Shine it up – Making your home presentable for selling

Making your home presentable for selling is an important step that will dramatically improve your homes desirability when the buyers start showing up.   When comparing similar homes, buyers will pick the home that looks like it was maintained the best. We are trying to outshine the competition.  This can potentially get you more money for your home also.

Most likely you have gotten used to the way your home is.  Things that are out of place to someone else becomes normal for you.  Get a third party (like a real estate agent) to come by and point out the issues.  I promise it’s going to hurt a little if they are honest, but your home will show significantly better when these items are taken care of.

Here are the best tips for making your home shiny and most presentable. I am aware that not all of these can be done by everyone.  But if you want the best chance to sell at the highest dollar, here are my tips.

1. Professionally clean the home and carpets.

2. Don’t forget the windows.

3. Touch up paint chips, smudges and dings.

4. Fertilize your yard.

5. Make sure every started project is finished.

6. Use at least 2 tubes of caulking to tighten up cracks.

7. Replace air filters.

What about de-personalizing everything?  I don’t believe in it.  I don’t think that you can do this and live in the home.  If you have particularly offensive things to possible buyers, you could remove those.  Things like profanity or nudity should be put away.  I don’t think you need to worry about the trophy deer antlers though.

That said, I do think that it is important to declutter the home.  Remove excess items like extra furniture and kids toys they don’t play with.  Make it kind of minimalistic.  It may be uncomfortable for a while, but it makes the home feel much larger.

If you are serious about selling, you will benefit from completing as many things as you can from this list.  Just be aware that you are going to need to spend some time doing this.  It doesn’t typically get done in a weekend, unless you have a great friend support network.