To get the best return on your home, you

need to make your home look its best.

Here’s the checklist that will help you do it

I am a HUGE fan of checklists! Here is a handy checklist for you in order to help get your home Market Ready! Make your home look and feel like a show home and put your very best foot forward to all potentail buyers! Remember, we get ONE chance to make an amazing first impression! 

Inside your home

Floor coverings

(carpeting, tile, linoleum, hardwood, etc.)

• Dirt or stains?
• Excessive wear or damage?
• Area rugs clean and stain-free?

Walls and ceilings

• Dirt, fingerprints or other stains?
• Nail or thumb-crack holes, tape residue?
• Cracks, chips, water damage?
• Need for repainting or new wallpaper?
• Neutral, light colours for roomy environment?

Doors

• Dirt, fingerprints or other stains?
• Need new paint?
• Open/close easily without squeaks?
• Latches/handles secure and working properly?

Windows

• Glass sparkling clean/chip- and crack-free?
• Open/close easily?
• Latches/handles/locks secure, working properly?
• Dirt and fingerprints on frames or sills?
• Screens clean and without holes?
• Storm windows in good condition?

Window coverings

(curtains, drapes, blinds, etc.)

• Dirt or stains?
• Excessive wear or sun damage?
• Open/close easily, hardware working properly?

Living room, dining room,

bedrooms, den and study

• Everything thoroughly vacuumed/dusted?
• Excess furniture removed for roomier atmosphere?
• Remaining furniture clean and in good repair?
• Wood and other surfaces clean and polished?
• Bookshelves neat, organized and clutter-free?
• Children’s games/toys stored neatly?
• Fragile items removed and stored?
• Smaller valuables removed/locked away?
• Window coverings open for views and sunlight?
• Mirrors clean and in good repair?
• Ashtrays cleaned and kept out of sight?
• Fireplace clean, logs/kindling stacked neatly?

Bathrooms/powder room

• Every surface sparkling clean?
• Countertops organized, free of clutter? Fresh soap?
• Sinks spotlessly clean, faucets working properly?
• Tub and shower surfaces clean?
• Towels stain-free and hanging neatly?
• Shower curtain clean and in good repair?
• Toilet extra-clean and working properly?
• Closets organized and clutter-free?
• Medicine cabinet clean, “personal items” removed?

Basement, furnace room,

garage, attic storeroom

• Clean and well-organized?
• Clutter and excess “junk” removed?
• Remaining items stored/stacked neatly?
• Everything thoroughly vacuumed/dusted?

It’s nothing new that home staging is a wise move. After all, it has the potential to increase the final sales price of your home by 6 to 20 percent. But what you may not realize is that it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg to do it. After all, who needs more expenses when you’re moving? If you’re short on cash but want to speed up your home sale and possibly increase that final dollar amount, here are some budget-friendly home staging tips.

Declutter

The first step to home staging is about as budget-friendly as you can get — because it’s free. Donate or trash items such as clothes, extra furniture, books and knick-knacks – anything that’s not being used or that you no longer need. Go through the pantry and donate canned goods to a local food drive. Sift through piles of random papers and shred and recycle what you don’t need.

Hold a pre-moving sale

Hold a garage sale to get rid of what you won’t be taking with you when you move. Not only will you declutter, you’ll also make some extra cash for other home upgrades. Don’t feel like doing a traditional yard sale? Download OfferUp or another buy-and-sell marketplace app to sell your items.

Borrow from friends

A good rule of thumb with home staging is to furnish and stage every room in your home so that no room is left empty. To save costs, you can borrow furniture from friends and family, or you could split up the furniture in other rooms of your home to round out the less furnished rooms. Borrow the treadmill your sister no longer uses and the weight lifting bench in the garage to transform an empty bedroom into a home gym, or add a desk and cabinet to your guest room to help buyers envision both a guest room or home office in that space.

Consider portable storage

After getting rid of the items you no longer want, it’s time to empty your home of excess furniture items, quirky art, and any personal items that may be distracting to buyers. A portable storage container is a popular cost-effective option because it conveniently combines moving and storage.

