The Ultimate Checklist For Preparing Your Home For Sale
Selling your home is a monumental task, full of things to do and boxes to check (and pack). Getting your house into tip-top shape increases your odds of a more successful sale. A solid checklist to prep your home before you list it keeps things from falling through the cracks.
First, shift your mindset so emotions don’t get in the way of preparing your home for sale. Declutter and depersonalize, neutralize the home, boost curb appeal, and stage your house to appeal to many buyers. Think about the overall ambience of your home when staging it and how it will look in real estate photos.Â
Sometimes, you’re eager to sell and ready for new possibilities; other times, you may not want to sell, but you don’t have a choice. Either way, selling your house is work, and taking the time to show it off in its best light makes the process easier.
Prepare Yourself Before You Sell Your House
Whether you’re ready for something new or not, you need to get in the right mindset before you sell your home. If you jump into the process without any preparation, you’re dooming yourself to more stress and hassles. You also likely won’t reap as good a price or sell as quickly as you would like.
Instead, commit to taking the necessary time to prepare your home before you list it. Your patience and dedication to this task will pay off in the long run. A well-prepared home often sells faster and at a higher price than one that has no preparations.
What If You Don’t Want To Sell?
Unfortunately, sometimes it’s necessary to sell a home, even if you don’t want to. And even when you want to sell, it can still be emotionally difficult to let go.
If you’re struggling with the idea of selling, you need to change your mindset. Start thinking about your home as a product, a physical space, instead of your home.
You need this detachment if you’re going to successfully show the home to buyers. Ultimately, you want your home to have mass appeal. Therefore, promise yourself you aren’t going to refuse to paint over your kid’s mural or put your grandma’s teapot collection into storage.
It’s also important to be realistic about what you can reasonably expect your home to sell for and how soon. Talk to experienced agents who know the market and understand how homes are selling in your neighborhood. Be ready to listen to their advice and don’t take criticism personally.
Once you’re mentally and emotionally ready to list your home for sale, and do what needs to be done, it’s time to prep your house. Use this checklist to prepare your home before you sell it, so you can give yourself the best possible chance for a positive outcome.
Checklist For Preparing Your Home For Sale
1. Time for A Dramatic Declutter
Before you list your home for sale, declutter as much as possible. Buyers need to see how spacious and calm your house can be, and that’s hard to do with stuff everywhere. It’s also hard for buyers to picture themselves living in a home that’s full of someone else’s things.
Clear flat surfaces, get rid of excessive furniture and decor, and ruthlessly pare down your items. Decluttering your home helps it look larger, offers buyers a blank slate, and makes it easier to clean. It also makes packing and moving simpler when you don’t have as much stuff.
If certain things don’t need to be in the home, but you aren’t able to part with them, consider a temporary storage unit. Also, don’t just declutter the areas out in the open. Focus on the interiors of cabinets, drawers, and closets.
Buyers look inside these spaces. You don’t want them assuming your house doesn’t have enough storage.
2. Deep Clean Everywhere
Living in a messy house is one thing, but checking out someone else’s dirty house is entirely different. There’s something extra icky about another person’s dirt and grime. After decluttering, deep clean your entire home from top to bottom.
Clean inside and outside of cabinets, drawers, closets, and every nook and cranny. Conquer grimy grout, get muck out of corners and grease off of your range hood, etc. This is the time to clean like you’ve never cleaned before to show buyers what a tidy and well-cared-for home you have.
A clean house has benefits beyond simple cleanliness. When buyers see a clean house, they associate it with a home that is well-maintained. Therefore, they’re less likely to wonder what’s lurking behind walls or if there are any ignored repairs or problems.
Prioritize hard-working areas like kitchens and bathrooms; buyers really scrutinize these rooms. Don’t forget to clean windows, ceiling fans, baseboards, molding, door frames, etc. Try to put yourself in a buyer’s shoes and see what they see.
Check your nose, too. Make sure your house smells nice and there are no questionable odors lurking about. If you despise cleaning, save up to hire professionals, because this is a step you don’t want to skip.
3. Take Care Of Repairs
Most homeowners undoubtedly have a laundry list of repairs hanging out on their to-do lists. Things like fixing squeaky doors, replacing a cracked tile, or stopping a leaky faucet are things many folks tend to live with over time.
However, when you’re trying to sell, nobody wants to buy your nagging projects. You may have gotten used to living with scuffed walls and loose doorknobs. But buyers are going to see these things as a hassle, not to mention wonder what else you potentially put off doing.
Take care of these repairs and consider getting a pre-listing home inspection to identify any potential issues. The more you can fix before you show your home to buyers, the better.
4. Boost Curb Appeal
Give your home’s first impression a little pep by improving the curb appeal. Clean up outside, pressure wash the porch and walkway, clean light fixtures, and replace burnt-out bulbs. Make sure your doorbell works, replace or paint worn-out house numbers, and give your front door a new look with fresh paint.
Weed the garden, mow the lawn, and touch up landscaping if things look a little rough around the edges. Think about what buyers see when they look at your home, and make sure it’s going to invite them to come inside and keep looking.
5. Depersonalize And Neutralize Your Home
Remove anything overly personal or specific. Photos, kids’ artwork, heirloom pieces, and other unique items are best put away for showings. The idea is to allow buyers to see themselves living in the house.
Repaint out-there colors, replacing them with neutrals that create an optimal backdrop for most buyers’ belongings. For example, a buyer can’t easily picture how their blue couch will look in a bright purple living room. But if the walls are a soft neutral tone, buyers instinctively know that their furniture and decor will work without having to undergo a lot of repainting.
6. Embrace The Power Of Home Staging
Give each room a clear purpose to help buyers picture what could be. A well-staged home works wonders, even more so than an empty house. When staging, think about all of the senses — consider what buyers see, hear, smell, etc.
Think about how you want buyers to feel when they tour the home. Maximize natural light, and use the same color temperature lighting throughout the house to create an inviting atmosphere.
Arrange furniture to maximize the flow and use tasteful accessories without overdoing it. It might be worth hiring a professional home stager if you’re unsure of what direction to go in or you don’t have the right pieces. Professionals usually have their own collection of decor, furniture, and other items that they use to stage properties.
7. Have A Game Plan For Showings
Be ready to get out of your house for showings. It is not the best idea to remain at home when potential buyers are touring the house.
Have a game plan. Perhaps you go to a coffee shop or visit a friend. Also, if you have pets, have a plan in place for what you’ll do with them during showings.
It’s also helpful to create a pre-showing checklist to make sure your home’s in tip-top shape for viewings. Things on the list might be doing dishes, performing a ten-minute tidy, wiping down surfaces, and cleaning toilets.
These are good things to think about before you list your home. They ensure you’re prepared for the process and the inevitable inconveniences that come along with it.
8. Find A Professional Real Estate Agent
Interview agents to find one that clicks with you. If you’re stuck on your home preparations, an agent can help you with staging tips and other items. Look for an agent who uses a professional real estate photographer to take your listing photos.
Now You’re Ready To List Your Home For Sale
After working your way through this checklist to prepare your home for sale, you’re ready to put it on the market. It’s worth taking the time to declutter, depersonalize, and clean your house before listing. Boosting curb appeal, staging your home, and hiring a professional real estate agent help improve your odds of a successful sale.
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Stacy Randall is a wife, mother, and freelance writer from NOLA that has always had a love for DIY projects, home organization, and making spaces beautiful. Together with her husband, she has been spending the last several years lovingly renovating her grandparent's former home, making it their own and learning a lot about life along the way.
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