7 Tips for Homeowners BEFORE Listing Your Home

Here are a handful of helpful hints to get you ahead of the game before listing your property with a realtor! From the driveway to the restroom, there are little things you can do that are easy and affordable to make your house more appealing to buyers!

1. Curb Appeal

People will judge a house the second they pull into the driveway. If your mailbox is tilted or unsightly, straighten it! If the numbers on the curb are fading, repaint them! It is important to pay attention to small details. Make sure your grass is trimmed and your yard is properly maintained. Maybe a pot of flowers by the front door. Keep your porch swept and tidy and get a nice (and generic) welcome mat! What your home looks like on the outside will give buyers the first impression, so you want to make sure it’s a good one! If your front door is painted, make sure you put on a fresh coat of paint if needed. A little effort can go a long way!

Curb Appeal Photo

2. Remove Clutter

This will also help speed up the process once it is time for you to move out. Start putting things that aren’t necessities into boxes and put them into storage. Clutter will make your house appear smaller. My rule of thumb is to remove about 50% of what you usually have out! Less is more when it comes to selling a home. If you have a tabletop with 10 items on it, go down to 5 or even less!

Clutter Photo

3. De-Personalize

Along with decluttering, remove anything that makes the house seem like it belongs to you. If you’ve marked your children’s heights since they could walk, now would be a good time to paint over it. Make sure to remove pictures of your family, sports posters, personal memorabilia, etc. The more neutral, the better. You want people to be able to picture themselves living in your home. I have had buyers stop to look at family photos and totally forget what the house looked like once they left! You want them to focus on the home, not your personal items!

Depersonalization Photo

4. Show off your storage!

You can get a head start on the moving process by clearing out your closets. Take half of the clothes out and make sure your closets are well organized so that potential buyers won’t think your home doesn’t have enough storage. This is a big one! No one can ever have enough storage, so make sure your house looks like it has lots of storage space!

Storage Photo

5. Give your pets a mini-vacation

If possible, take your pets with you before showings. Some people are afraid of dogs, and some just want to play with them. When showing time comes around, you want potential buyers to feel like your house is clean! The pet hair and little messes your furry friends leave can be distracting to buyers.

Pets Photo

6. Don’t over-upgrade

If you are about to sell your house, you may not get your money back on any big home improvement investments or remodels. Instead, invest in small improvements like painting the walls, fixing leaky faucets, and replacing door handles and cabinet hardware. Many of these small improvements you may be able to do yourself. That being said, you need to know what your competition has…do all the houses in the neighborhood have granite or a solid surface and you have laminate? You may need to replace the counters. My point is to not go overboard!

Upgrade Photo

7. Take Pictures!

After all, at one point, this was a home you and your loved ones made so many memories in. Before you get rid of all of the little things that make it yours, snap a few photos with your family so you can look back in years to come. Looking at those pictures will bring back memories from your home that you may forget otherwise!

Family Photo

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    The Hudson Team

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