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The house that you live in has been customized to suit your personal style. Everything from the colors of the walls to your furniture choices to the types of lighting was either a conscious choice that you made after purchasing the home or you were fine with them after moving in. No matter what decisions you made after buying the home, it probably reflects your personality after spending years living there.
This truth will become important when it comes time to sell your home. Does the way that it currently looks have the mass appeal that will attract buyers? Or will you need to do a lot of work to prepare your home for sale? Buyers look for many things when they are shopping for a new home, and features that you may not think twice about in your home could be a huge negative that causes a potential buyer to look for another house.
Preparing your home for sale will likely take a lot of work. After all, the housing market is competitive and even in a seller’s market, you have the incentive to try to get a better offer for your home. Here are a few things that you should do to get your house ready to sell.
Get Professional Interior Design Input
If you have lived in your home for a long time, you may have neglected the interior design elements. You are used to how your house looks and you are comfortable with it. But it may not suit the style of potential buyers. Trends are constantly changing, and before you list your home, you should consider updating your interior design choices to have a better chance of enticing buyers. Making the right changes could increase the number of offers you receive, increase the value of the home, and give you an edge over other sellers. If you are not confident in your ability to understand current design trends, do some research yourself, speak with a professional designer, or ask for some input from your realtor.
Make Needed Repairs
No seller wants to see a buyer look elsewhere because of a completely fixable problem in the home. Maybe there are some broken or dysfunctional fixtures in your home that you have put off repairing because they didn’t affect your life very much. But what isn’t a big deal to you could be a turn-off for the buyer. That sink with poor water flow could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, making them go with another seller who updated their fixtures before the sale. Don’t leave it up to chance. Make sure that all of your appliances and fixtures are working properly so that buyers cannot use it as an excuse to look somewhere else or to negotiate down the price.
Invest in Energy-Efficient Upgrades
Energy efficiency is the name of the game in the real estate market. People are looking for every possible method to save money in their lives, especially with inflation behaving the way that it is, and a more efficient home with lower utility bills is incredibly attractive. You could update old windows that do not retain heat as well as newer models do. If you have a stucco siding exterior, maybe now is the time to invest in replacing that stucco with a better-insulated material that doesn’t trap as much moisture. The change could be as small as installing lights that have faders so that you are not wasting energy with high-powered lights when they are unnecessary. By upgrading your home to become more efficient, you are demonstrating to buyers that they can save money on utilities and that you have invested in improving the property.
Speak to a Staging Expert
Pictures are worth a thousand words, and when thousands of dollars are on the line, they might be worth even more. Taking pictures of your home is a crucial part of the selling process. If you decide to take them yourself, then you need to know how to stage your home so that it is presented in its best light. Most home shopping begins with websites like Zillow or Realtor.com. The first impression that a buyer gets of your house is the pictures that are displayed on these sites. If your pictures are dark, convey a small amount of space, or appear to be low quality, buyers could immediately scroll past your listing. Speak with a professional about how to stage your home and lay out the furniture and other elements in an appealing way, and make sure that the photos that are taken are attractive.
The More Effort You Put in, the Better the Selling Process Will Be
If you are hoping to sell your home quickly and are not willing to put in the work to prepare it, then you will be unlikely to reap the benefits of a better offer. Although buyers may not be as picky in a seller’s market, that doesn’t mean that they won’t walk away from a potential home if there are too many negative features. Or, if your home is not presented well in the first place, people may never even click on it in the first place or schedule a visit. When you take the time to make the necessary repairs, get professional design input, invest in upgrades, and stage the home well, then your chances of receiving more offers will increase, resulting in you making a higher profit from the sale.