Market your home

A good approach for placing your home on the market for sale is to consider your audience and prepare your home for its prospective new owner.  Buyers want to “see themselves” in your home and imagine their signature touch of furniture, artwork and other personal effects in place.  Providing an inviting atmosphere will help them better establish an emotional connection from subjective factors like light, space, views, decor, room flow, amenities, and other elements. 

Making A Good First Impression

Your home should look ready to be sold. Things as simple as keeping rooms clean, lawns and landscaping manicured, and removing unnecessary clutter will help make your home visually appealing and attract buyers.  When preparing your home for sale, keep the prospective buyer in mind and be open to your realtor’s suggestions on how to make your home more marketable.  Presentation is everything, and creating a favorable first impression of your home can influence a buyer into making an offer.  A few suggestions when putting your home to go on the market:

• Clean windows, railings and doors
• Mow the lawn and weed gardens
• Remove clutter from rooms, yards and the garage
• Paint if needed
• Shampoo carpets and mop/wax floors
• Clean bathrooms and sinks
• Remove pet, food and smoking odors
• Limit personal items and pictures
• Open doors, shades and draperies
• Turn on the lights

Staging For Success

In addition to the basics listed above, many realtors will recommend the assistance of a staging professional to help dress the home for sale.   Home staging can include unique furniture arranging and room accessorizing to make property for sale appeal to the highest number of buyers.  Many believe that proper staging can raise the value of a property by reducing flaws, depersonalizing, decluttering, cleaning, improving its general condition and landscaping. Ask your realtor for do-it-yourself staging suggestions or references to an accredited staging professional.

Improvements and Repairs

Part of your home sale preparation check list should include fixing minor repairs like broken light switches, leaky faucets or toilets, etc.  Your real estate agent sees homes every day, and can give you good advice on fixing up your property to make a favorable first impression on buyers.  They can also help you determine whether it’s advantageous to spend money on more costly repairs or improvements prior to sale (like carpet replacement), or whether it’s better to provide an allowance to the buyer as part of the terms of sale.

Emotional Involvement

In addition to presentation and staging, it is also important to remember that your home becomes a commodity once you’ve decided to sell, and emotional attachment will likely be one of the greatest challenges you face as a seller.  As such, it should be priced, prepared, and marketed like a commodity. Your agent can help you think of your house this way and keep a business perspective when discussing the positive and negative selling points of your property – making it easier to reach rational decisions during the sales process instead of being guided by emotional reaction.