Make Your Home Stand Out in 5 Steps
Even in a seller’s market, it’s important to take a few key steps to make your home stand out from the rest.
Between timing, calculating finances, understanding contracts and finding or building your new home, preparing to selland leave your current home comes with a huge suite of challenges. When it comes to preparing your home for sale, take these five steps to stand out from the sea of available homes.
Clean and Declutter
When staging your home for sale, your goal is to make each space appear large and bright. The worst possible things to include in your listing photos are clutter and dirt! It’s normal to have them, and even the cleanest and tidiest of people leave items on tables and appliances on countertops.
Decluttering for staging means more than just tossing trash in the garbage can or sorting through the mail. You’ll need to remove excess furniture, stow away cooking utensils, and organize all surfaces. This can be difficult, especially if you’re still living in the home while showings take place, but it makes a world of difference in the way your home will be perceived!
Once you’ve got furniture and appliances stashed away, wipe down and deep clean windows, surfaces, floors, and appliances. Remove any bulky curtains or dark window coverings to allow in plenty of light.
Choose Neutral Colors
The colors in a home usually reflect the personalities of the people who live there. Maybe you’ve got a yellow accent wall that brightens your day, or a cool blue for a calm office. Unfortunately, bright and bold colors don’t necessarily fit everyone’s tastes and might not photograph well. If painting or touching up a few walls fits into your timeline and budget, consider neutral colors like white, light grey, and beige.
Incorporate Flowers and Plants
After decluttering, you should have plenty of cleared surfaces. On a few of them, place a simple succulent or a small vase of flowers. Especially in the kitchen, bathrooms, and living room, a touch of nature and a splash of green gives a clean, fresh, and happy feel.
Make Easy Repairs
If you’ve kept up on the important maintenance of your home, you likely don’t need to spend much time or money on major repairs. However, potential buyers don’t only notice the big things. Sometimes life gets busy and we leave small, livable items alone and eventually forget all about them: a lightbulb out over the bathroom sink, a loose knob on a cabinet, or a scuff in some paint.
Especially once you’ve removed some furniture and shifted more attention onto walls and fixtures, it’s important to address these small issues so that the upkeep of the home appears meticulous. It might help to walk through your home with a friend or your listing agent to get a fresh pair of eyes on the space and help you notice any sticking points so you can fix them. Your first impression with potential buyers shouldn’t be dampered by small things that would’ve been easy to fix.
Strategic Pricing
Your listing agent should be able to tell you what sort of market you’re dealing with. In most areas, buying a home is currently quite competitive, which means sellers have an upper hand. This doesn’t mean pricing way too high will pay off, though. Sometimes pricing a bit low will help to garner the attention you need in order to end up with a few competing offers and drive the price upward in the end.
Selling your current house to build your true dream home? From financing to customizations, Atmos is here to help.
