You’ve made the decision to sell your house, but does it have the appeal buyers are looking for when it comes to clean open spaces, a manicured lawn, or spacious garage?

Start with First Impressions and Curb Appeal

A sloppy exterior doesn’t do a home any favors and could discourage buyers. Improving your front and back landscaping is crucial. It doesn’t have to be a major overhaul, but a little effort goes a long way.

Tasks you can do yourself, or with a small landscaping company, can include mowing the lawn, pruning bushes, weeding gardens, and planting some fresh flowers. If needed, pressure wash the driveway and even the house siding.

If anything is broken, now is the time to fix it. Make sure the paint looks fresh, especially on the front door. When done, put down a new welcome mat for potential homebuyers; it’s a small touch, but it goes a long way towards projecting your home as a welcoming place.

Tackling the Indoors

This is where you wow the visitors. When buyers are inside the space, they’re envisioning this as their home, so it’s important to declutter and depersonalize rooms, shelving, and closets as much as possible. Take a cue from HGTV shows during “big reveals” and try to make the closets look organized with minimal but strategically placed items. You want to maximize the amount of open space if possible.

Cleaning every nook and cranny is also important, so start with a deep cleaning. Do a top-to-bottom cleaning to put your best foot forward and make your home shine.

Neutral paint colors in rooms can also add impact. Bold colors may turn off buyers, but shades of white, beige, and gray can open spaces and offer a blank canvas for future owners to find their own style.

Also important are small repairs such as replacing caulk around kitchen and bath fixtures, eliminating dripping faucets or running toilets, repairing walls, and fixing broken windows and screens.

Nothing can turn buyers off more than lingering smells from various sources. A good carpet cleaning might erase some of these, but make sure to put away the litter box and freshen the space with air neutralizers.

Last, but not least, put out fresh flowers for your open house and consider baking cookies to complete the welcoming efforts.

Begin the journey of selling your current home, and finding your next house, by speaking with a representative from Open Mortgage.