Labor Day has come and gone and we are moving quickly towards fall weather. This means if you are wanting to sell your house soon, you have about 2 months to get an offer before all the buyers are too busy purchasing holiday gifts. Here are some tips that could help your house sell quickly.
1. Paint your house with cohesive paint colors. When it comes to selling your house, painting your home with the same neutral paint color can make your house look bigger in your photos. These two pictures are examples of smaller living areas that were made to look bigger in pictures with cohesive wall paint.
2. Prepare for your photos. Before the internet, open houses were the “thing.” Today open houses are mostly used by realtors to get new clients. What? Sorry real estate agents, your secret is out. Why are open houses a thing of the past? Think about how you are looking for your new house. You are on the internet making judgements about which houses you don’t like and which ones you do…based on the photos. In this era of the market, photos are the “thing” to get people inside your house. This tip isn’t wallet crunching or backbreaking. The home owners above needed furniture to live but got their home photo ready by clearing the clutter, showing some empty space, removing busy wall decor, and opening those window treatments. You want the buyer to see your space not your stuff.
3. Break up the brown. Twenty years ago beige walls and oak trim was the rage with new home builds. There are many homes like this, so if you want your house to stand out…break up the brown. We are in the internet world and people are saturated with seeing what is considered updated. A buyer will naturally gravitate to those homes that follow suit. Paint is the easiest way to break up the beige. The two houses shown were in the same area, were similar in price and similar in space. Which one do you think feels more fresh? The good news is both houses sold, but the house in photo #1 got an offer in one week. The house in photo #2 took months.
4. Work smarter not harder. If you can’t do everything don’t be shy of just doing one thing. Instead of painting both walls and trim, paint the walls to compliment the trim. This homeowner painted the walls a light bluish grey to soften the color of the trim and break up the brown. Another way to work smarter with limited time is to only focus on the main living area and kitchen. These areas will be the first impression the buyer has of your home so if you get those right you are a step ahead.
5. Accomplish at least one update in the kitchen. Bright and clean kitchens like the first photo above sell quick. If you have the time and money to do so you will set your kitchen apart. If you know your kitchen is a little outdated but can’t put the time or money into a full remodel, pick simple updates that gives a buyer forward progress with their renovation. In picture #2 the owners updated the countertops to compliment the existing cabinets, yet their neutral choice would work well if the new home owner wanted to paint the cabinets.
6. Make your bathrooms white. When you consider your bath fixtures, most everyone is halfway to an all-white bathroom anyway. Outdated or builder basic bathrooms don’t have to be “gutted” to be appealing. Get your can of white paint and get after it. If you have outdated tile or tub see if you can hire a local refinishing company like this one. A few days later your bathroom will be bright and clean with no sweat off your back. Surprisingly enough, it wont be too much out of your pocketbook either. The bathroom in the house above needed some serious love but there was very little time and money. The owners painted the walls, and added floors themselves. They hired a local company to refinish everything else white. A week later, bathroom #2 is what they accomplished.
7. Leave your flatscreen television. Really? I am not joking. Your house will be listed among a sea of other houses. Leaving your flatscreen is a way to include a “perk” to make your home stand out. This could be true of a sound system or nice laundry units as well. It seems silly but the added perk could keep your home in the back of the buyers mind as they go through other houses. It might even be the determining factor when a buyer is deciding between your home and a house very similar to yours. Don’t worry, you can get another flatscreen on Black Friday with the interest money you will save by selling your home quickly.
You probably already know this but I must say that all these tips are meant to help a home that is priced well in the right market. If so, I hope these tips can help you get to your new home faster. If you need more real estate tips check out this post. Do you have any tips for selling a home faster? Please share!
What are your thoughts with pictures of family? Should you take down all of those and go minimal everywhere or just main rooms?
Great question Katyln. My suggestion would be to take all personal pictures down if you can. You want to depersonalize your house so the buyer can see themsevles there. The ultimate goal is to give those personal pictures a new home and to do so you want to do all you can to sell your current house!