Do what you have to do make your house brighter, as it will make a listing more sellable.
During an open house, the kitchen comes first. Make sure the kitchen is clean and any damages are fixed before potential buyers decide to inspect. While major upgrades don't need to take place, taking the time to repaint the walls and fix any broken appliances can go a long way with buyers.
The home should be "show-ready" at any time. Constantly keep areas of the home clean and be aware that a potential buyer may be visiting at any time. Take the dishes out of the sink, make sure laundry is folded in the bedrooms and clean around the bigger, more important rooms in the house.
Invest in a storage unit. Make sure personal belongings that are rarely used are taken out of the closets and stored in an exterior unit. Storage space is important to many people, so stuffing clothes and other items in closets does not provide an accurate idea of a house's storage. Instead, rent a unit to declutter belongings and leave plenty of space in the closets.
For more information on home selling tips, visit Joan Keating's website.
