Tips for Getting Your Home Ready to Sell

 

So you’re in the market for a GCD property to call home (okay, okay, or some other new place to call home). Congratulations! Finding a new place to live can be exciting, and finally saying yes to the address is a major milestone.

As it comes time to put your current abode on the market, it can be a little daunting. What is going to attract or turn off buyers? The answer – visuals. Your home has to speak for itself as prospective buyers wander its halls. Here are some tips to ensure your home gives its best first impression.

Picture It

Curb appeal can be everything. It’s literally the first thing visitors will see when they pull up to tour your home. Mow the lawn, trim the trees, paint the walls and sweep the entryway – or pay someone to do it. Either way, it’s making the front walk up a welcoming, impressive sight that counts.

Cleanliness is Next to Godliness

Everything – from appliances and fan blades to windows and faucets – must be cleaned, vacuumed, dusted and polished. Depending on the amount of foot traffic and time your home takes to sell, you might have to do this more than once. Clutter counts, too. Piles of shoes in the closet and dishes stacked up in the sink are distracting and messy. A good rule of thumb? If you’d be embarrassed for your grandmother to see the mess, get rid of it.

That also goes for closets. Avalanche and stuffed-to-the brim closets alike will cause your home to look like it doesn’t have enough storage space for all your stuff – or their stuff. If you can stow items in an offsite unit (or the new house) that is ideal. Otherwise, investing in organizers can do wonders to make the most of limited storage space.

Be Sense-itive

Don’t forget the five senses. Cooking pungent foods like steamed broccoli, bacon or onions could leave smells that linger, or worse, grow funkier over time. Instead, go for “homey” smells like cookies or bread. A well-placed candle can also have the same effect.

Natural light can make a big difference in making a room look larger and more inviting, so open up the windows and let that light shine in! For areas that are still a little dim, add lamps. Vases of flowers and even (bug-free) potted plants can also brighten up a room and draw attention to areas you want to highlight, like that beautiful mantle, or give an empty corner purpose. Key décor pieces (bright throw pillows, a well-placed fleece blanket, that beautiful objet d’art) can also draw visitors’ eyes right where you want them.

Turning the bathrooms into a spa-like retreat can also be effective. Aim for soothing colors of light green, blue or white. New, unused washcloths, towels and bathmats can immediately revamp the room. Toss in some unused soaps on a decorative tray and a fake orchid or two, and Zen will be just moments away.

This Time Its (Less) Personal

Prospective buyers want to see themselves when touring your home, not you. Think of it like trying on a pair of pants at the store: you picture what you will look like in them – not what the person who tried them on fifteen minutes ago looked like. That means anything that is very personal or appeals to a very specific taste (yours) needs to go.

Did you paint every wall in your house a different color? Did you paint any wall in your house a loud or obscure color? Time to go back to basics. Repaint any of these walls in neutral notes like whites or tans.

Overtly personal furniture and décor also needs to find its way into a moving box. Velvet painting of Elvis? Maybe swap it with a landscape. Cheetah print chair in front of the TV? Hello, slipcover. Essentially, if it shouts, “YOU” replace it with something that whispers, “anybody.” This also applies to family photos. As much as you like seeing your Aunt Matilda’s smiling face every morning as you walk to the hall bathroom, guests probably won’t appreciate her dentures like you do.

Other things to make a little less personal? Surprisingly, toilet seats. Whether your photographing your home for one of those nifty little fliers or showing it off to would-be buyers, closing the toilet makes the bathroom look far more polished.

Picture Yourself Here

Maybe you don’t mind that your giant couch eats up the entire living room. Buyers might. Bulky furniture can make rooms look smaller and interrupt the flow of traffic through your home. Prospective buyers don’t want to weave between tables or bump into unwieldy couches. Make the flow from one room to another as uncomplicated as possible. Invite a friend over to walk the whole place with a fresh perspective, and see if there are any bottlenecks.

Don’t make the rooms completely bare, though. Every room should have a clear purpose. That home office/storage unit of a guest room needs to pick a theme, pronto. Visitors should be able to picture themselves in each room. Does the living room look like a cozy spot to chat with friends? Can they picture serving the Thanksgiving turkey to hungry relatives in the dining room? It’s all about painting that visual picture.

While there are many steps to helping your current home put its best foot forward to sell, all of the time and money invested will be rewarded. Homes designed to sell are (logically) easier to sell. Time spent organizing the bathroom closet and repainting the crayon scribbles in the hall equates to less time on the market. The faster the home sells, the more likely you are to actually get the price you asked for, and (our favorite part) the faster you can move into your beautiful new GCD home.

Not sure moving is worth all the hassle? Just stop by one of our beautiful communities and check out the many floor plans. We bet it won’t be long before you’re packing up the lawn gnome collection, lighting that sugar cookie candle and putting that “for sale” sign in the lawn!