Here’s how it works: A driver delivers your storage container to your home to fill at your leisure. Once you’ve loaded the items you’re storing, the driver picks up the container and takes it to a nearby storage facility. When your home is sold, have your container re-delivered to your door, fill it with the rest of your stuff, and ta-da! You’re all ready to move. Some portable storage providers can move your container long-distance. For instance, PODS can move your container to your new home even if it’s across the country, in Hawaii, or in some parts of Canada. A solution such as this that combines moving and storage can help reduce the costs of moving by eliminating the need to rent a storage unit or moving trucks multiple times. Moving long-distance with a container can also be significantly less expensive than using a traditional full-service moving company.

Grab your paint brush

Want to transform your home cheaply? Painting gives you the best bang for your buck if you if you’re looking to give your place a makeover. Light, neutral colors are great for staging. If you’re really tight on cash, opt for touch-ups or pick key walls in high-traffic areas to repaint.

Make tiny upgrades that make a big difference

Make your home feel fresh and new on the cheap with some inexpensive updates to hardware, lighting, and faucets. Even new outlet plate covers, vent covers, and kitchen cabinet hardware can give your place a facelift. You don’t even need to buy anything fancy – just shiny and new.

Decorate on a budget

Some simple décor updates can have a surprisingly effective impact on the way buyers view your home. Replace your old, boldly colored shower curtain with a cheap but tasteful curtain. Cover up stained or old couches and chairs with affordable slipcovers. Add some homey cushions to the living room. Just remember to keep things neutral – it’s not the time to express your unique personality! Save that for your new home.

While redoing your flooring or putting in new kitchen cabinets would be ideal, it doesn’t have to take much money to give your home a makeover and make it appealing to buyers. With a little time and creativity, you can turn your soon-to-be-sold home into a beautiful space and have some fun while you’re at it. Good luck with your move!

To maximize your sale price, you need to make sure your house is available to buyers. Even when they want to visit at an inconvenient time with little notice.

Keeping your home show-ready around the clock can be stressful, but we have a few easy tips and tricks to make sure your house always shows its best (even on short notice).

Take care of the Deep Clean before the house hits the market

Before officially listing your house for sale, invest in a deep clean. Taking the time to thoroughly scrub the house before it hits the market will make it much easier to maintain day-to-day throughout the listing period.

And this deep clean goes beyond cleaning. Yes, you want every visible surface to shine, but there are a few more steps to take at this stage to make the house truly show-ready.  

Like decluttering and depersonalizing. Removing all the clutter helps the house to appear larger and more inviting. And removing personal items like family photos and unique collections will help potential buyers to feel more at home in the space. And the more at home they feel, the more likely they are to make an offer!

Squeeze in a quick straightening every morning

To maintain the show-readiness of your house, you just need to spend a little time straightening up each morning.

Stylish storage bins are the perfect tool to make this process quick and painless. Daily life clutter like toiletries, mail, and kids’ toys can be tossed in a bin and instantly hidden from sight.

After that, just run through the house quickly to make sure that:  

1. Dishes and laundry are put away
2. The beds are made
3. Curtains and blinds are open to let in the light
4. The house smells fresh
5. Everything is generally in its place

Plan to be away from the house during showings

Buyers generally aren’t able to feel at home when the sellers are present. Give your potential buyers the freedom to relax in the house and imagine themselves living there by staying away from the house during showings.

This includes pets. Many people are afraid of animals. And many others have pet allergies. Even if your potential buyers love animals, your pets may actually hurt your prospects by distracting the buyers when they should be focusing on the house.

Create a plan to get everyone out of the house with little notice. Make a little “go bag” with everything you‘ll need to keep yourself, your kids and your pets away from home for a bit. Maybe do some shopping or enjoy some time at the park while the house is being shown.

If you work away from home, you might want to make workday arrangements for kids and pets. Perhaps they could stay with family or go to daycare so you won’t have to leave work to round them up if there’s a short-notice showing.

