7 Ways To Make Your Home Move-In Ready
Ever heard the phrase, “walk a mile in someone else’s
shoes?” When it comes to
selling your home and boosting curb appeal to the
widest range of buyers, the distance you need to think about is far less than a
mile: it simply runs from your front curb to your back fence. The moment you
even begin to think of putting your home up for sale is the time to start
thinking like a buyer.
Why?
Because thinking like a buyer will help you make your home
move-in ready for just the right buyer (or maybe even a bevy of bidding
buyers). The less they think they have to change, the shorter the distance will
be between the viewing, their offer, and the day you say, “Sold.”
Host a pre-listing party. Invite a few (and I mean a few)
trusted friends over for an inventory. Make some cocktails and go from room to
room in your home asking what they would either (A) change if they were to buy
your house, or (B) see as a red flag if they were a potential buyer. This can
give you an extra set of non-real-estate-influenced eyes on your home and help
you create a solid list of potential improvements to discuss with your Realtor
before you list.
Consult with a great agent. Now that you have your friends’
opinions, run them by an expert.
See
which problems you should address before listing and which fixes won’t be of
financial benefit.
If you don’t have an
agent yet, try this new tool from Trulia; it’ll give you a free estimate of
your home’s value and connect you with an agent who can help you sell your
home.
De-clutter. Closets get full. Extra pieces of furniture get
crammed into corners. Bookshelves overflow with odds and ends. Help the
potential buyers see your actual home and not the stuff in your home by moving
out the extras. Every closet in your home should show off the entirely of the
storage space. Every room of your home should scream “possibilities” instead of
“I can’t fit one more thing in here.” Try renting a portable storage unit that
can be delivered to your home. This way, you can box up extras, and they’ll be
ready to be delivered to your next dream home. In the meantime, you’ll be
making room for someone else’s dreams.
Clean out the garage. The future owners of your home want to
know that their cars can fit into the garage. While it might seem harsh (and
everyone you know uses the garage for storage), no one wants to see the garage
filled to the brim with bike parts, boxes, and haphazard clutter. Remember that
portable storage unit? Move it on out and make some room for folks to imagine
parking their dream car on the left hand side.
Think neutral. It’s hard for potential buyers to see
themselves in a home that has you written all over it. This goes for brightly
painted walls, wall murals, and wallpaper trim. Since your home is soon to not
be your home anymore, consider taking any brightly or bold-colored walls or
those areas with specialty wallpaper or mural trim back to neutral. A simple
beige satin wall paint with a semi-gloss white or off-white pain trim can do
wonders for giving potential buyers the “blank canvas” feeling. You want future
owners to be dreaming of picking out paint — not how to get rid of
not-right-for-them color decisions.
Grout, tile, and natural stone restoration. Have your
bathrooms and kitchen counters lost their luster? You might want to look into having
them refreshed (and it’s much less expensive than having them redone). Check
sites like Angie’s List for contractors in your area offering deals for natural
stone, tile, and grout restoration. For not a lot of money, you can kick up the
shine on your tiling and counters and get that long-neglected grout back to
clean. That “exploding pizza” incident in your kitchen and that red hair dye on
your white bathroom grout could be history in an afternoon — and on a dime.
Make those hardwood floors spiffy. Send the kids off to the
park and the pets off to doggie daycare for the day, and get those floors
gleaming. Wash all surfaces with a simple mild, soapy water first (avoid
Murphy’s Oil Soap — it leaves a residue). Next, use a hardwood floor polish
like Bona or a product like Rejuvenate to bring the beauty back — and all for
under $40-$50 for the average sized home. Be sure to use the cleaners
recommended by each product to prevent buildup and to keep the shine going
through your whole listing. There’s nothing that can kill a deal like your
perfect buyer thinking that they have to refinish a few thousand square feet of
hardwood. Help them see hope, not hardwood-related dollar signs. A trip to your
local home improvement store can yield some recommendations for your specific
types of floors and the desired sheen you want to achieve.
Terry Naber, RE/MAX Properties, Inc., Colorado
Springs, Colorado, Knows Real Estate. Her Expertise, Accomplishments, & Service
Are Well Known By Her Clients.
Call Terry Naber at 719-590-4796 For Your Home Consultation & Additional Information.
