Selling your home can be a lengthy and involved process. Even before any offers are made or contracts are signed, there can be months of prep and work involved.
However, if you’d like to make the sale of your home as swift and as smooth as possible, AND get the highest return, try to remember these 5 things you shouldn’t do when trying to sell your home.
Failing to Make Improvements
Many homeowners are reluctant to do major repairs and renos on a home they’re going to be selling. This instinct is understandable, but ultimately, it can be counterintuitive.
Be sure to speak with your realtor about the home improvements you can do in order to get the best possible price for your home. These may include repairing cracks, a coat of fresh paint and replacing old fixtures. However, it may also include light landscaping at the front door and driveway and updating an older kitchen or bathroom if you have the budget. Your realtor will know if repairs and renos are worth the investment.
The goal is to give the potential buyer the best possible first impression!
Not Organizing and Decluttering Properly
Ideally, you want your potential buyer to picture themselves living in your home.
Before you have an open house or any viewings at all, it’s imperative you organize your space correctly.
Here are 2 things to consider:
- Remove all clutter
- Removing large furniture that is taking up a lot of space. The rooms in your home need to look big and spacious.
Not Removing Personal Items
Another way you can help your potential buyer see themselves in your home is by removing any personal items. You want your home to feel “homey” but not like you still live there. Pay attention to family photos, knick-knacks, collectables, religious items, laundry baskets, toothbrushes, shampoo etc. You may also consider removing any taste-specific artwork that others may not find becoming.
Pricing It Incorrectly
This is a classic mistake that homeowners tend to make when selling a home. Usually, they’ll want to put it on the market for more than it’s realistically worth.
Emotions and sentimental value can get in the way of having an unbiased opinion about how much a home is worth. It can work the other way too, however. You also want to make sure that you’re not selling yourself short with the price you’re asking for.
Remember that buyers are well educated and most have done their homework!
Forgetting To Clean
When you’re cleaning to sell your home, you want to make sure you’ve “touched” every piece of furniture, and every surface that a potential buyer would see. This includes windows and windowsills, doors and door handles, light switches, light fixtures, fans, walls, baseboards and vents. This is the best time for a deep clean.
Making Selling Your Home a Breeze
Selling your home can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be. Make it as easy as possible for yourself by avoiding these mistakes throughout the selling process.
At Second Set of Hands, we’re experts at organizing and decluttering. Give us a call to see how we can help you get your home ready for your potential buyers.
If you’d like more information about the Calm The Clutter home organization course, click HERE.
You can also check out my new course Paper Organization: How to Declutter and Organize Paperwork HERE. A course for an unbelievable low price! The topics include
- Benefits of organizing your paperwork
- Paper organization goals
- What to do before organizing your paperwork
- What to keep and for how long
- How to sort and organize paperwork
- What to do with incoming paperwork
- Where to go from here!
Before you go, don’t forget to join our Facebook group “Organize For Success” HERE.
Or download my 7 Top Organizing Tips to Get You Started for more organizing tips.
Woman in her home getting organized for Spring