What Needs to Be Done to Your Home Before You List It?

Grand Rapids Real Estate Video Blog with Kevin Yoder

You should focus on a few specific tasks when getting your home ready for the market if you want to sell it quickly and for top dollar.

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If you’re thinking of putting your home on the market, there is a short list of important things you need to do to it first. These strategies will allow you to sell your home for the highest price, in the shortest amount of time, and with the least amount of hassle.

First: declutter, declutter, declutter. The homes that cause a person to ask “Does someone actually live here?” are the ones that sell fast. Don’t let the prospect of decluttering freak you out. It’s not a matter of completely emptying your home—it’s a matter of simply depersonalizing it. Your home should look like something the buyer can envision themselves living in. Use your garage or a storage facility to store the items you don’t have room for. You can also give away what you don’t need to the Goodwill or hold a garage sale.

Decluttering is 70% of the home listing preparation equation.

Second, have a professional market prep consultation. This means meeting with either a home staging expert or someone who understands what needs to be done to each room in terms of furniture placement, paint, carpet, and miscellaneous or minor repairs. The idea here is to take what you have and make the most out of it. This should be done before you take any photographs or have any showings.

Third, order a home inspection. If you get your home inspected before you put it on the market, you’ll be able to take care of any repairs that aren’t visible to the naked eye. Let’s face it—if you’ve lived in your home for more than 10 years, there are likely things going on that you’re not aware of. Without having your home inspected in advance, a surprise repair will cost you more money once the buyer is involved.

Lastly, do some basic landscaping. Plant some nice plants out front, clean up the entryway, paint the door, and make everything else crisp and clean. This is the first picture buyers get when they pull up to your house, and first impressions are critical.

If you have any questions about what to do to your home before putting it on the market or you have another real estate topic on your mind you’d like to chat about, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to speak with you!