Preparing Your Home To Sell On A Budget

If you're thinking about selling your home, you may be wondering what steps you need to take to get it ready for potential buyers. While it's true that making some upgrades to your home can help it sell faster and for a higher price, you don't necessarily need to break the bank to do so. With a little bit of elbow grease and some creativity, you can prepare your home for sale without spending a fortune. Every market and every home calls for a different plan to successfully sell, and every seller has different needs based on price and timeframe. What we suggest for you to do in preparation may differ from what we suggest for someone else if they owned your exact same house. The steps below are a good starting place, and remember to start early, ask your Realtor for their advice in advance of spending money, check your vendors for insurance and necessary licenses, and don't over-remodel for your house or neighborhood. Take some time to go through it. Here are some easy and low-cost ways to do just that.

1. Give Your Home a Good Deep Clean.

One of the best (and cheapest) ways to make your home more appealing to buyers is to simply give it a good cleaning from top to bottom. This means dusting, vacuuming, mopping, scrubbing bathrooms and kitchens, and taking care of any other necessary cleaning tasks. Some Sellers will go the extra mile and re-finish or polish their wood trim which makes a big difference without breaking the bank. It's messy and time-consuming, but it looks great. Another thing you can do is use a pressure washer and spray off spider webs and deep-clean concrete fences and walkways so they look nice and fresh as a potential buyer approaches the front and rear of the house. Not only will this make your home look its best, but it will also help eliminate any unwanted smells that could turn off potential buyers.

2. Declutter and Depersonalize.

When buyers are looking at homes, they want to be able to envision themselves living there—and that's hard to do when your personal belongings are everywhere. So, before you put your home on the market, take some time to declutter and depersonalize as much as possible. This means getting rid of excess furniture, putting away personal items like photos and knick-knacks, and generally just minimizing the amount of stuff in each room. The rule of thumb is to have things removed that will allow a buyer to understand who you are and potentially negotiate against you, in addition to the distraction it causes. Easy ways to remember where to start is personalization, and extend into the hunting trophies, the religious decor, the family photos, and anything with ties as to why you may be moving. The goal is to make each space look as open and inviting as possible while removing any ability to negotiate against you.

3. Spruce Up Your Curb Appeal.

First impressions matter—and when it comes to selling your home, that first impression starts with curb appeal. Take some time to power wash your walkways and siding, trim your trees and hedges, pull weeds, mulch your flower beds, and do whatever else is necessary to make the outside of your home look neat and tidy. You may also want to consider repainting your front door or adding a new welcome mat or potted plants near the entrance to really make a good impression on buyers before they even step foot inside your home. Curb appeal is the first photo you see online when looking at houses that determines whether you keep clicking on the next photo or schedule a showing. Considering that over 90% of homes are sold through the internet, it should be a priority. We sell houses by creating emotions, and emotional attachment can be achieved through having order. Order can look like a freshly edged lawn with weeds removed from your driveway cracks, it can be the fresh mulch in your flower beds, and it can also be fresh paint over your old peeling exterior paint.

4. Give Each Room a Fresh Coat of Paint.

A fresh coat of paint can do wonders for any space—and it's usually pretty inexpensive too. Painting yourself will be much cheaper, just do your research in advance to learn the tips and tricks that increase quality, reduce time spent, and reduce money spent. When choosing paint colors, stick with neutral hues that will appeal to the widest range of buyers possible. You may love that bright pink accent wall in your living room—but chances are not everyone will feel the same way about it. Visit local new construction homes to see what neutral colors are currently in, they spend millions of dollars on consumer research to best understand how to sell a house. Emulate that wherever possible. If you hire a painter to help paint your house, make sure you get multiple quotes and check with friends and family in the local area to get personal recommendations. For Example, we called a company ourselves and got an $8,500 quote to paint the interior of the house, and when given a referral through a neighbor, the quote came back at $3000 and the crew did a fantastic job.

5. Let There Be Light.

One of the best ways to make your home feel more open and inviting is to let in as much natural light as possible. So, before you put your home on the market, take a close look at each room and see what you can do to improve the lighting situation. This might mean adding or removing light fixtures, trimming trees and bushes that are blocking windows, opening up curtains and blinds, or even just changing out light bulbs to brighter ones. You'd be surprised to see how differently your house shows when you replace the old yellow halogen bulbs with fresh white LED lights. You want potential buyers to be able to see your home in the best possible light—literally!

6. Update Your Hardware and Fixtures.

Outdated hardware and fixtures can really date a space—so if your home is full of old brass doorknobs, light fixtures, cabinet hardware, and plumbing fixtures, it might be time for an update. This is a pretty easy and inexpensive way to modernize your home without having to do any major renovations. Simply replacing old hardware with new can make a big difference in the overall feel of your home. And when it comes to plumbing fixtures, there are now so many stylish options available that can really help to personalize your space. Just be sure to stick with neutral colors and finishes that will have the widest appeal.

Lastly. Replace Old Carpet with Luxury Vinyl Plank Floors

If your home still has old, stained, or otherwise outdated carpeting, it's time to replace it with something new—preferably something that will appeal to a wide range of buyers. These days, one of the most popular flooring choices is luxury vinyl plank (LVP) flooring. It offers the look of hardwood floors without the high price tag, and it's also much easier to maintain than carpet. Best of all, it comes in a wide range of colors and styles to suit any taste. So if you're looking for a quick and easy way to update your home before putting it on the market, LVP flooring is a great option to consider.

Conclusion:

Taking the time to prepare your home before putting it on the market can definitely pay off—but you don't need to spend a lot of money doing so. With a little bit of elbow grease and some creativity, you can easily get your home ready for sale without breaking the bank in the process. In a stabilizing real estate market such as the one we see ourselves in right now, it's more important than ever to follow some of these suggestions if you want to sell your house fast before price adjustments are expected from potential Buyers.