What do you need to do to get your house ready to be on the market?

The first and most important thing you want to do in preparing your house for market is to make sure it has good curb appeal.  Curb appeal is simply the first impression a prospective buyer gets when driving by the house.

It has been said that up to 80% of the decision to buy a house is made before even entering the home.

It doesn’t matter how great your house looks inside.  You could have the greatest floor plan, and the greatest décor, but if your house is unsightly from the sidewalk a lot of people will make judge the book by its cover and pass on even looking inside the house.

So by all means start on the outside of the house.  A lot of generating curb appeal is common sense.  Keep the lawn mowed and watered, trim the shrubs, make sure there isn’t any peeling paint and keep weeds out of the flower beds.

If the time of year allows it is best to put some color in the landscaping.  Plant some flowers and put down fresh bark dust in the flowerbeds and around the shrubbery next to the house.

Make sure there aren’t any unsightly vehicles in the driveway.  If you have an older car that is unsightly park it down the road or at a friend’s house.  Keep the yard clean and pristine.

When you can look at the outside of your house from the street and it looks better than it ever has it is time to move to the inside of the house.

Inside your house you want to make things look as open and bright as possible.  Keep the all the blinds and curtains open during the day to show off the house.  If a room feels cluttered you may want to move some of your extra furniture into the basement, a storage space or a friend’s house.

Keep the inside of your house smelling good.  Any senses you can stimulate when someone enters your house will help to create emotional attachment to the home.  Don’t overdo the aroma therapy, but make the house smell pleasant and looks comfortable and  livable.  People want the house to feel like home.

Keep everything as clean as you can.  Some people can not look past uncleanliness.  You have no idea what will turn off or attract the next person that comes in your house.  You want your house to look, feel and smell it’s best.

To increase the value of your house one of the most cost effective things you can do is re-paint the interior and exterior of the house if they need it.  Make sure you use light, bright colors inside the home.  You may like wild bright colors, or you may like darker colors, but you want to appeal to the largest group of people.  So sticking with neutral colors will be your best bet.

Everyone has their favorite way to decorate, but you have no idea of the preference of the person that will be buying your house.  If your stick with off-white and beige colors indoors the rooms will look bigger, and brighter.

It will also make it easier to paint the house whatever color the new owners want when they move in.  It takes fewer coats of paint to cover up light colors than it does for darker colors.

You may also want to replace some of the light fixtures.  If you have outdated fixtures you can get really inexpensive fixtures at places like Home Depot that will put more of a shine on your house.

You can pick up a couple of ceiling fans or a Chandelier for the dining room that will add a touch of class to your house that may help to move it more quickly.

Putting a few dollars into a new outdoor fixture, mailbox and house numbers can make the house look more appealing.  You may also want to consider updating some of the fixtures in the bathroom and adding a new faucet to the sink in the kitchen.

Pay special attention to the kitchen and bathroom.  If you are planning on doing any remodeling before selling your house, the kitchen and the bathroom are the best places to put your money.  A new sink and toilet will make the bathroom feel like new and can add to the overall value of the house.  These are updates that are easy enough for most homeowners to do themselves without costing a fortune and they will more than double the return on your investment in most cases.

Remember that people make emotional decisions.  As much as we like to think we make logical decisions, the truth is we are highly emotional decision makers. 

People have to visualize themselves living in the house.  If you keep in mind open, warm and bright for the interior of your house, along with having great curb appeal, you will on the right path to correctly preparing your house for the market.