3 Ways to Prepare Your Home for Market

So it’s almost time to get your home on the market—what comes next?

Most people don’t need to do major remodels in order to get their homes market-ready. Even if your home is in a state of disrepair, it’s rare that you would need to do a major project to get it ready to sell. This is because you’re not going to get your money back for most of the repairs you could do. If you put $20,000 into a kitchen remodel, you won’t see that much of a price improvement. We don’t recommend full remodels except in rare cases.

What most people need to do is a series of minor projects. Go through your home and repair any minor things that the inspector or the buyer will see right away. That could include broken windows, loose doorknobs, cracked tiles, and so on. Those things will all be worth getting repaired, as they tend to have an outsized impact on the price of the home. The shoddier things look, the more a buyer will slowly subtract from what they plan to offer on your house. If everything looks in tip-top shape, they’ll bring their A-game because they’ll assume that everyone else is going to jump on it as well.

Make sure the expectations set by your photos match the reality of your home in person.

Next, declutter your home. A good rule of thumb is to only have one or two things on a given surface like your tables and countertops. If you need inspiration for how to arrange the things you’ve elected to keep out, tour a model home and see what they've done.

Finally, you need to clean the property. Everybody should be cleaning their homes before showings, and definitely before they take pictures. You can touch up the pictures and make the home look magical, but make sure the expectations set by your photos match the reality of your home. If you have great listing photos but your home is actually kind of grubby and in disarray, it could reduce how much a buyer is willing to offer or put them off your home altogether.

We do provide a more complete outline for home preparation to our sellers. If you’re interested in receiving a copy or have any questions, give us a call or send an email. We’d love to help you get your home show-ready.