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 Make it look like a home for sale

To ready your house for sale presentation is everything! Home buyers are attracted to clean, spacious and attractive houses. Your goal is to impress buyers. Brighten-up the house and remove all clutter from counter tops, tables and rooms. Make it shine. Simple aesthetic improvements such as trimming trees, planting flowers, fixing squeaking steps, broken tiles, shampooing rugs and even re-painting a faded bedroom will greatly enhance the appeal of your house for sale. Also, make sure your house smells good so what you are presenting is a home for sale not just a house.

Many areas are often overlooked and it has been our experience that checklists are invaluable. Below is our ready to use checklist to get you started.

Exterior

• Remove any junk or clutter from around the house, including leaves, dead limbs, but especially those things that have accumulated and just don't belong in a beautiful lawn! This goes for the back and side yards as prospective buyers often circle the block.
• Landscaping, repair any bare spots in the lawn, trim trees and shrubs, replace mulch, plant flowers if possible, green up lawn with fertilizer, and keep mowed. Adding mulch is an easy and cost effective way to freshen a lawn! Inspectors look for drainage issues so make sure mulch around the house "fades away" from the foundation.
• Review the driveway; if concrete consider a power wash, if asphalt consider resealing. That fresh coat of back asphalt looks striking against the green grass.
• Decks and porches should be cleaned, power washed, sealed, or re-stained.
• Look at the gutters and downspouts, nothing screams make a low offer like trees growing in the gutters!
• Wash all exterior windows, and storm windows, inspect screens and window operation and repair where necessary.
• Check all exterior lights make sure they work and fixtures are clean.

Interior

• Remove clutter from each room, a good rule of thumb is removing 1 piece of furniture from each room and storing it somewhere else. Any item that is not necessary for day to day living should be boxed up and stored for the move, or discarded. This includes all of those accumulated trinkets from years past.
• Closets should be cleaned of all out of season clothes, store or donate any not worn this year. Consider a closet organizer as all buyers love huge organized closets....and hate overstuffed sloppy ones!
• Carpeting, at a minimum should be steam cleaned and deodorized, if there are stains, paths worn, or other problems go ahead and replace with a neutral colored carpet. While a carpet allowance may be useful, most buyers do not have vision and the carpet may turn off buyers to even making an offer.
• When it comes to putting up your house for sale, painting is dollar for dollar the best return for your money, keep it neutral, and if touching up, paint the whole wall touched up.
• Safety! Make sure all walkways are secure and handrails do not wobble. All stairs should be well lit! This could not only stop a sale but potentially injure a buyer. Remember, that when your home for sale is falling apart, so will the sale.
• Fireplaces, go ahead and have them cleaned and inspected, a buyer will more than likely ask for this and it will impress them if it is already done.
• Check all faucets and toilets for leaks and snug any loose fixtures.
• All outlets should be checked for operation, including lamps and replace all burned out bulbs.
• ** REPLACE YOUR FURNACE FILTER(S) - Nothing screams poor maintenance like a filthy filter. The home inspector will mention this. A dirty one is usually flagged by the inspector and the buyer, noting the lack of maintenance, will request a service call! Spend the $3.00 now!