Anyone who has sold their home before knows that there are a lot of boxes to check if you want to do it correctly. Not being aware of this can make that first home sale more stressful and time-consuming than it should be. If you’re a new homeowner trying to learn the ropes of real estate, we can help you out. This list will teach you how to get your house ready to sell when the time comes for you to move out.

Conduct Market Research

The first thing you need to do is research your local real estate market. This is how you’ll know if it’s a good time to sell and what price you should value your home at. When it comes to the value of your home, that can fluctuate during the time you spend improving the property for buyers. However, you should still do some research beforehand to get a good base price in mind. When researching nearby properties and their value, make sure to take into account differences between them and your property such as size, amenities, and specific location.

Hire a Reliable Real Estate Agent

One of the most beneficial ways you can prepare your home for the market is with the help of a good real estate agent. Don’t just hire the first agent you come across. Instead, do thorough research on their years of experience, as well as feedback from previous clients. When it comes to experience, you want them to specifically have experience selling homes in your area. With the right realtor by your side, you will have a great source of guidance and industry connections that can make your sale go by so much smoother than it would otherwise. Plus, they will play a big role in helping you put together the right listing price for your property.

Complete Any Repairs

It should go without saying that you can’t show your home to buyers if there is a broken window, leaky pipe, faulty light switch, or any other issues. Find some time to inspect your entire property and put together a comprehensive list of everything that needs repairs. That way, you can put together a strategy for how to efficiently and effectively deal with all the necessary repairs. Don’t worry, there are plenty of homeowners that put off repairs due to the cost or effort involved, but if you want to present your home to buyers, it needs to look as good as new.

Thoroughly Clean Every Room

Aside from specific repairs, you have to thoroughly clean your property. As mentioned before, your home should look as good as new for potential buyers, and that means no dust on the shelves, stains on the walls, mold in the showers, crumbs on the ground, or gunk in the carpet. Remember, there’s a difference between spring cleaning and cleaning to impress potential buyers. Leave no cushion unturned and make each room look as spotless as you can. Make sure to regularly clean so crumbs and dust don’t reaccumulate in-between property showings.

You should consider placing candles or air fresheners in your home to combat the overwhelming smell of cleaning chemicals when buyers stop by to check it out. Doing this will also come in handy if you have a pet. Suffice it to say, you don’t want the kitchen to smell like a wet dog when buyers are present.

Don’t Forget to Declutter

You shouldn’t just prioritize the cleanliness in every room of the house. Prioritize the space that each room provides, or that the room could potentially provide. Simply remove and rearrange the furniture in a way that provides the room with more space for potential buyers to imagine their own belongings inside the house. When removing furniture, rent a storage unit for you to store it for the time being. You can also choose to donate any belongings if you think you no longer need them, as opposed to needlessly storing them.

Consider Repainting the Interior

Aside from cleaning indoors, you should also consider throwing on a fresh coat of paint. There are a few reasons for this, including that an old, fading paint job just isn’t very appealing. That fading paint will stand out even more if the rest of the room is freshly cleaned. You want that paint on your walls to pop, but don’t make the mistake of thinking bright paint will do that instantly. When you’re preparing to sell your home, you should paint the walls neutral colors like grey or beige. It might seem like a boring color choice for you, but the point is to give the room a clean, depersonalized appearance for buyers to place their dream home on top of.

Boost your Curb Appeal

Curb appeal is the attractiveness of a home when viewing it from the street. Making sure your curb appeal is as strong as it can be is important because the outside of your home will be the first thing potential buyers see when they arrive. Improving curb appeal requires sprucing up the exterior of your house by tending to the garden, practicing good landscaping, repainting (including the doors and window shutters), adding outdoor seating to the front porch, cleaning the driveway, and replacing outdoor lights.

Find a Good Photographer

When you put your house up for sale, you’ll need to create online listings. An online listing will require photos of the properties for buyers to look over. However, just because you have a nice property does not mean that it will instantly translate into a nice photo. This is why you should hire a professional photographer with a quality camera and a sharp eye for detail. That way, you can obtain incredible images to place on your listing. Selling your house requires the homeowner to make it stand out in any way possible, both when buyers are looking at it online and when they’re seeing it in person. Just like with your real estate agent, choose your photographer carefully. Look at their past photoshoots and reviews to determine if they’re the right fit for your sale.

Now that you know how to get your house ready to sell, you can avoid running into the common mistakes that many first-time home sellers run into, whether it’s ignoring market research or not prioritizing curb appeal. At The Staging Company, we provide home staging services to help you prepare your property for potential buyers. Staging is the process of depersonalizing your home by rearranging, decluttering, and repurposing each room to allow those buyers to picture how they’ll make it their own. Plus, with professional stagers on your side, you don’t have to worry about shopping for new furniture for staging thanks to our large inventory that we’ll also help you transport and install with ease.