Preparing Your Home to Sell in the Spring

Preparing Your Home to Sell in the Spring

Selling a house, much like buying a house can be quite lengthy and complicated.

A lot of key steps and decisions will be required to make this enjoyable and successful. Conventional wisdom says that spring is the best time to sell. Most people move during this period and so the huge foot traffic usually results in peak real estate sales.

However, your home should also be in tip-top condition before you list it for sale. Here are the best tips for selling your home in spring for the best possible experience.

Decluttering the home

Your home should be clutter-free before it goes on sale.

Regardless of how many piles of rubbish and clutter you may have had to put up with until now, right now is the time to get your place clean and organized.

Decluttering will help you free up some space and add a touch of freshness and simplicity.

On the contrary, prospective buyers will hardly feel at ease when your house is cluttered and the atmosphere appears choking.  If you want to try this, below are some of the things involved in the best decluttering strategies;

  • Create a goal/plan by listing it all of the clutter zones in your house in their order of severity. This will help you understand your priorities as well as the areas where your attention will be needed.
  • Focus on one room at a time. Jumping from one unfinished room to the other won’t help.
  • Get rid of items you no longer need. You could recycle, donate to charity, etc.
  • Keep regularly used items neatly stored
  • Wipe dust and dirt from corners and flat surfaces
  • Organize your clothes and footwear
  • Tidy up the kitchen
  • Avoid keeping triples or quadruples of the same items
  • Organize your living spaces as if you have less storage room

Painting

According to USA Today, a fresh coat of paint can boost your home’s value by up to 3%.

This can help sell your house faster and for top dollar. And this is it ranks high among some of the best tips for selling your home in spring.

But this does not mean plastering the wall with your favorite colors or just about any color for that matter. You have to be strategic when it comes to this.

The recent Zillow Paint Color Analysis of more than 135,000 pictures from home sales across the country revealed some key findings;

  • Properties with jet black, charcoal, or smoky front doors sold for $6,271 more than expected and doing this will only cost you between just $100 to $400.
  • Homes with tuxedo kitchens where the floor cabinets and the upper wall cabinets have different tones of colors also tend to net sellers more dollars, as well.

From the survey, we also found that painting the rest of your home in neutral colors will appeal to more prospective buyers. Painting your house dark-red or brown cost many sellers an average of $2,310 less than they should get.

If possible, you should also avoid painting your exteriors in creamy or bright yellow colors. You should also note that exterior painting may cost you anything from $1,000 upwards, so it can be expensive.

Yard Work

You’ve probably heard someone make a big deal about curb appeal at some point.

The thing is this is not just some myth or something similar. Your home’s curb appeal is still very important as the exterior is what helps you to create the first impression. This, as we know, can make or break the process.

There are both small tweaks and sizable changes you can consider if you’re looking to boost your home’s curb appeal. Most of the resources on tips for selling your house in spring will include things like;

  • Edging your walkways and driveways
  • Clearing out the weeds and trimming shrubs
  • Planting new flowers or even a tree
  • Fertilizing the lawn and keeping it tidy
  • Filling up window boxes with plantings
  • Installing outdoor lighting fixtures
  • Swapping out old or outdated hardware on your front door, etc.

The good news most of these things are quite easy and won’t cost you so much.

However, the effect they can have on your property can make the difference between selling fast and for top dollar and waiting till forever to find a serious and interested buyer. The same goes for the doors as well.

Deep cleaning

You may have no problem with your dingy-looking windows.

But only a handful of buyers would like a dingy-looking home. This is bad since you want as much as possible prospective buyers so you can sell for the best possible price.

 

It will be advisable to clean everywhere you can clean.

You should start from power washing your driveways to deep cleaning doors and windows. Windows particularly, including those on the upper stories, should be washed inside out.

You should also consider cleaning the closets, repairing damaged grout in the bathroom, and blasting out dirt and grime from every corner of the house, among other things.

All of these things will add up to make your interior and exterior spaces appear much better. And as it turns out, making it more valuable and visually appealing will prove vital in attracting serious buyers.

Home Staging

Everything included in this guide and tips for selling your home in spring is aimed to help make your property appeal to as much as possible potential buyers. This is the key to selling your house fast and at a great price.

After you’ve cleaned, decluttered, and done every other thing, you still need to stage your home. This step is important and if possible, you can even seek the help of a professional home stager.

Home staging is a key process in preparing your home for sale.

It’s about highlighting the best properties and most impressive features of your home. This is done to make your home desirable and appealing to prospective buyers.

To get your staging right, you’ll want to;

Focus on the most important rooms. According to the NAR, these are the living room, master bedroom, and the kitchen.

  • Conduct a thorough cleaning of the house like you did when you first moved in. ensure to get rid of foul odors so everywhere can look and smell fresh.
  • Get rid of clutter and depersonalize the house. Removing photos and other personal effects will help potential buyers connect better with the house. This helps them connect better with the property to create a perfect picture in their mind as they visualize themselves living in the house.
  • Pay attention to the little details and make the necessary repairs. These can include floor cracks, scratches, holes, and other things. You don’t want buyers to feel like the house has been subjected to neglect.
  • Rearrange the furniture in each room in a way that still leaves enough walkable space. You can also add large mirrors into cramped rooms to make them appear larger and spacious.
  • Go neutral with colors as colorful tones may easily change your home’s appearance.
  • Only use rugs that will complement the colors of the wall in the spaces where they are located.
  • Let in as much light as possible so your rooms don’t feel too dark as this can make the atmosphere gloomy, depressing, and sad.

According to a report from the National Association of Realtors, about half of buyers’ agents believe that staging influences a buyer’s perception of the property. Again, more than one-third of these realtors believe that this helps buyers visualize themselves as the property owner more easily.

Likewise, 21% of sellers’ agents believe that staging can increase a home’s value by about 6% to 10%. About 39% also agree that this also plays a role in getting the property sold quickly.

Staging is a very important process is you’re preparing your home for sale. While you may be able to pull this off yourself or with input from your realtor, you can also consider hiring a professional home stager, as well.

Bottom Line

The spring season is the hottest period of sales in real estate.

 

Although there will be a lot of people looking to buy, there will also be a lot of people looking to sell. Everything we have compiled together in this guide and tips for selling your house in spring will help you improve the odds of selling your home when it finally hits the market.

Along with getting your timing right, we’re highly hopeful that this will further boost your chances of selling your house fast and for top dollar.