Selling your home

Before you put your house on the market, ask your real estate agent for guidance on improving your home's presentation. Your agent can tell you what buyers expect in your particular market and at your home's price point. The following steps are a way to get a good head start on preparing to sell your home. It'll help sell your house quicker and improve value.

1. Create Curb Appeal

It's important that your home makes a good first impression. When potential buyers drive up to your home, you want them to think, "Wow! I could live here!" To make sure buyers want to see the inside of your home, make sure the outside is well-kept, tidy and inviting. It's important to touch-up or completely repaint trim. Keep the grass cut, edge along sidewalks and paths, maintain flowers and shrubs and keep the yard tidy. You never know when curious buyers will drive by. Creating curb appeal is one thing but try extending that idea to landscaping, too. Well-manicured landscaping will impress.

2. Clean! - First impressions mean a lot!

This may be the most important step you take toward getting your home ready to sell. For a home to live up to the "move-in condition" description, it has to be clean. If you already keep a clean house, simply keep up the good work, checking to make sure you don't overlook anything. So don't let foul smells, dirty floors or dusty surfaces make a bad one on a potential buyer. This means cleaning toilets, wiping down surfaces, mopping floors, cleaning rugs and scrubbing bathrooms. This needs to be a deep cleaning. For the rest of us, it's time to get serious. Finally, don't underestimate the power of clean windows. Buyers won't walk in and think, "Wow, clean windows!" But, freshly cleaned windows look great from the outside and with the lights on, they sparkle on the inside. Consider calling in the professionals to ensure that your place is in pristine condition.

3. De-clutter - Organize your home will go a long way in appealing to potential buyers!

Resist the urge to roll your eyes at this one. It is imperative that your home looks livable. Potential buyers may not be able to see past your clutter. Think of it this way-don't move things you no longer want or need. Make decisions now and your house will sell faster and your move will be easier. It's no secret that getting started is the hardest part of de-cluttering. Take one room, or even part of one room, at a time and dive in. Recycle or shred paper. Donate books, toys, and clothing and duplicate household items. If you're getting frustrated and you can't deal with one more stack of papers or shoebox of old photos, put them in a plastic tub, label the tub and stack it somewhere out of the way. A stack of tubs doesn't look like clutter. For completely out-of-the-way plastic tub storage, check out this simple rack for storing tubs overhead in your garage. When a home is clutter-free, buyers are able to focus on the actual home instead of all the clutter and overflowing closets. 

4. De-clutter Some More!

Don't overlook items on display on your shelves, tables and countertops and inside buffets and other glass-door or open-shelf cabinets. You probably don't even notice what's there, but too much clutter on and in everything can distract a buyer. A good rule of thumb is 'Reduce by 50 percent.' In other words, if you have 10 things on a shelf, put away (or get rid of) five. If there are a dozen mugs on display in the kitchen, lose six. One more thing: If you have a lot of personal items on display, it can make it harder for potential buyer's to imagine them living there. If you display items of a political or religious nature that could be off-putting to others, consider putting them in storage until you can proudly display them again in your new home.

5. Rearrange Your Furniture - Depersonalize your home!

Your furniture is arranged the way it best suits you and your family. When you're staging your home to sell, you'll need to use your furniture as marketing tools to help create inviting vignettes. Avoid having furniture lined up along the walls. Pull the sofa away from the wall and pull chairs close to create a conversation area. Also, you may need to remove some furniture so it's easy for people to walk around in the rooms. When selling a home, you want to strike the perfect balance between depersonalization and creating a warm, welcoming home. If you have a lot of family photos on the wall or several pieces of your child's artwork on the refrigerator door, you should take them down and store them out of sight. This will help buyers see the home as a clean slate they could make their own. It might be sad to take those personal items down but it will help you sell your home in the meantime. Leave a few nice, framed photos around the house to make the home appear inviting and lived in.

6. Simple Decor

It's a good idea to keep the decor simple when selling a home. Sellers want to allow potential buyers to imagine the possibilities of a house. Distracting decor will turn buyers off from the thought of trying to picture how they can decorate a room.

7. Clean Fabrics

Clean or wash cushion covers, duvet covers and pillow cases to ensure furnishings look tidy and well-kept. To make your home look more cozy, add a few decorative pillows. If fabric-covered furniture is outdated, remove it or cover it with a neutral-color slipcover. 

8. Organize Closets

Messy, packed closets read: There's not enough storage in this home. Weed-out closets by 50 percent, and make sure what's left is clean and organized in stacks or bins. Buyers will open closet doors and kitchen cupboards; make sure they don't see a big mess!   

9. Luxuriate the Bathroom

The bathroom can be a highlight of a house and when putting a home on the market, sellers should make it shine. A soaking tub can be the perfect place to unwind for a potential buyer. Make a bathroom feel like a spa.

