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Spring is a time of change for many people, in many areas of their lives. Some people will change jobs, others change certain rooms in their house each spring. Many others will change their whole address. Spring is always a busy time for real estate.
ComFree wants to help you sell your home as quickly and easily as possible, without you paying costly and unnecessary real estate fees. That’s why we drew up these easy tips for you to ensure your home makes the best impression on potential buyers, and earns you the most on your investment in your home.
The easiest, cheapest, and most effective fix is to paint your home. Maybe you haven’t noticed the colours fading on your walls, but potential buyers will. You don’t need to paint the whole house, but certainly consider painting the living room, hallways and kitchen… the most used rooms in your home. Avoid strong or dark colours as that vivid red accent wall, or dark blue living room, isn’t to everyone’s taste.
Neutral tans are the most flexible colours with the widest appeal.
You are moving out of the house anyway, so get a head start on packing by stowing personal items away. There are other items, like the extra TV stand, the broken lamp or the old, uncomfortable recliner that you aren’t going to take with you… why wait to get rid of them? Home seekers want to imagine how they will live in the house, not see how you have been living in the house.
Once you’ve cleared your house, make the effort to keep it tidy. Putting things away and dusting regularly will save the rush around to hide things left lying around, or worse, leaving a mess for your clients to see when they come to view your home.
There are probably a dozen odd jobs around the house that you never quite got around to doing— do them now. Fix the leaky faucet, replace that broken hinge on the cupboard door, and replace the dead light bulbs in the hall. People may not notice if you look after these little details, but they certainly will notice if you don’t.
While you do those small repairs, take the time to update your kitchen by painting the cupboard and drawer handles to make them look like new. Alternatively, replace the handles and hinges entirely. It’s more expensive but a very effective way to change the look of the kitchen.
Another inexpensive (but time-consuming) way to update the kitchen’s look is to clean, sand and repaint or stain the kitchen cupboards and drawers.
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Remember: the exterior of your home needs as much attention as your interior. Perhaps more as it is the outside of the house potential buyers see first.
Again, painting is the quickest way to improve the look of your house. Check any exterior wood for peeling paint. Scrape, re-paint or stain as necessary.
Power wash everything, from the deck to the driveway, to remove engrained dirt. Kill any mould or mildew on the sides and roof of the house.
If you are renting a power washer or hiring someone to clean your home, you can save money by having the deck, the exterior, and the driveway cleaned all at once.
Like the interior of the house, keep the yard tidy. Don’t leave garden tools or children’s toys lying around, or the garden hose strewn across the lawn. Trim your trees and bushes, and remove any weeds from the garden, the path and the driveway.
Basic lawn care will also improve the overall look of the house. Edging and mowing the lawn regularly will give make it seem more inviting to your potential buyers. Adding brightly coloured flowers to planters or flowerbeds, particularly by the front door, will attract prospective buyers like bees.
When showing your home, turn on all the lights, and pull back all shades and curtains. The more light the buyer sees, the friendlier the house seems.
Also, have some quiet music playing in the background. Smells, like baking bread or cookies, potpourri, or scented candles—nothing strong, but subtle scents—will also make your home seem friendlier to buyers.
If you run into problems doing any of these tasks, or simply don’t have the time, consider hiring a professional for some of the more labour intensive jobs.
Of course, the key here is to prioritize what you need to do. Don’t go overboard and spend more money than upgrading, fixing, or cleaning will bring you.
These are all small things individually but collectively, they will make a big impression. And impressing prospective home buyers will help sell your home faster, for more money.
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Cast away, not stow away
Everyone stores things in their attic, under the stairs or in the garage... little ‘treasures’ that stay there for years. Some are family mementoes but most just take up space. Why haul them across town—or across the country—to yet another storage area? Buyers want to see how much space there is, not how much you have put there. So clear it out!
And you can let others do the heavy lifting for you, too.
"Thirty-two percent of all our pickups were recycled last year," says Michel Luhnau, the marketing manager of 1-800-Got-Junk? "That includes what was donated to charity."
- Remove personal items like family photos and collectibles to make the room look tidier.
- Change the furniture around. Take some of the furniture out of the room to make it look bigger and more inviting.
- Pull back the blinds and curtains to let the light in. Well-lit rooms seem friendlier than dim ones.
- Keep up the house cleaning; dust a couple times a week, wash your dishes promptly, and remove any newspaper and magazines stacked in the living room.
Windows of opportunity
Windows can be a major selling point for any home. That’s why the first advice David Bolger of Marvin Windows gives home sellers is to wash their windows. But just washing the windows and painting the frames sometimes aren’t enough.
"If there is moisture or dirt inside the glass, you should replace the windows. If there is any weather damage, from hail, water, or sun, you should replace the windows, "Bolger says, adding he would never buy a house with bad windows.
This may seem like an expensive way to sell a house, but money spent now becomes a selling point later.
- Clean the window frames first so they don’t drip on clean windows later.
- Add a window box filled with flowers. It enhances the view of the house outside, and the view of the garden from inside.
- Replace any torn screens and fix damaged shutters.
- Give the frames and shutters a new coat of paint for a fresh look.
- Dust and wash Venetian blinds, and clean your curtains and drapes.
The surface matters
Prospective buyers form their first impression of your home as they drive up to it. A well-tended lawn is a good start, but the exterior of the home is more than just the yard. Show them a dirty, peeling-paint exterior, and they will keep on driving.
"First impressions are everything," says Cheryl Allen, a ComFree consultant. "If the appearance is negative outside, people will only see the negatives inside." She adds people will want to see inside the garage and shed, so make sure they are clean and tidy.
- Give the door a fresh coat of paint, to make it more welcoming.
- If you have children, make sure their outside toys and activities are presentable.
- Don’t park the car in the driveway. A clear driveway makes the property look more open and inviting.
- Remove any weeds growing between the paving stones of your driveway, walkway and patio.
- No one likes a drip. Clean out your eaves troughs, and caulk the joints if they leak.
- If you have room, place a planter filled with flowers on either side of the front door.
Cultivate a green thumb
The yard is as important a feature in selling your home as any room inside the house. A little atention and a few quick touches outside your home will make the yard work for you and not agaisnt you.
"You need a unique quality," says Shaun Ford of Shaun Ford Design, an exterior design company. Ford suggests a front yard feature, such as a strategically placed rock, an art feature or a novel way to display your house numbers. "Install some outdoor landscape lighting," he says. "Light up the trees."
- Mow the lawn once a week to keep the grass neat. Pull weeds whenever you see them.
- Remove brown, dead plants from the garden—people want to see the yard look alive.
- Water the grass and flowers regularly, keep them looking green.
- Spread mulch over the bare soil of your flowerbeds to make them look professionally cared for.
- Trim any hedges, bushes or trees in the yard to keep it looking tidy.
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