5 Ways to Spruce Up Your Home for a Quicker Sale
Getting ready to sell your home can be a complex and sometimes even exhausting process. Between finding the right realtor, making necessary repairs, and staging for the best possible photos of your property, it’s easy to find yourself a little overwhelmed. And when you add the need to sell your home quickly into the mix, it can become even more complicated.
Fortunately, if you’re hoping for a quick sale, there are some low-cost and relatively simple things you can do to spruce up your home and make it more attractive to potential buyers looking to close a sale soon. Prioritize the five high ROI, quick-impact tasks below and get ready to move!
1. Enlist your realtor’s help
Before you do anything else, bring your real estate agent on board. Your agent knows your local market and is familiar with the listed homes you’re competing with for potential buyers. That makes your realtor an invaluable asset in allocating your available funds and deciding what improvements to prioritize. Bring them in for a full walk-through and take their advice on what projects to tackle first.
2. Clean up the exterior
Don’t discount the importance of curb appeal. What your potential purchasers see when they first lay eyes on your home and yard can affect everything they see later. The most beautifully staged home interior may not overcome the bad impression made by a yard that’s in bad shape, siding that’s mildewed and stained, and sagging shutters. At a minimum, trim the grass, spread fresh mulch, power wash the exterior and touch up any peeling paint for a solid first impression.
3. Repair obvious problems
Some home repair needs just can’t be overlooked. You don’t have to renovate your bathrooms or buy new appliances, but you should definitely tackle home improvement projects that home shoppers will notice on a walkthrough. Examples of high-priority pre-sale repairs include leaks (especially those that have already created visible water damage), missing or dangling light fixtures, dents and holes in walls, and basic fixtures that don’t function as they should (faucets, outlets, etc.).
4. Declutter
An interesting thing happens to people shopping for a new home. Instead of seeing the potential new home solely as it is, they strive to see the way the home would look if they lived there, with their own belongings and decor choices. That’s not a bad thing. It helps your future buyer identify with your home and that’ll help you get to closing more quickly. One of the simplest and fastest ways to create the environment those purchasers are looking for is to remove everything personal from visible spaces. Pack up your family photos, files and papers, and knick knacks for your move and declutter your home of anything extraneous to create that blank canvas onto which a buyer can project their own tastes.
5. Paint over bright walls
Bright, colorful walls can really help you express your personality and style preferences. But when you want to sell your home, that’s the opposite of a winning strategy. For a quick home sale, consider painting all your home’s interior walls with a single unifying neutral shade. The best choices are shades of greige, beige, tan, and white or off-white (but be careful with white as it can look too stark and sterile without the right accompanying accessories and furniture).