Things To Do To Sell Your Home

Bring up with anyone who has some experience selling property that you’re starting the selling process yourself, and you’ll probably be advised on what to do to sell a home fast for the most money. However, if everyone in your world is telling you their “secret formula,” it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all of the nuances. Therefore, it’s best to check out these six tried-and-true best listing practices for selling a home: 

Improve Your Home’s Landscaping

Even though your goal is to sell a house, the appearance of the property that it sits on can certainly make or ruin the sale. Think of it as a picture frame: a fancier frame that matches the themes and coloring of its picture can elevate the perceived value. A picture frame that looks made of cracked plastic that is falling apart devalues its picture. The same concept applies to “framing” the look of a home. 

If your landscape has gone through a lot of hardships due to the weather, then making sure the approaches to it are cleaned up and easy to traverse. Make sure that the lawn is trimmed and weeded on a regular basis. Adding a few inexpensive flowers to the front of the home that requires minimal upkeep can pay dividends. When listing a home for free, you’ll be able to keep more profits, and in this case, a penny spent in landscaping is a dollar earned after closing!

Embrace Home Staging

Home staging is often an overlooked but important tactic when selling a house on the MLS. This is where you curate an atmosphere in each room that makes it feel “ready” for use. 

For example, set the dining room with nice china and a beautiful tablecloth. Place some fancy towels in the bathroom and a fresh bar of soap near the sink. In the living room, place some fruits in a tall glass vase or perhaps make use of some flowers from the garden outside. 

Make sure that everything is unused and fresh-looking. You’ll want to create an atmosphere that says, “Could you imagine a more comfortable, welcoming sight to come home to?” 

Upgrade Inexpensive Essentials in Key Rooms

While some items around the home just aren’t worth the time or effort to invest in upgrading, there are a few key areas that are certainly worth a look. With something simple as a “fresh” inside appearance, the perceived value of a home will be increased.

The biggest bang for your buck will come in the form of a fresh coat of paint. Select a neutral hue in order to appeal to the broadest spectrum of buyers. A new coating of a low-VOC finish will perform the same effect on kitchen cabinets. If your local big-box store has a sale on a neutral-colored laminate, you can replace moldy areas around the sink or stained countertops with a fresh and healthy appearance.

Light fixtures that are stained or cracked can be replaced with the simple twist of a screwdriver, and replacing stubby faucets with longer-necked goose heads adds an air of sophistication in the bathroom. 

Remove Bad Smells from Rooms

For one reason or another, it is not unheard of for one or more rooms in a house to have a bit of a funky odor. Although you or other members of the home might have gone nose blind to it, potential buyers certainly will take notice after you listed your home on the MLS.

Eliminating the stink will depend on its cause: smelly drains, cigarette smoke, pet stains, musty furniture, etc. Some smells are solved with the removal of the item and some time to air out the space, but other techniques are needed if the odor has permeated deeply into the home.

When listing your home for free on the MLS, you want to make sure that your pockets are lined with as much profit as possible from the sale of your property. Therefore, repainting multiple rooms, fixing leaky drains, ripping out old carpeting, and boarding pets in a kennel are all valid options to consider before listing your home for sale.

Prevent Exploitation from Less-than-Honest Buyers

Eliminating clutter and organizing precious belongings isn’t just for the better appearance of your home. Doing so will also protect some of these items from being damaged or even potentially walking away with “uninterested” buyers.

Some heirloom sterling silver dinnerware on display, perhaps a grandparent’s precious metal coin collection, a hand-woven rug from Central Asia, all of these items and more are at risk of being stepped on, bumped, scuffed, and at worst, taken from the home.

Privacy is also important; leaving out digital media with identifying information such as USBs and tablets invites identity theft. Listing your home for free on the MLS is meant to be an exciting and profitable venture, not cost you more money. Taking care to secure your most precious items is simply a way of keeping everyone interested in purchasing your beautiful property honest. 

Depersonalize Your Home for Mass Appeal

Following in the vein of removing identifying and highly personal items, depersonalization is an outstanding method to increase the overall appeal of homes on the market today. Remember, the idea is to provide a cozy, ready-for-living atmosphere without reinforcing that the home is already owned or being occupied.

Religious affiliations, political statements, photos of family vacations, and sports memorabilia are all things that can make a potential buyer feel more like an awkward guest in the home. Yes, even the presence of rival sports memorabilia has been listed as a reason why people will shy away from making an offer. Depersonalization allows prospects to envision themselves in the space rather than constantly being reminded that it isn’t theirs.  

Preparing a Home for Listing on the MLS

Although it might feel a bit exhausting to think about, getting your home ready to be listed for free on the MLS can be accomplished in a step-by-step manner. The above has been written as numeric examples to be performed in order from step one through step six. 

By breaking down this list into steps that easily flow into one another, your home will be ready for its free listing on the MLS in no time. As always, you can reach out to our experts in the field for further advice; we’re always ready to show off just why we’re the most trusted brand in real estate! 

Happy selling!