Winter Home Selling Checklist
utilize for any season of the year
Brent discusses how to get ready to sell your house while providing a checklist of items to your to-do list. Brent shares how to make your home inviting, show that it's cared for, and boost your curb appeal.
More of a reader? Catch the video transcript below!
Getting your home ready to sell? Here are a few things you’ll want to do.
We’re going to break it down into three categories.
1. Make your home inviting.
There are two things that are important here: we want to show that the home is cared for and boost curb appeal.
How do we make a home inviting? First, we want your home to be light, bright, clean, and airy. Things like opening windows, making sure that we replace any burnt-out lightbulbs, fixing little things that are broken around the house, depersonalizing (this means taking down your family photos and putting away your personal belongings), and giving each room a purpose.
What this does is it invites the buyer into the home in order to attract a high-quality buyer that’s looking for a high-quality property. Believe it or not, buyers really notice the little things like it being dark in your home or personal belongings - and this makes it more difficult for them to imagine themselves in the home.
2. Show that your home is well cared for.
The next thing you’ll want to do is show that your home is cared for and well-maintained. This involves things like cleaning vents, vacuuming, decluttering, organizing, and touching up paint.
We call things of this nature intelligent fixups - the minor things that you do to show the buyer that the home is cared for. When a buyer walks in, they subconsciously start a tally in their heads and we don’t want it to be a negative tally - even if it’s just minor stuff.
A buyer may think, “if the seller is disinterested in taking care of these little things, then what is their attitude when it comes to the big things?” They’ll start to get suspicious about your desire to maintain the house on a higher level, so it’s so important that you show them that it’s cared for.
3. Boost your curb appeal.
Next, you’ll want to make sure that your home is inviting at the curb. If a buyer gets out of their car and they get a bad vibe from the minute they step out, that negative tally starts in their head from the very beginning, and they’ll bring that negative mindset into the home.
So, to boost curb appeal, we do things like pressure wash outdoor surfaces, clean the windows, tidy up the landscape, sweep the porch and driveway, ensure there’s no debris in walkways, remove cobwebs, and things of that nature.
From the moment they first pull up to the home, we want them thinking, “wow, what a cute house on a cute street!” instead of, “oh, I see that tree over there drops a ton of leaves in the driveway…” or “I’m gonna have to replace that broken porch light. And why do they still have their Halloween decorations up around Christmas?”
Again, we don’t want to make the wrong first impression that causes the buyer to enter the home with a negative mindset.
We know that When you show a buyer that your home is well cared for, they’ll start imagining themselves in the space.
This increases the likelihood of a buyer writing an offer.
At the end of the day, selling your home is about two things: maximizing your bottom line as the seller, and creating the maximum amount of certainty that this home is going to sell.
Little things like making your home brighter and more inviting, showing that you really care about the maintainance of your home, and investing in your curb appeal can make a huge difference in your bottom line.
If one buyer is excited about your property, it’s likely that the next party will be as well - resulting in more eyes on the property, more positive feedback, more offers, and potentially more money!
If you’re selling a home in San Diego, we’d love to work with you!
Even if you don’t live in the area, make sure that you’re working with a team that knows the value of the big things and the little things when selling a home. We don’t want you going and spending tens of thousands to get your home ready to list - the small changes make the biggest impact!
Brent Edwards (aka Brent the Broker) is a residential real estate agent and Realtor in San Diego, CA who helps clients buy and sell homes in San Diego, California and all surrounding areas. Brent is a highly-recommended Realtor in San Diego by family, friends and past clients. Call Brent today at 619-550-8070 if you have any questions about real estate in San Diego or you'd like to buy or sell a home.
