5 Tips to Sell Your Home Faster This Fall
There is no better time than NOW to start sprucing up your home to sell! Fall is finally here, so let the new season give you a jump start on tackling your home! Here are 5 TIPS that will work WONDERS for preparing your home to sell this fall season.
1. Declutter
FIRST, Before you put your home on the market make sure you remove all of your extra belongings. As a result, rooms will look much bigger, cleaner and calmer without extra clutter laying around taking up space.
If you have trouble:
- Organize a garage sale
- Donate to Goodwill or a local church
- Temporarily rent a storage unit for items you want to keep
Take it ONE STEP FURTHER and make sure magnets, kids artwork and personal photos are removed from the refrigerator and around the house.
The upside to this? When it’s time to actually move you’ll be AHEAD OF THE GAME and have THAT MUCH less clutter to deal with at once! As a result, Potential buyers will be able to VISUALIZE their own furniture and personal items in each room. THAT is the SECRET SAUCE!!
2. Touch-Ups, Small Repairs and Maintenance
Assuming large repairs are taken care of first, now it’s time to handle all small FORGOTTEN repairs such as leaky faucets, broken closets, and any maintenance issues.
We suggest taking a REALLY GOOD look around your home! Do a FULL TOUR starting from the front door. As you walk through, take notes and try to imagine seeing your home for the first time from a buyers PERSPECTIVE. What jumps out to you? What do you notice first? MAKE A LIST of those items and then start knocking them off.
- Burnt-out lightbulbs
- Small details like caulking around doors and windows
- Paint touch-ups
- Replace any damaged screens, windows, door handles, etc
This also goes for the OUTSIDE of your home:
- Give your front door a FRESH coat of paint
- Fix gates that aren’t working properly and replace loose fence boards
- Fix any large cracks in the driveway and sidewalk
- Pressure wash the outside of your home
- Spruce up the landscaping by adding a few colorful plants, edging, laying new mulch and pulling weeds
Curb appeal, above all, is the prospective buyer’s first impression of your home! There’s also a good chance some of these items will come up in the inspection phase anyway, so IMPRESS YOUR REALTOR and have it done EARLY!
3. Clean, Clean Clean
Finally, this is where your home will start to look BRAND NEW again! We suggest taking a weekend and DEEP cleaning your home, room-by-room.
For example:
- Scrub and disinfect: all sinks, toilets, showers
- Disinfect the kitchen making sure to clean out the refrigerator, oven and garbage disposal
- Dust the tops of cabinets, light fixtures, mantels, ceiling fans
- Steam clean all rugs, carpets and couches
You want your home looking CLEAN and smelling FRESH!
This is also a good time to ORGANIZE any items that will have to be present when showing your home such as:
- Clothes and shoes in your closet
- Important documents in your office
- Electronics: Office computer, Cell phone chargers, tv and cable cords
- Hide Personal items that have to stay: Medicines, and shoes by the entry way.
- Hide any signs of the family pet! Put away leashes, water bowls and toys.
Before you know it your home will SPARKLE AND SHINE!
4. Stage and Prepare for Showings
Meanwhile, this is where the MAGIC happens! The KEY is to make your home look like it’s NOT LIVED IN and then adding a few extra touches. We know this sounds IMPOSSIBLE but with the right storage unit anything is POSSIBLE!
If you’ve come this far, CONGRATULATIONS! Everything in your home is organized and has it’s own designated spot! It’s now a BLANK CANVAS!
You don’t need MUCH to make your house feel like a HOME. For Instance, just having some placemats, plates and silverware on the table can work WONDERS!
More examples:
- Make all of the beds and set the table! Just this little touch can be MAGICAL!
- Place a few vases with Fall colored flowers on the dining room table and near the entry way for a fresh look!
- Add a couple of matching pillows on your couch!
- Do ONE MORE SCAN to make sure any SUMMER decor has been removed.
Above all, lighting is SO IMPORTANT for staging your home!
- Open up the blinds and curtains to allow in MORE NATURAL LIGHT
- If you really want to make an impact SWAP out lightbulbs for a brighter bulb and AVOID the “yellow” tinted ones.
Overall, This will make your rooms look more CLEAN and OPEN and will work wonders when it comes time to PHOTOGRAPH your home!
Similarly, if you have a front porch you can DRESS IT UP for added curb appeal!
- Get an outdoor rug and chairs
- some pretty potted seasonal FLOWERS and even pumpkins for the Fall Season!
- Don’t forget the must-haves: A pretty WREATH and a new door mat!
5. Hire the Right Professionals
This is one of the most important things you can do to sell your home fast!
Of course any realtor will help you with the business side of selling your home. An EXCEPTIONAL realtor will make sure your home is priced right as well as be there to guide you through EVERY STEP of the staging and selling process, including all of the steps above!
IN ADDITION, they will make sure your home is covered by the MOST effective marketing tactics used such as professional video walkthroughs, photography and social media advertising.
In conclusion, hiring the RIGHT professionals can make a HUGE difference and may even sell your home BEFORE it’s ever listed!
That’s it! Those are our 5 tips to sell your home FASTER THIS FALL! We hope this helps you in your home selling experience!