How To Prepare Your Home For Sale on a Budget
All homes typically sell for more money when they are properly prepared for the market. That said, don’t let a small budget dissuade you from preparing your home for sale. There are a lot of ways you can make your home shine without breaking the bank.
Exterior - You only get one chance to make a first impression and that starts with the exterior. Place some flowers in pots on a pedestal by your front door. Yellow is a good color to go with. Wash your windows – this is one that gets missed a lot and it makes a big difference for curb appeal. Look at your front door, does it need to be painted, have the hardware replaced or possibly be replaced all together? The front door makes a lasting impression on how a home has been maintained and you want it to be a good one as this is where buyers will be entering your home for the first time.
Interior - For the interior of your home go room by room and make a list of items that need to be repaired. From de-cluttering to painting you can do a lot of preparation yourself. To de-clutter your home consider a storage unit, they can be rented for about $100 per month. Painting yourself is tedious but, an easy DIY project that can save you a lot of money. This is not the time to get creative; be sure to select neutral colors. Kitchens and bathrooms are big selling points for homes. How do yours look? If they need a little facelift consider putting a new vanity and new toilet in. You can do both for a total of less than $500. For your kitchen if you can’t afford to put Granite in you could also consider Corian. If that’s out of the budget focus on the smaller items to make your kitchen shine. You can install new hardware on all the cabinets, replace the kitchen sink faucet, and if your wood cabinets need some love consider stripping them and then re-staining or painting, taking this route is more economical than having them refinished.
Cleaning - Last but, certainly not least your home needs a DEEP clean before it goes on the market. You can hire the professionals for a few hundred dollars depending on how large your home is or you can tackle this project yourself. Break your home down by cleaning a floor at a time. Trying to just dive in will result in areas being missed – clean your baseboards, light fixtures, ceiling fans, and dust door and window frames. If you aren’t going to be replacing your carpet rent a steam cleaner and thoroughly clean all the carpet in your home.
Allow plenty of time to complete these items before listing your home for sale. Getting a house show ready doesn’t happen overnight and it’s important all the details be completed before your first showing.
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