Keeping your house show-ready 24/7 may require a little extra time and effort. But these tips will minimize the inconvenience and maximize selling potential. Plus any hassle will be worth it when your house fetches top dollar because it shows well!

This post is intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as professional advice. This post was written by Michelle Clardie. Michelle is a professional real estate blogger, specializing in ghostwriting Realtor® blogs. Her engaging content helps real estate agents become more visible online, generate more qualified leads, and increase their revenues. You can learn more at www.michelleclardie.com.

As the snow starts to melt, revealing the brightly colored flowers of crocus, and robins bop merrily around the yard, another cycle of the real estate market begins. If you’re considering listing your home this year, it’s definitely not too late to get started. March and April can be great months for putting your house in front of prospective buyers, but the summer months are also great times to sell.

Regardless of your timing, there are a few things you need to do right now to start getting ready to list. It’s not as simple as sticking a sign in the yard and waiting for the calls to roll in.

Putting Your Best Foot Forward

You never know who will feel that special feeling people get when they find the house that is just right for them. But you can turn the odds in your favor if you and your home are both show ready long before you open up to potential buyers.

Before you sell your house, you’re going to want to run through this checklist.

Hire a Realtor. There’s a reason that 91 percent of home sellers used a real estate agent to sell their home in 2017: selling a home is a complicated process that really demands an expert. Just like you’d not try to DIY surgery, there are serious financial risks involved with selling your home without an education in real estate law.

In addition to being your safety net, a Realtor can point out items that you might not realize are big turn-offs to buyers, like dated lighting, so you can get started on the cosmetic stuff to make your home show at its best.

Have a home inspection. Wait. Isn’t a home inspection just for buying a house? No! You can have a home inspector out any time you want. Having a full blown home inspection before you put your house on the market gives you a chance to correct items that will likely come up for your future buyer when they have their home inspector out. Get ahead of issues and you’ll sell that house faster.

Get to decluttering. If you have to sell your home in order to buy the next, you’re going to be living in a showroom for the next few months. Take anything you don’t really need immediately and put it in a storage unit. Get it away from your house because pushing clutter around doesn’t really help anything. Declutter as much as you can bear to — it’ll make your house look bigger and more appealing to prospective buyers

Paint the front door. Your Realtor will probably drive home the importance of curb appeal, or how enticing your house is from the street (the curb). The better the curb appeal, the more likely potential buyers will come inside and look around. The interesting thing about curb appeal is how certain elements of your house affect the whole picture. Case in point, Zillow’s 2018 Paint Color Analysis found that a black or charcoal colored front door can bring in as much as $6,271 extra!

Spruce up the landscaping. Along with dressing the front of your house up a bit, make sure that your landscaping is up to par. Prune any unruly plants, replace perennials that may have patchy growth, refresh your mulch, give the lawn a mow. Now that your landscape is radiating amazing curb appeal, keep it that way until your home closes. If you need to hire a landscaper, consider it an investment.

Get copies of your utility bills. People will ask what kind of utility costs are associated with your home. Does it just burn through the natural gas? Does the electricity use seem excessive? This is another place where you can get ahead of potential buyers by putting this information together and giving it to your Realtor on the day you sign your listing agreement.

Deep clean like you’ve never cleaned before. And hey, maybe you haven’t, we’re not here to judge. Even though painting is a quick fix to renewing your home’s interior, deep cleaning is less expensive and can result in a better overall effect. For example, if you clean your windows, inside and out until they’re super clean, you’ll immediately notice how much more natural light penetrates the room.

Is There Time For All of That?

If you find yourself crunched for time, don’t make up for it by skipping important things before listing. Instead, call on your HomeKeepr community to help you find the people who can move your home sale along. Whether you need a cleaner, a landscaper, an organization expert or even a home inspector, we’ve got you covered. Your agent already has a list of recommended service providers who can help, let these experts free up some of your time as you get ready to sell.

Written By: Homekeepr