Any Tips to Prepare Property Before Selling?

Hey Taylor - My husband and I are thinking about selling our house this summer. If we decide to pull the trigger, any advice on how to prepare our property for potential buyers? - Marjorie

Hey Marjorie - There are so many ways to prepare for selling a house, but a lot of the details will hopefully be handled by a realtor. As far as getting the house ready to go, there are a few things you should think about and get to work on.

1. Fix the obvious issues. Your house probably has minor defects that you started ignoring years ago. While those are insignificant to you, people looking to buy a new house are going to inspect every detail and try to find any reason to knock the price down. If you have doors that stick or windows that don't close all the way, those repairs are definitely worth making ahead of time. Spend on fixing things now so you can get more money from the actual sale. Even though you're about to stop living there, your house is still an investment.

2. Move past the nostalgia. One of the biggest issues for people selling their homes is letting go of the history they share with that location. You may have lived in that house through a marriage and some wonderful family-building years, and those memories are special and important. However, your past doesn't factor into a prospective homebuyer's future. There might be rooms you want to leave a certain way because it reminds you of returning from the hospital with a newborn, but you have to remember you're leaving this house. Those memories will live on, but they don't need to be preserved in a home you're trying to sell. Try to take a business-minded approach to your sale, preparing the house for strangers who aren't interested in the home's past, but rather what it can offer in the future.

3. Do some landscaping. Even if the inside is immaculate, the front yard and driveway and entrance are the first things people will see. Don't expect them to ignore an unkempt garden or a carport that really needs to be repaved. It's easy to get caught up in the general value of a property and the size of a lot, but you can't overlook the superficial elements that drive the sticker price. Do your best to make the interior and exterior as presentable as possible.