Getting Your Home Ready

A potential buyer should have a good first impression of your home.  Chipped exterior paint, loose gutters, overgrown shrubs and lawn, marred interior walls, cluttered closets and counters, and stained or dirty carpets are simply unacceptable to home buyers.  These are all examples of problems that are easily resolved with very little expense.  The objective should be to get your home in good condition with minimal expense.  Make the decision of what must be replaced or repaired and get it done.  Think about painting some, or the entire interior. Fresh paint is clean, and clean is essential.  Clutter must be eliminated because clutter, whether it is in the closet, on the counters or on the walls, closes-in space and will make any area appear smaller.  In some situations, it can be advisable to even remove some furniture.  The feeling someone should have when they enter your home is that it is well maintained, spacious and clean.

Staging, a term used in real estate, is the act of preparing a home before it is put on the market.  The goal is to maximize attractive features and minimize flaws in your home.  Your home will appear more attractive, both inside and outside to potential buyers through staging.  Staging includes removing clutter, cleaning, rearranging furniture, and depersonalizing a home.  A staged home tends to sell more quickly and for a higher price.  You can either hire a professional stager or do some staging yourself.

Getting your home ready to market does not mean renovating.  In fact, it is probably the worst thing you can do because most likely, you will not recoup your expenses.  If you decide that remodeling a certain area of the home is absolutely necessary to achieve a sale, then make sure the job conforms to the home and the neighborhood... in other words, do not over-remodel.  Homes that overachieve in their neighborhoods often under-perform on the resale market.


More information can be found at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_staging

http://www.hgtv.com/real-estate/30-cant-miss-staging-tips/page3.html