Since the
same recommendations come up on a regular basis, I thought I would make a blog
post about them - to help people who are thinking about selling their home.
1. Clean Windows
A
really easy way to help make your home look more valuable is to clean your
windows. If I were to go see a home that has been recently put on the market, I
would expect the house to look its best. When windows aren’t even clean, it
makes me wonder how much effort the homeowners have put into taking care of the
rest of the home if they can’t simply clean the windows. Windows are a pricey
investment to replace. Make yours look like a million dollars. I know that it’s
very do-able because I remember my Dad and I cleaning the windows every summer
at home when I was younger. While we cleaned the windows he taught me a very
valuable lesson, as long as you clean the glass, screens and maintain the inner
workings of the window, they will hold their value that much longer and they
will look brand new for that much longer. The moral of the story is, the effort
you put into looking after something, the longer it will last and the longer it
will hold its value. I also want to point out that, if you don't have the time to clean windows or if you aren't able to, you can always hire someone to do it for you.
2. Make sure beds are clean and well
put together. This goes without saying. When you enter a bedroom and the bed
isn’t made then the entire room is put into chaos. Pillows are tossed around…
this whole thing can easily make the room feel smaller. It is so important to
show your home with a well-made bed because in a bedroom, the bed is the focal
point of the room.
3. Dealing with visual clutter
Visual clutter can be as simple as having too
many products on the vanity in a bathroom, or too many books on a bookshelf.
Less is more group items together on a surface whether it is a bedside table or
bookshelf. Make groupings of 3 or 5 – always-odd number of items grouped
together never even. It is also a good idea to vary the heights of the items
that are grouped. This creates interest and depth of the grouping.
4. A Clean Home is so Much Nicer to
View than a Dirty Home
Before every viewing, make sure that the
floors are vacuumed, no pet hair lying around, no dust bunnies, make sure the
bathrooms are clean! This is a major room in the home – you want it to look
it’s best!! Make sure the towels are hanging neatly on the towel bar, make sure
they are the same colour, make sure the vanity counter is clean, no toothpaste
or any other gummies on the surface, make sure the mirror is clean, no spit
marks, and also (the biggest thing) to make sure it is clean is the toilet.
This is a major thing! Also make sure the floor around the toilet is clean.
Like I noted before, if certain areas of the home don’t appear to be taken care
of then the potential clients will start to wonder how much money they will
need to put in the home to update and replace things.
5. Maintaining your Yard
When pulling up to your home, the first thing
that people will notice is the yard and lawn. One way to make your property
really pop is to cut the grass, trimming around trees, up the driveway, weed
the flowerbeds, trim any perennials that have grown a little wild over the
years and rake up any clumps of grass (if the grass was long) because these
grass clippings will inevitably turn brown and won’t add anything to the value
of the yard.
The
bottom line…
If you
were staying at a hotel, you wouldn’t expect the bed to unmade and messy, you
wouldn’t expect the bathroom to be dirty; you wouldn’t expect to see someone
else’s dirty clothes strewn about the room. All you expect when entering the
room is it to be clean, without a funny smell and the bed all made up. Staging
and showing your home is all about making the best first impression.
