THE HOME BUYING & SELLING PROCESS - PREPARE HOME FOR SALE

Our homes reflect our personal taste and comfort. We often decorate it with things like pictures of family, items we use often, and family heirlooms. Even the most tidy of us have some arrangement of items, furniture, or decorations that have our personal touch.

Unfortunately, it is rare that our personal taste matches most home Buyers’ taste. When you list your home for sale, you want every Buyer touring your home to picture themselves living in your home. They need to imagine themselves eating at your table, lounging in your living room, and sleeping in your bed. This sounds like an invasion of your privacy, but it is necessary if you are allowing them into your home so that you can sell it to them.

One of the easiest things you can do to prepare your home for sale is to declutter. This means clean, clean, clean. Recycle all those books you’ve already read. Donate clothing you don’t wear anymore. Remove anything that is left out for your convenience only.

Another important action to take is to depersonalize. This includes removing all your family pictures. Buyers can’t imagine themselves living in your home when the pictures of family are strangers. Removing all pictures with people (other than public figures) is a good start to depersonalize.

If your home is in need of visible repair, your preparation should include making those repairs. This might include paint touch-up, wall repair, door repair, or repair of plumbing/faucets, etc. Most Buyers don’t want to negotiate simple repairs that would mean extra work for them. They know that they will already have the headache of moving into the home, unpacking, and arranging it to their own taste.

Another part of preparing your home for sale is staging. Staging includes rearranging furniture, placement of new items and possibly painting rooms a different color. Professional stagers can be hired to help with this part. They are not necessarily interior designers. Their role is to make your home look like a furnished, model home. The look is not likely something that you would maintain, but it is appealing and gives the Buyer a vision of a fresh start.

There are many staging companies that provide services from simply offering suggestions of what you can do to actually coming into your home and completing all the work themselves. The concern with social distancing has resulted in many of these businesses offering remote staging. They develop ideas and suggestions for you by using photos you take of your home. Suggestions may be as simple as moving furniture around to improve the look and flow.

If you have already moved out of your home and it is empty, staging could include placing rented furniture in it (similar to a newly constructed model home). An alternative to this is virtual staging. This is effectively photo-editing that virtually places furniture and furnishings in your empty home. This is cheap and can be updated quickly.

Unfortunately, Buyers will still see an empty home when they tour a virtually staged home in person. Many people have a difficult time visualizing an empty space full of furniture and will see a room smaller than it is or simply can’t imagine how their furniture could fit or be arranged.

Finally, preparing your home might include exterior improvements and landscaping. Curb appeal is an important first impression. A home with high curb appeal can practically sell itself. You should do your best when preparing your home for sale. This will help to ensure you get maximum price and minimize days on market.