Preparing Your Home for Sale

The three most important factors in selling a house are location, condition, and price. Since the location can’t be changed and the price had been properly set - the most crucial thing you can then accomplish is to make your house ready for sale and look better than any of your competition.

Even if you have been extremely conscientious in the maintenance of your home during the time that you have owned it, putting it on the market requires taking the next step. Check every aspect of your house by repairing, freshening or changing whatever is necessary. Sometimes a little paint and some repairs can help substantially to add to the selling price. Steps below will help you in this preparation:

Preparing Your House General Exterior General Interior Interior- Room by Room

General Exterior

If you need major improvements or renovations to your house, do them before you put it on the market. The average buyer simply does not have the "vision" necessary to see the job done. (And, they often multiply the cost of these improvements by 10 times (on average) and deduct that amount from your listed price.)

• Overall appearance: Remove any junk or clutter from the yard. This includes tree limbs and leaves, but especially goes for junk cars or parts, lawn tractors, etc.
• Overall appearance: If the exterior of the house is dirty or moldy, power-wash it. If it is in need of paint, get competitive bids if you can't do it yourself.
• Grass: If possible, reseed any bare areas of the lawn.
• Landscaping: Trim all shrubbery and plantings. Trim trees if necessary, especially dead limbs.
• Driveway: If the driveway is stone and looking lean, add a coat of gravel. If it is asphalt, consider resealing.
• Decks and porches: Power-wash and seal, stain or paint.
• Gutters and downspouts:< Check gutters and downspouts to make sure they are clear and functioning properly.
• Lights: Make sure that all exterior lights are operational.
• Landscaping: If the season is right, plant colorful flowers where appropriate.
• Landscaping: Add mulch to planting beds and around trees. An inexpensive but very effective way of brightening the look of the yard.
• Windows: Make sure the exterior (and the interior) of windows is clean and operational.

General Interior

• Painting: When it comes to preparing a house, painting gives you the best return for money spent. Which rooms should you paint? Any walls or ceilings that have dirty or marked walls or any rooms that are currently painted in dark colors. Keep it neutral--off-white or antique white is the best. 
  Click here for Painting Tips.
• Carpeting: At the very least, all carpeting needs to be steam cleaned. Any worn, stained or foul smelling carpet should be replaced. You may be tempted to give a "carpet allowance" and that may work. Just remember, most buyers do not have vision.
• Operation: If you are not having a whole house inspection done before your list your house for sale, check all faucets, toilets, and electrical items for correct operation.
• Safety: Make sure that your house is safe. Not only can a wobbly railing stop a sale, it could also cause an injury to a potential buyer who is not familiar with your house (and is spending time looking instead of being careful).
• Clutter: If an item is not necessary for your day-to-day life, box it up and store it or throw it out!
• Fireplace: Have a professional fireplace or woodstove cleaning and inspection. The buyer will most likely request it anyhow. Getting it done in advance impresses the buyer and makes the home appear cleaner and fresher smelling.
• Closets: Make sure all closets are neat, clean and organized. See above item on clutter.
• Doors and Windows: Check all for smooth operation. Replace any cracked window panes. 
• Cleaning: Even though you may consider your house clean and tidy, a thorough cleaning - including dusting, washing and waxing everything - will always make a house more appealing.

Interior Room-by-Room

When a buyer gets into the house, it is important to make their visit as pleasant as possible - and that means having the whole house ready. You want them to be as comfortable as possible and to linger in the home. A "turn off" issue will send them scurrying quickly to the next house on their list!

Entry

• Must be especially inviting for your guests (your potential buyers). Make certain it is well lit, clean and has nothing lying around either inside or outside. Paint the front door if it even remotely needs it.
• If you normally use a back or side entrance to your house, pay particular attention to the front entry. You rarely see it but this is where the buyers will enter!

Living Room or Great Room

• If possible, keep furniture at a bare minimum so that traffic flow is easier and the room does not appear smaller than it actually is.
• If bookshelves, entertainment centers and the like are overflowing with books and knick-knacks, remove some of them.

Family Room or Den

• If this is the room you live in the most, make it look inviting but not overly lived in.
• Keep furniture at a minimum but make the room look like a comfortable place to spend time.

Kitchen

• Clean the exterior of all appliances. Clean the oven interior.
• Clean or replace the stove hood filter. This is often overlooked, usually dirty and greasy, and looked at by a lot of buyers.
• Clean cabinet faces. Make them shine!
• Remove all clutter and unnecessary items from countertops and clean all countertops and backsplashes thoroughly.
• Clean vinyl or ceramic floor.
• If you have ceramic tile elsewhere in the kitchen, pay particular attention to the grout - make sure that it's clean. If it is discolored, there are "grout whitening" products that are available.

Bedrooms

• Remove all clutter. If you don't need it, store it or pitch it!
• Arrange or remove furniture to maintain good traffic flow through rooms. Remember, there may be three or four people in each group that walk through your house.

Bathrooms

• Make sure all bulbs are working and have the highest wattage available as safe for each fixture. Brighter is better!
• Clean all ceramic tiles. Check the grout for cleanliness and deterioration.
• If faucets drip, fix them.
• Thoroughly clean sinks and tubs. If rust spots are on the porcelain, attempt to remove them.
• Remove any evidence of mildew from the shower and bathtub. Products are available that spray on and quickly kill the mildew.

Basements

• If the basement is damp or musty, consider a dehumidifier.
• Give prospective buyers room to move around. Clutter...well, you know the drill!

Garages

• Remove all junk: broken tools, old car parts, toys from the 1960's, etc.
• If floor has oil marks, clean it (cleaning solutions are available at most home improvement stores and work with a normal garden hose).

Miscellaneous

• Replace the furnace filter.