7 Home Prep Tips to Sell Your House Fast

Are you listing your home for sale? Then you will love these simple home prep tips that will help to sell your house fast! The best part is, they are all tasks that you can do yourself… And friendly on the wallet too!  

There are a lot of moving parts when selling a home. If you’re selling a home in Winter Garden, Florida the Erica Diaz Team would love to partner with you to help sell your house faster. While we take care of the aspects of selling a house that real estate agents know best. You can tackle these 7 home prep tips that will play a huge part in helping to sell your house faster!

Touching your house up so it is ready to be sold does not have to be a huge challenge! It might take a bit of time and little money, but at the end of the day, it will all pay off when closing day comes. 

Do These Pro Tips to Sell Your Home Faster

1. Deodorize Your Home

We’ve listed this as number one for a reason! When potential buyers open the door to step inside a home, they are first greeted by your home’s smell. This may sound a little silly because yes, they can see into the home once they open the door, but the first of their 5 senses that is stimulated, is their sense of smell. While you may enjoy the sent of your home, it may not be someone else’s cup of tea. Especially if any animals live inside the home. There are many scents that are not appealing to everyone.

A few quick and easy steps to deodorize a home are:

• Steam clean the carpets! This one task alone will make a huge difference. Carpets hold in every day smells and a deep cleaning will freshen them right up. There’s a bonus to cleaning the carpets too… They will look fresh and inviting as well (the only thing worse than stinky carpet is gross looking carpet!)
• Open the windows and let the fresh air work its magic. A fresh breeze taking a whirl throughout a home will help to remove stagnant odors.
• Take it easy on the added scents! While it might be tempting to light a candle in every room, some people are sensitive or even allergic to air fresheners, candles and room sprays. Not to mention not everyone likes lavender, vanilla, rose, or whatever your go to fragrance may be. Instead diffuse essential oils that have a natural, more mellow scent like eucalyptus. Baking a quick batch of cookies in the kitchen is also a good way to make the house feel like a home. Be mindful though so you don’t accidentally burn them because that smell will linger for a while and is not appeasing.
• Deep clean bathrooms and the kitchen. These areas of the home are where a lot of yucky smells like to hang out. Make sure all the nooks and crannies are cleaned in order to get rid of unpleasant smells.

2. Pressure Wash

We took you inside the home for number one, but now let’s head back outside. They say not judge a book by its cover, but that principle does not apply to houses. Curb appeal is super important when selling a home. It’s literally a buyers first in-person impression of the home (they may have previously viewed the home online.) A home can begin to look dingy after years of rain, mildew, mold, dirt, and mud making their mark. You might not even notice that it’s happening since it takes place over time. However, a quick pressure wash and things will look good as new!

Some key areas to pressure wash are:

• Exterior Paint
• Gutters
• Driveway
• Sidewalks
• Fencing

3. Take Your Personality Out of the Home

This can be a tricky one. You love your home and everything that you’ve done to it… But as you’re getting ready to part ways it is a good idea to turn your home into a more generic space. That doesn’t mean that you are taking all the uniqueness and personality out, rather, you are creating a blank canvas and making it easy for potential buyers to picture themselves in the home.

Easy ways to depersonalize a home:

• Take down family photos because they tend to remind buyers that it’s someone else’s home and distracts them from envisioning their own photos on the wall.
• Do you have a family pet? While you may LOVE them, potential home buyers typically prefer to not see all of their items around the house. So pick up their toys and even move their beds and crates (at least for showings.)
• Remove sports memorabilia, and other “favorite” items that are specific to your likings.
• If you have kids, there’s probably art work displayed throughout your home as well. This should be taken down too.

4. Declutter

While this might seem similar to depersonalizing your home, it is a bit different. This time we are touching on those pesky piles of paper that tend to stack up on the kitchen counter and the piles of stuffed animals that are in the corner of your child’s room. A good rule of thumb for decluttering is to remove absolutely everything that does not need to be on the counter, in bedrooms and in bathrooms. When you remove the clutter from a room (including extra furniture) it opens-up the space, making it big, beautiful, and bright.

Simply think of this as pre-packing! It’s like getting a head start on your own packing and you’ll even be able to get rid of things that don’t need to move with you to your new place!

