Once you have decided that you want to put your home up for sale, you should start taking the steps to get it ready to go on the market. While some homes may be almost ready for pictures and a showing, there are others that may need a lot of work. Because of this, it is always a good idea to evaluate the condition of your home as soon as you know you will be selling. Use these steps to not only determine what you need to do but also get started on your home preparation.
- Have a home inspection done. You can definitely take a look around your home to see if any work needs to be done on the cosmetic side but you should consider relying on a professional to tell you if there are any underlying problems that you will need to fix before selling. This is a small price to pay so you can know exactly what needs to happen around your home and you can also start getting quotes from the inspector.
- Make all necessary repairs. Once you know what needs to be done around the home, you should start making the repairs. Some of the repairs may cost you some money so you will want to get started as soon as possible and budget for them as needed.
- Clean up the yard. If your home has a yard, it should look clean and tidy. You do not need to get the whole yard landscaped unless you want to. But you should be mowing the lawn and removing big limbs at the very least. This will help with the curb appeal.
- Clean up the exterior and interior of the home. The last thing you want to do before you have someone over for pictures or before a showing is to clean up the home. If you are living there, you should remove any personal effects such as photos. You also want to make sure any dirty clothes are out of sight as well as any other clutter. The home should not look like a slob lives there and you want the viewers to be able to see themselves in the property.
- Consider adding new paint. You would be amazed at how much of a difference a new coat of paint can do for a property. You may want to consider painting all of the interior rooms as well as the exterior of the home. This will give it an instant facelift.
As you can see, there are quite a few things that need to happen before a property goes on the market. Start the process of prepping your home as soon as you have made the decision.