If you are in the market to sell your Massachusetts home, here are the top 10 things you absolutely MUST DO to make sure your home sells quicker.
- Use the “Buyer’s Eye” Perspective. Erase your personal attachment to your home and start to look at it from the buyer’s perspective. When your “home” becomes a “house for sale”, it will be easier to assess what truly needs to be fixed or fixed up in order to make it attractive to a potential buyer.
- Get a professional home inspection. For a couple hundred dollars, you can have a professional inspector go through your home and assess the issues that need to be taken care of before a buyer goes through and does their inspection. If you fix these issues before it’s put on the market, the buyers will never know the problems were there, saving them time and helping make your home more attractive for them to buy.
- Be the best, not the worst. Bring your home up to the neighborhood standards. If granite countertops and hardwood floors are the norm, make sure your home is updated as well. With so many homes on the market nowadays, your home must stand above the rest, not linger below. If there are two homes in the same neighborhood that are listed for the same price, the home with the nicer amenities will sell quicker.
- Get rid of the clutter! This means that you need to take down all of your rooster nick-nacks, remove your spoon collection, pack up the exercise equipment (especially if it’s just collecting dust) and limit the amount of pictures you have on the walls. Pack up whatever you don’t need and store them away neatly in the garage or rent a storage unit until your house sells to keep all your extra “stuff” out of the way of potential buyers. This may be a good time to consider hiring a professional home stager to make sure your home puts its best foot forward.
- Flooring can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Professionally clean all carpets and replace any damaged or stained carpeting that can’t be cleaned. Refinish the hardwood floors, if necessary. Paint the trim and baseboards a bright white to make them appear fresh and new. If the flooring is shabby, your home may bring in a lower bid at sale time.
- Make sure your real estate professional is an internet professional. You want your agent to make your home available to the masses at any time of the day or night, seven days a week. This means that you want your agent using the internet to advertise your home.
- Take a walk. When your home is scheduled to be shown to a potential buyer, take a walk, go to the movies or run those errands that need to be done. Buyers can’t always feel comfortable looking at a home and considering it their own if the current owner is there. That can be a turnoff.
- Home warranties are nice buyer incentives. For a few hundred dollars, you can give your buyer an added incentive to consider buying your home over another. The home warranty typically covers service on air conditioners, plumbing, some appliances and the furnace.
- Keep it clean. Wash the windows. Power wash the driveways, sidewalks and siding on the house. Keep the inside clean and tidy. Put away all the toys, dump the trash, organize the closets and vacuum the floors.
- Two words: “curb appeal”. You only have one chance to make a first impression. The first thing a buyer sees is the outside of your home, including your landscaping. Keep the lawn mowed. Trim the shrubbery and trees. Get rid of any weeds. Clean up the front porch. Get rid of any dead plants or flowers. You want your home to show pride of ownership so buyers can see themselves happily living there.
Following these guidelines will help you get your Massachusetts home sold quicker, easier and with less stress.