Decluttering tips:

• Go through each room of the house one at a time. Make a pile of things to get rid of (donate or sale) and a pile of keep (but pack them away.) You can donate the get rid of pile to a local charity and those piles will quickly be gone for good. Then for the pile that is keep you can pack up boxes and put them in a storage unite.
• Shredder time! Papers tend to add up quick, so now is the perfect time to go through all of those piles and shred the papers you no longer need. The ones you do need to hang on to go ahead and add them to a file box or somewhere else, just as long as they are off the kitchen counters.
• Take all the magnets off of the refrigerator.
• All surfaces need to be clear of clutter, knick knacks, and any object that is not essential. Countertops, vanities, desks, tables, nightstands, dressers, etc should be clear.

5. Fresh Paint

A coat of fresh paint can do wonders for a home. Over time, walls, baseboards, doors and door frames become dingy. Luckily it’s a fairly easy task and worth every penny. A quick touch up can make a real difference in the way your home is perceived. Clean walls show that the home was well taken care of! Not to mention it will be one less thing the potential buyer would have to address after moving in.

Let’s touch a little on color too. If you have a dark, loud or playful color on the walls, it’s a good idea to pick a different color when painting to sell your home. We suggest going with a light neutral color throughout the home. This color choice is typically a safe bet because it will go with most peoples style. 

If you have recently painted your home and it is a neutral color, then a quick few quick touchups will do.

6. Tackle all the Little Maintenance Projects

Every homeowner has a running to-do list of maintenance tasks that need tending to. While they may not be top priority when living in the home, they should be focused on when it comes time to sell your house faster. Many times potential buyers are looking for a move-in ready home that provides them with the biggest bang for their buck! While it may not seem like a big deal if there is fresh caulking around the tub, it can really make a difference for those viewing your home.

Some maintenance tasks we suggest are:

• Replace Lightbulbs – It may just be one little bulb in the kitchen… But it needs to be changed! When potential buyers are exploring a home, there’s nothing worse than flipping a light switch and a light is out. It instantly draws their attention away from the room. Plus this is so super simple, you can have all burnt out bulbs replaced in a snap of a finger.
• Fresh Strip of Caulking – This is another fairly simple and quick task to tackle that will have a huge impact on the aesthetics of your home. Nobody likes moldy bathrooms especially when they are potentially going to use them. Go through each bathroom and replace the caulking around the sinks and definitely in the tubs and showers. Then head to the kitchen and freshen it in there too! You’ll be amazed how nice it makes things.
• Tighten Loose Things – After being used over and over, it’s common for doorknobs and cabinets to become loose. Grab yourself a screw driver and make a trip throughout your home and give these things a quick tighten. Don’t forget about the wobbly outdoor fan too!

7. Clean, Clean & Clean to Sell Your House Faster

Make your way throughout your home and clean, clean, clean! A spick and span home is aesthetically pleasing to potential buyers. It makes the home feel fresh and well… CLEAN! We are not talking about a quick wipe down, but instead a thorough, deep clean. Make sure to get spots you might not typically include in your weekly cleaning session!

Add these to your cleaning list when trying to sell your house faster:

• Light Switches – These are one of those things that you rarely think about. Your hands just seem to know where they are and precisely where to hit without ever having to even look at them. Buyers, however, will be quick to notice if your light switches look… yucky. 
• Ceiling Fans –  These pesky things tend to be massive dust traps. You’ll definitely want to give them a good wipe down.
• Baseboards – Dust collects on these making them look dingy. Cleaning them is simple and really makes them pop!
• Windows – While it may be adorable when kids and pets look out the window, they sure leave hand and nose prints all over the glass.
• Shower Doors – Another glass surface that might need a little love is your shower doors! Soapy water tends to cake on there turning clear glass into a foggy mess. To make your bathrooms seem like they are brand new, clean shower doors are a must!

Erica Diaz Team – 7 Home Prep Tips to Sell Your House Fast

While you can leave all the real estate aspects of selling a home up to the Erica Diaz Team, it’s important to focus your attention on these 7 home prep tips that will help to sell your house fast. By doing each of these prior before your home is photographed, has an open house, or a regular showing will increase the likely hood of selling your house fast. 

If you are thinking of selling your house in Winter Garden, Florida or a surrounding area we would love to connect with you. It is our mission to sell your house fast and get you the most money.

Contact the Erica Diaz Team

: 407.951.9742 : info@ericadiazteam.com