6 Steps to Take Before Selling Your Home

If you’re a home owner looking to list your home for sale this summer and hope to have it sold before school starts in the fall, you need to start now with a few critical steps to take advantage of the housing market as it starts to heat up.  In their recent online article, 6 Essential Tips To Sell Your House This Summer, Forbes list six actions to take prior to actually putting your house on the market.

Tackle The Obvious Repairs

You don’t want potential buyers being distracted or put-off by small repairs.  Instead of picturing themselves living in the home, they may be calculating the cost of any repairs they see or those repairs they believe they don’t see.  Forbes’ article adds “You’ll also save time (and money) later by avoiding back-and-forth negotiations over minor repair issues…Your actual cost will almost always be less than a buyer’s post-inspection estimate”.

Remove Your Clutter And Junk Now

“Clutter eats equity and kills deals”, says Forbes.  Free up space by deciding if items can be stored, sold or donated.  Think in terms of “less is more” when selling your home.  Buyers pay more for larger homes.  Show off the space in your home instead of making it feel cramp with all the clutter.

Depersonalize Your Home

Your treasured heirlooms and photos make your home yours.  However, “you want a slate that’s blank enough to allow potential buyers to visualize themselves in the home, and to them, your memorabilia is just more stuff, so put it away for now.”

Remove Anything Polarizing

Remove items that can be perceived as controversial when clearing out the house.  Even if you don’t think an item is controversial, people can have strong reactions to certain items that may be political, religious or other things of a polarizing nature.

Pump Up the Curb Appeal

While this may seem obvious, it’s ignored at times by home sellers.  It’s crucial to remember the old saying, you never get a second chance to make a first impression; and curb appeal is the buyer’s first impression.  It’s critical to make your home look its best from the street.

Get A Reality Check

You probably have an idea of what your house is worth – or do you?  Many times sellers are not as objective as they need to be.  Forbes suggests that “an educated seller makes smarter decisions.”

If you are thinking of selling your home or just need to know the value of your home for any other reason, get your home’s value and comprehensive report in less than a minute, which includes local comparable sales at www.marylandhomevalue.net