10. Make Repairs

Now is the time to fix all of those nagging things that you just lived with. Inside the house, look for things like stained ceilings, missing tile, broken windows and doors, heavily scratched floors and other signs of neglect. Outside, look for broken or missing shingles, patio pavers and tuck-pointing. If you have a deck, check for cracks in floor boards and loose railings. Make a list of everything you see and then decide which things you're going to tackle. A real estate agent can be very helpful in determining what needs to be done and what doesn't. Here are complete how-to instructions for several common repairs: Wall and Ceiling Repair, Laminate Floor Repair, Shingle Repair and Deck and Railing Repair.

11. Upgrade Lighting

If your lamps and other light fixtures are outdated, consider replacing them with modern ones. Buyers don't want to feel like they're taking a step back in time with outdated fixtures. This is an easy fix that will help sell your home. Go ahead and stock up on light bulbs. When showing your house to potential buyers, all light fixtures and lamps will need to be turned on. For this reason, it's important that all lights in your home have working light bulbs.

12. Update paint - think neutral

If you decide to do some interior painting, stick to neutral colours on the walls. You've heard it before, but it's the truth. Neutrals don't distract and they allow potential buyers to imagine their things in your home. Start by painting over those bright orange and green walls with neutral colours. Stick to whites, light grays, light beiges, and "greige" wall colors. These shades will make your home appear bigger, brighter and more welcoming. 

13. Fix Fencing

A fence adds value to your property. If your wood or chain-link fence needs a little TLC, be sure to take care of any repairs before trying to sell your home.

14. Roof Repairs

Few things turn away buyers more quickly than a leaky roof, so address roof repairs before trying to sell your home. If your roof needs serious work, be ready to negotiate a lower price with buyers.

15. Fix Cracks

Fix any cracks in the driveway, walkway or patio. And this will help increase your home's curb appeal and will surely help you sell your home.

16. Update Hardware

If the knobs or handles on your kitchen cupboards or drawers are outdated, update them. It's a cheap upgrade that will give your home a more modern look and will help sell your home.

17. Wash the Exterior

If your house has siding, carefully use a pressure washer to clean the exterior. Also, make sure the windows are clean and the gutters are clear before you try to sell your home. Choose low-maintenance materials. If you're doing some last-minute upgrades to sell your home, such as replacing flooring or countertops, choose low-maintenance materials. Many potential buyers don't want to spend a lot of time with cleaning and maintenance. Also, make sure your yard is low-maintenance so buyers aren't intimidated by potential upkeep.

18. Buy Fresh Flowers and Plants

If the weather allows, plant flowers in pots, window boxes or right in the ground to add color and pump up the curb appeal. Pay close attention to the plants, keeping them watered and trimmed. Inside the house, fresh flowers in vases add color, life and the feeling that you, as the home seller, are putting your best foot forward. It may not matter to some buyers but others will appreciate this detail and take it as a sign that your home has been well cared for. If you grow vegetables indoors or want to, here's how to get those seedlings to sprout.

19. Eliminate Pet Smells

Did your pet leave a stain on the living room carpet? Does the basement smell like a cat's litter box? Address these issues before potential buyers visit the home. Pet smells are serious turn offs when trying to sell your home. 

20 . Get a Home Inspection

Before trying to sell your home, hire a home inspector. While buyers usually have the home inspected, have an inspection prior to putting the home on the market. This will make you aware of any potential issues that may come up during the sale.

21. Prepare the Paperwork

Obviously the better prepared a seller is for a home sale, the easier it will go. That being said: don't forget to have all the paperwork for the house organized and ready to go. Some of the paperwork that a seller will need includes: title deed, homeowners insurance information, loan information, property tax statements, appliance warranties, updated plan, defect disclosure documentation

22. Plan Out Activities for Kids

Selling a house with kids requires a little extra planning because you'll need activities for them while you're out of the house. Find some quick getaway places like the library or a park while you have a viewing of the house. Just make sure you get enough notice ahead of time before a viewing. You'll need to remove a lot of things prior to a showing but get ahead of the game with these incredible toy storage ideas.

23. Research Agents

It's never a bad idea to get a second opinion when trying to find a real estate agent. Many people work with the same agent they did on an earlier deal or use someone recommended by a friend or relative. Make sure to talk to others, who have worked with an agent, you might be surprised what you find.

24. Professional Photography - stage your home before hand.

Most potential buyers search for homes online, it's crucial to include high quality, professional photos in your online listing. Without excellent high resolution images, potential buyers may (sadly) overlook your home. So before putting it on the market, go ahead and hire a professional photographer to snap photos of your clean and staged home.