How to Make Buyers Fall in Love with Your Home
You never get a second chance to make a good first impression. In the case of selling your home, you want it to be love at first sight. A buyer who loves your home and thinks it is perfect for their needs will buy more quickly, and will often be willing to pay more as well. There are a number of effective ways to get prospects to love your home.
1. Declutter
The last thing any buyer wants to see is a crowded house. Declutter everywhere - even the places you don’t think they might look, like your drawers. Prospects and surveyors will want to see the entire place, not just what you want to show them. You do not want the buyer to feel the home is too small!
2. Depersonalize
Pack away your photos and most personal items. They want to picture the home as theirs.
3. If you have already moved, leave enough behind to stage the home.
Sort your "must-have" furniture and leave the rest behind. Then use it to help dress up rooms. Useful items include tables, chairs and a couch. The Ottawa Property Gals will help the Seller make some of these decisions!
4. Paint inside and out in neutral colors
This will make the entire house look fresh and clean. The neutral colors mean there will be nothing objectionable about the décor. Even by touching up the existing walls can make a big impact to freshen a home.
5. Use neutral furniture throws, pillows and curtains
The throws can help you cover up any sofa or soften it to make it feel more neutral. Make the most of old furniture you are leaving behind for staging, or brighten the room and eliminate any objections to your sense of style and taste. We have lots of these staging items to help our Sellers homes look their best!
6. Clean, Clean and more Clean
A clean home makes the buyers think it is a well taken care of home. It feels fresh and inviting.
7. Avoid heavily-scented air fresheners
A lot of people use air fresheners, Glade plugins, pot pourri and other scented items to try to make their home smell nice and/or mask odors. However, some people have allergies, and everyone has different ideas as to what smells nice. Use unscented or lemon-scented cleaning solutions and odor neutralizers instead.
8. Aim for natural light
Your windows should all be clean inside and out. Each room should have a window treatment that allows plenty of natural light or window treatments could be removed to let the light shine in!
9. Make your kitchen shine
If the appliances are more than seven years old, replace with Energy-saver ones. Stainless steel is all the rage. If your appliances are not newer you can replace them or just make sure they are spotless clean. Update any old fixtures and fittings. A new faucet and taps and/or new cabinet handles can really make difference.
Follow these tips to get prospective buyers to fall in love with your home.
Staging Mistakes You Don't Want to Make
Staging your house is one of the best ways to make it attractive to prospective buyers. However, there are a number of staging mistakes to avoid if you want to get the best price for your home and sell it quickly.
Not Cleaning Everywhere
It’s tough to keep up with a house when you are living in it. Some areas like the kitchen and bathroom also have special considerations. Hiring professional cleaners might cost, but it means you can spend your time on other important projects only you can do, such as decluttering and packing up your most important items.
Not Decluttering Everywhere
Clutter gets you less money for your home. And we don’t just mean an untidy kitchen or family room. Prospective buyers and property surveyors are likely to look everywhere to make sure the house is worth the asking price. You will need to be able to throw open closets, cabinets, even drawers at a moment’s notice.
Decluttering will involve prioritizing what you want to keep and what has to go. Whatever you keep needs to stay neat, or be put into storage so your house is staged well and not crammed full. Not packing every inch of your closets will make what storage space you do have look larger.
Leaving Out Too Many Personal Things
A lot of people think they should leave up all their photos, awards and more, thinking it will impress prospects with how homey the place is. The truth, however, is that your buyer needs to picture their own things in the house, and put their own mark on it. Put all your treasures and keepsakes away and clear the tops of dressers, desks and more.
Not Redecorating in Neutral Colours
Some people create a showcase home to be proud of, with strong colors, wall stencils and other accents. The trouble is that not everyone has the same tastes, so terracotta or Wedgwood blue rooms, for example, really need to be painted over. Prospects might reject a house simply on the basis of wall color. Some Buyers will reject a home on the grounds that they don’t want a house they will have to do a lot to before they move in. Neutal colours always win!
While many people don’t think there’s much they can do about their purple sofa, throw covers and curtains in a neutral color can freshen up the look of a room and cover over anything prospects feel is not to their taste. Ottawa Property Gals have lots of staging items to make things look fresh!
Not Doing All of the Main Repairs Needed on the House
Once you decide to sell, it’s time to tackle your to-do list. You can’t afford for a prospective buyer or a property surveyor to discover anything they might find fault with. Again, you don’t want them to think it is a "fixer-upper" that will require a lot of work before they can move in. You also don’t want them to have any small reasons to try to haggle over the price.
Not Paying Attention to the Flooring
It's a good idea to replace any stained carpet and carpeting in heavily-trafficked areas. Consider wood flooring and area rugs. They are warm and inviting looking, and are also good for people who have house-related allergies.
Allowing the Bookshelves to Appear Too Crammed
Take out most of the books and leave a tasteful display of them, as well as a few knick-knacks to add interest to the room.
Not Having a Plant- Real or Fake
Green brings freshness to a room. It can brighten a room cheaply and has a huge impact!
Keeping the Rooms Too Dark
Allow plenty of natural light into the rooms. Don’t opt for a lot of heavy curtains or keep the blinds closed. You can even remove some window treatments to let the light in.
Avoid these common mistakes, and your staged home will be much more appealing to prospective buyers.
Home Repairs That Give Sellers a High Return
There are a number of home repairs that can give a return on investment of at least 50% of the value in terms of cost and effort. Here are some areas you can win big, mostly with just a small change.
1. Painting where the home could feel more fresh and clean makes a huge impact.
2. Repainting or replacing the front door with a fresh coat of paint could be just what you need to perk up the front of the house and make it look more welcoming. If the door is very weathered, or looks old-fashioned, consider a modern new door with upper glass panels to help let light in, and modern locks that can help your home stay secure.
3. New numbers for the door If the numbers are old and look weather-beaten are a cheap way to perk things up.
4. A new desk can add to the beauty, value and desirability of a home. Especially right now with more people looking to work from home and needing home office’s.
5. Landscaping can perk up any lawn or garden.
6. Perk up your patio Clean the tiles and get rid of any weeds. Add some inexpensive furniture or arrange what you have, to make it inviting.
7. Buyers coming at all hours of the day and night make lighting important. An inviting garden path and home entryway that is well lit and looks welcoming can help them feel like they are coming home. Purchasing a new modern inexpensive light fixture or changing the original lights in the bathroom can give a big return.
8. Master bedrooms that have nice neutral color schemes that is warm and inviting for both genders can be a huge selling fixture.
9. Update the kitchen! Give your cabinets a facelift, such as new handles or doors. Newer appliances could really improve your home value as well.
10. Update the bathroom A new toilet seat, shower curtain, and matching linens and mat can give the room a whole new look. Consider replacing an old vanity unit in a small room with a pedestal sink.
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