Questions For The Potential Seller in the Greater Waterbury, CT Area, Part 3: How Can I Prepare My Home To Be Sold?

Questions for the Potential Seller in the Greater Waterbury, CT Area, Part 3: How Can I Prepare My Home To Be Sold?

If you are a potential seller in the Greater Waterbury, CT area (that would be Waterbury and the surrounding towns of Watertown, Plymouth, Wolcott, Prospect, Naugatuck, Middlebury and Southbury), then the question of how can I prepare my home to be sold is the final question that you must ask yourself before you actually put your home on the market.

The question of how can I prepare my home to be sold is perhaps the easies of the three questions that you will ask. The answer to that question depends on you, the seller, and your home.

There are two major areas which need to be addressed when answering the question how can I prepare my home to be sold: the outside and the inside.

The outside of your home’s power to attract buyers is known as its curb appeal. The outside of your home is usually the first thing that potential buyers see when they look at homes, whether it is in person or on the internet. As such, you always want to put your best foot forward and show off your home in its best possible light. You can accomplish this by doing the following:

 §Keep your lawn cut and your shrubbery trimmed. If there is snow or ice, make sure that you clear as much of it as possible from the walkways around the house.

 §If you have a fence, keep it in the best possible condition. Make any repairs if necessary and, depending on the type of fence you have, apply a fresh coat of paint to it.

 §Make sure that you do not have any rubbish or other disposable items lying around near the house or in the yard.

 §Clean your gutters, roof, and siding using a power washer. If there are algae on the roof or on your walls, a bleach solution will eliminate those unsightly green stains.

     §When your Realtor is taking pictures of your home on the outside, make sure that you car is either in the garage, or if you do not have one, parked away from the house so that it is not included in the picture.

Understand that as a potential seller, you are trying to make sure that your home is ready to be sold…but buyers will not make any offers on your home if their first impression of your home is a negative one.

Once you have captivated the buyers with the outside of your home, then you must match what the buyers saw outside with what they will see once they enter into your home. Depending on how much needs to be done, and what you are both prepared and capable of doing, prepping the interior of your home for sale can be inexpensive or it can be a major undertaking. The following suggestions will aid you as a potential seller in preparing the interior of your home for sale:

 §Start by packing away as many of your personal items as you possibly can. You want buyers to see the house, with as few distractions as possible. Packing away your personal items such as clothing can also allow potential buyers to properly evaluate the roominess of your home and the availability of closet space.

 §Update the décor in your home. Buyers do get turned off by outdated items in a home. If updating is not an option for you, then your Realtor should be able to recommend a professional home stager who can make the necessary adjustments in the home’s décor so that it is more inviting to potential buyers.

 §If it is possible, and necessary, update your kitchen and bathrooms. Doing so may not necessarily add real value to your home in terms of increasing its price, but buyers do perceive such upgrades as making the house much more valuable, so they might decide to put in a full price offer on your home.

 §Keep your home neat, clean, airy, and dust-free.

The bottom line for you as a potential seller in deciding how to prepare your home to be sold is that after the price is considered, you must give buyers every reason to put an offer on your home.

Questions for the Potential Seller in the Greater Waterbury, CT Area Series:

Introduction

Part 1: When Should I List My Home?

Part 2: What Price Should I List My Home At?