Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors
3 Tips to Prepare Your House for Selling
While you do not have to do a complete overhaul to get your house market-ready, you do need to make an effort. Your Realtor® can suggest some ways to make your home appealing to buyers, but here are three ways you can prep your house for selling.
Do not ignore fixable problems
Maybe you are used to living with the dripping kitchen faucet, but a potential homebuyer may not be able to ignore it during a showing. Sure, it might be an easy fix for a new homebuyer, but it might be easy fix for you, too.
If there are repairs that you have been putting off, it is time to consider which ones are worth making. Ask for some advice from your Realtor about which home repairs should be on the top of your to-do list. Some may be too large to tackle at this stage in your sale, like a major renovation. Others, like a leaky faucet, can probably be fixed for less money and in a short amount of time.
Remember, while you may be willing to lower the asking price because you’re not interested in remodeling your outdated bathrooms, you can get a can of paint to freshen up the walls.
Keep your clutter to a minimum
If you are living in your house while you are waiting for it to sell, it is going to look like someone lives in it. Buyers expect occupied properties to look, well, occupied, but that doesn’t mean that they need to see your dirty laundry pile on the bathroom floor.
Although Realtors® encourage their buyer clients to look past those small things, many buyers have a hard time with it. If it’s not difficult for you to put a hamper in the bathroom to store your dirty towels, you might as well give it a try. If you are having trouble deciding how much de-cluttering to do, ask your Realtor for some guidance.
Make sure the price is right
You made a lot of memories in your home, and maybe even invested your time and money into improving it, but the fact is that the market is what dictates the sales price.
If you price your property based on sentimental value or the remodeling costs you hope to recoup, you are probably not pricing it properly. When a property is priced too high, it doesn’t sell quickly. In fact, it might not sell at all. Your Realtor® will be able to help you come up with the right asking price. He or she will even take into account those updates you made but with accurate market information.
If the price seems lower than you want, do not be afraid to ask why. But do not forget that you might be accounting for emotions more than a buyer would.
Get more advice on preparing your home for sale, plus other tips for buying and selling real estate in Texas, at gfwar.org.
About The Greater Fort Worth Association of REALTORS®
The Greater Fort Worth Association of REALTORS® was established in 1918 and has spent a century representing the real estate industry in the Greater Fort Worth area. With over 3,500 REALTOR® and affiliate members, GFWAR is a strong advocate for real estate professionals and private property owners. For more information, visit www.gfwar.org.