Preparing a house to put on the market takes a lot of time and patience to get it right. Every day, real estate agents like Knoxville Home Team advise their clients on the best practices for getting a house ready to sell. And in today’s market, it’s important to put your best foot forward immediately.
Below are 5 of the top recommendations by real estate agents when it’s time to sell a property.
1. Clean the House Thoroughly
No matter how long you have lived in a house, you want it to be sparkling clean as soon as people see it. This usually entails hiring a professional cleaning company to perform a detailed cleaning of every aspect of the house. They will clean ceiling fans, baseboards, wipe down walls, clean the bathroom, etc. If you need a lot of material removed out of the house, hire a company like Sac Junk Removal. It’s critical for the house to be sparkling clean as soon as it’s listed. Additionally, while the house is on the market, you’ll want to keep it as clean as possible.
2. Change Light Bulbs
It might sound silly, but imagine a prospective buyer walking through a house with burned-out light bulbs. They want to see that every light fixture in the home works properly and you don’t want any rooms to have missing or dead light bulbs. For less than $100 from your local hardware store, you can replace all of your light bulbs to keep your fixtures shining bright. Remember to check if certain fixtures allow for LED bulbs and replace them for long-term lighting.
3. Hire a Landscaper to Improve the Curb Appeal
The exterior of the house is just as important as the interior. For this reason, you’ll need to hire a landscaping company to clean up the front and backyard. Remove any weeds, trim the hedges, cut back overgrown bushes and mow the lawn. Here is where you want to really impress anyone driving by your home – if they see that it is properly taken care of outside, they’ll want to see the inside of the home much sooner. Don’t be afraid to spend $1,000 or more for a proper landscaping company.
4. Start Packing Early
Every real estate market is seeing properties fly off the market at a rate we’ve never seen. It’s highly likely you’ll have an offer in 24-48 hours as long as your asking price is realistic. Knowing that you’ll have an offer, you’ll need to start packing sooner than later so the buyer is not waiting on you to move everything out. Pick up some moving boxes and storage bins to get started on the easy stuff. You’ll need to consider friends or a moving company to help with the larger items, but you can start boxing up smaller things now.
5. Hire the Moving Company Ahead of Time
With so many people moving these days, moving trucks and moving companies are booked out by a few weeks. As soon as you have an offer on your house, book the moving truck and any professional movers you plan to hire right away. The last thing you’ll want to happen is having moving day coming up and you have no help or a truck to move things. The more you can plan ahead, the better.
Stick with these five recommendations when you’re ready to move and you’ll be prepared for an easy move.