If you’ve recently decided to sell a house, you must be feeling overwhelmed with all the emotions and responsibilities of making such a major decision. It’s a natural reaction to changing your house, but you should approach it with all due attention and prepare for selling the property at a fair price.
However, first-time sellers often make mistakes in the process because they don’t follow the basic steps and fail to embrace the real estate business mindset. Our goal is to help you make the most of your offer, so keep reading to see the ultimate checklist for selling your house.
1. Clean the house thoroughly
This one goes without saying, but too many home sellers make the simple mistake of not cleaning their houses before inviting potential buyers to check it out. Your goal is to make a wonderful first impression, but that’s not possible if you don’t take the basic actions such as:
- Vacuuming the carpets
- Removing dust from furniture and other items
- Clean the mirrors and windows
2. Remove personal items from the house
Nobody wants to buy a place that bears traces of your taste and personality. On the contrary, home buyers expect you to remove personal items like family photos and completely depersonalize the house.
Jake Gardner, a blogger at the dissertation writing service, says depersonalization helps prospects imagine what they could do with the place: “Instead of seeing your things, they must get a chance to dream about decorating the house according to their preferences.”
3. Fix whatever needs fixing
Another thing you need to do is catch up on maintenance. If there is anything wrong with any of the house elements, rest assured visitors will notice it. You should check everything and fix whatever needs fixing, including leaky faucets, malfunctioning devices, damaged handles, and similar.
4. Keep the property polished
You don’t need to be a professional real estate agent to understand the value of curb appeal. After all, it is the first thing people see as they approach the house and so you have to keep it neat and clean. There are so many things you can do to create a more beautiful image of your home, but some of the common details include:
- Making a nice path that leads to the front door
- Trimming the bushes
- Replacing gutters, a mailbox, and other old items that don’t look great
5. Hire a real estate agent
Now that you’ve taken care of the most important details, you should think about hiring a real estate agent. Some home sellers consider it to be an unnecessary cost, but it almost always pays off because professional real estate agents can find a buyer and seal the deal much faster. They have also experienced negotiators, so you can expect to achieve the highest price.
6. Set the minimum price
Speaking of prices, you should discuss this topic with your real estate agent and set the minimum price under which you don’t want to go. It will give your agent a reference point and help him/her negotiate the best deal. Of course, it will also speed up the sales process because you won’t have to negotiate with buyers who want to purchase the house cheaply.
7. Schedule a pre-sale house inspection
A lot of house owners want to make sure that everything is good with their properties before inviting the first visitors. If you are one of those sellers, you should schedule a pre-sale house inspection to discover possible shortcomings. That way, you will have more than enough time to react and repair malfunctioning elements in your house.
8. Stay alert and keep the place ready for visits
After everything you’ve done so far to make the house look amazing, it would be a shame to let the visitors catch you off guard. The only thing you can do is to stay alert for a while and keep the place ready for visits anytime of the day. This means you ought to do the laundry on time and take care of the trash daily to make the home look perfect 24/7.
9. Market the house
Another thing you can do to attract more buyers is to market the house and promote the offer, according to assignment writing service. Apart from putting a “For Sale” sign in front of the door, you can advertise the place across many communication channels. That includes local real estate websites and magazines, display advertising, and social media marketing. Of course, you have to upload high-quality images that make your place look as beautiful as possible.
10. Prepare documents on time
You never know when someone might decide to purchase the house, so you should prepare the closing documents well in advance. You’ll need a purchase contract template, closing statements, home inspection confirmations, but ask your real estate agent if there is anything else you have to take care of.
11. Cancel utilities and insurance policy
As soon as you find a buyer, you should cancel a homeowner’s insurance policy as well as utilities. It will eliminate a lot of monthly costs and you won’t have to pay for items such as gas, electricity, waste removal, and many other services.
12. Update the address
The only thing left on the list is to update the address. You must check out from the current house address and inform the post office and other local authorities about the new address. Besides that, it would be good to update your contacts about the change as well.
The Bottom Line
Real estate is a tricky business, so you shouldn’t be trying to sell the property before preparing for it thoroughly. You should always hire a real estate agent to do the job on your behalf, but there are also other details you can take care of single-handedly. In this post, we showed you the ultimate checklist for selling your house. Follow these tips and rest assured you will negotiate the highest price for your home.