Make your home a neutral slate for home buyers
Repaint bright colored walls to white, grey or light beige. I recommend looking at paint charts from stores like Dunn Edwards (https://www.dunnedwards.com/colors) to look at the latest trends in neutral colors. Store non necessary decorator items. If your home is very cluttered consider boxing items and storing them in the garage. Consider the help of a home organizer to help sort your home. Remove older wall paper since this can date a home. Remove most items from kitchen counters to help show more counter space. Empty pantries and drawers to give cabinetry the appearance of more space. If you are selling a loved ones home there are companies that can help sort and host an estate sale. I can arrange a reputable estate sale company and this can be very helpful during a difficult time in your life. If the home is vacant we can arrange home staging. In many cases I will include beautiful home staging at no cost saving you thousands. Home staging is proven to help you get more money for your home!
Home safety for your home while it is on the market
This is important because you will have home shoppers in and out of your home! Place expensive jewelry in safe deposit box or small safe. Hide or take expensive electronics with you when leaving your home. Remove medications and consider properly disposing old medications. Remove financial paperwork such as check books, passports and cash. Consider adding cameras at the front and rear of your home such as a Nest (https://store.google.com/us/product/nest_hello_doorbell). This will also add value to your home. Do not place valuables in easy access drawers. Remove family pictures of children. I am not trying to scare you but our goal is to protect your home! I like to provide a home checklist before we hold your house open to help insure that your home is ready to be shown in a safe manner.
Clean Clean!
In the kitchen, wipe down cabinets, remove wall stains, have appliances sparkle and remove extra food and dishes from the cabinets. You don’t want cabinets, drawers and pantries to seem lacking space. In the bathroom polish and replace old bathroom fixtures. Have the area around the tub and shower caulked if necessary. Eliminate bad orders in the home and hide cat boxes. People prefer natural scents.Use natural light scented candles in key areas of the home or atomizers (https://www.anthropologie.com). Inspect ceiling fan blades and dust weekly. Clean heater vents and outtakes. Have a pool cleaner come weekly to keep your pool sparkling. Kids rooms-If you can start downsizing! Donate toys that they have outgrown. Ask your kids what items they would like to donate to help other kids. Use under bed storage containers and furniture with storage. Take down extra pictures off the walls and wipe down smudge prints on the walls. If you can downsize kids furniture to make the room seem larger such as bunk beds. Hide place mats, children’s dishes and high chairs. Make sure during home showings that gates, kid locks, etc are easy to open or removed. Here is a link to some kids organizing ideas I have collected https://www.pinterest.com/ktommey/kids-rooms/.
Finally, do not stress about getting your home ready. I offer a free home evaluation and can provide some guidance on what changes you can make and should not make. Please reach out if I can help in any way with some ideas and home service providers. We are a full service broker and are ready to help!