Selling: 3. Stage To Sell!

Second Most Important - Prepare Your Home!

During the entire sale process, your home both inside and out, and your yard must be clean and attractive.

Curb Appeal
If your home is not attractive from the street, many buyers won't ever want to go inside.

Keep your front yard, lawn and plants neat, trimmed, watered and healthy. Planting new flowers is a great, low cost idea. Make sure that your driveway, entry way and any paths are clean and not in need of repair (fix them if they need it!). Consider new paint or stucco, a new screen door and sprucing up the front door area. Check that the roof is clean and in good condition. Put down new gravel or wood chips on walkways.

Interior
Consider applying a new coat of very light, neutral paint to every interior room of your house (especially if you've painted any rooms in colors) - there's simply no better way to present your house. Repair any little things around your house that you've been putting off such as:

For more major projects, see the Minor Structure list on the pricing page for ideas on things you probably don't need to worry about fixing - it's simply not worth it to spend the time and money for you to do it. If it really needs to be done or becomes a deal breaker, it can be negotiated through purchase agreement amendments. If a buyer doesn't buy a house because it needs a new hot water heater or air conditioner and they don't get extra money off the asking price for it, then they were never really a serious buyer.

Most importantly, clean up and keep it clean! A great idea, especially for houses with children is to have lots of baskets with lids into which last night's toys can quickly be thrown and the basket put into a closet. Your home, dressed for sale, should be as sparse as possible. Put excess personal items into storage for a few months. Emphasize the best features.

For more information and assistance, see our resources on Preparing Your Home