Preparing Your Home For Sale

Follow these five steps to help sell your home quickly.

1. Prepare yourself to sell your house.
   Do your best to see the house no longer as your home, but as a product to be marketed. This takes some work, especially if you have been in the house for a number of years and have many memories there, but it is necessary if you want to maximize your potential.
2. Consider a professional whole house inspection.
   An inspection will most likely uncover any major defects before they can cause trouble with a potential buyer. It is also a signal to the buyers that you are a responsible seller.
3. Prepare your house.
   Stand back and look at your house as objectively as possible. Would you buy this home? Ask friends and neighbors to do the same, asking them to be totally honest. Overlooking flaws could cost you money. Get them fixed before you put your house on the market!
4. Do what is necessary to make your house stand out from the competition. Make certain that your house is fresher, cleaner, and better maintained.
5. Remove most of the "imprint" that you have made on the house. Having a few family pictures around is fine, but if your house is a shrine to your family - walls full of personal pictures - you should take some steps to de-personalize it. Buyers must be able to envision themselves in the house, which is nearly impossible if everywhere they turn they are staring at you!

Room-By-Room Tips

Entry - Your entry must be inviting for your guests (your potential buyers). Make certain it is well lit, clean, and has nothing lying around either inside or outside. Paint the front door if it even remotely needs it. If you normally use a back or side entrance to your house, pay particular attention to the front entry. You rarely see it, but this is where the buyers will enter.

Living Room or Great Room - If possible, keep furniture at a bare minimum so that traffic flow is easier and the room does not appear smaller than it actually is. Remove some items if bookshelves, curio cabinets, and the like are overflowing with books and knick-knacks.

Family Room or Den - If this is the room you live in the most, make it look inviting but not overly lived in. Keep furniture at a minimum, but make the room look like a comfortable place to spend time.

Kitchen - Clean the exterior of all appliances and clean the oven interior. Clean or replace the stove hood filter, removing any dirt or grease. This is a detail that tends to be overlooked by homeowners, yet noticed by many buyers. Clean the cabinet faces. Make them shine! Remove all clutter and unnecessary items from countertops, cleaning all countertops and backsplashes thoroughly. Clean vinyl or ceramic floor. If you have ceramic tile elsewhere in the kitchen, pay particular attention to the grout making sure it is clean. If it is discolored, there are grout whitening products available.

Bedrooms - Remove all clutter. If you don't need it, store it or pitch it! Arrange or remove furniture to maintain good traffic flow through rooms. Remember, there may be three or four people in each group that walk through your house.

Bathrooms - Make sure all bulbs are working and have the highest wattage that is safe for each fixture. Brighter is better. Clean all ceramic tile. Check the grout for cleanliness and deterioration. If faucets drip, fix them. Thoroughly clean sinks and tubs. If rust spots are on the porcelain, attempt to remove them. Remove any evidence of mildew from the shower and bathtub. Products are available that spray on and quickly kill mildew.

Basements - If the basement is damp or musty, consider a dehumidifier. Give the prospective buyers room to move around. Clutter . . . you know the drill!

Garages - Remove all junk, including broken tools, old car parts, toys from the 1970's, etc. If the floor has oil marks, clean it. Cleaning solutions are available at most home improvement stores and work with a normal garden hose.

Miscellaneous - Replace furnace filters and check other filters, such as furnace humidifiers. Clean air vents by taking grates off and vacuuming, if possible, and vacuuming the grates themselves.