When a prospective buyer walks into your home it "Showtime"!!! To enhance his/her perception, use the following list as a guide to maximize the benefits of your home.
Outside:
- Cut & edge the lawn weekly for a finished appearance
- Trim all shrubbery and remove low lying tree limbs
- Fertilize your lawn to make your grass look lush and green
- Plant flowers in the front yard
- Replace downed shutters, gutters, and downspouts. Remove debris from gutters and downspouts
- Paint any trim that is blistering
- Repaint or restain the front door to create a pleasant first impression
- Replace torn screens from windows and front and back doors
Inside
- Paint walls and woodwork where necessary
- Clean draperies and carpeting (stretch if loose)
- Fix any dripping faucets, perhaps only a washer is needed
- Replace old caulking around the bathtubs. This can be done with one tube of new caulking and a putty knife
- Spray lubricant on all squeaking doors, windows, closets, and cabinets
- Place a deoderizer in rooms where needed
- Store all out-of-season clothes so the closets don't have a cluttered look
- Remove items from the floors of walk-in closets so that prospects can have easy access
- Avoid too many appliances on the kitchen counter, put some of them away to expose maximum counter space
- Pre-pack items which may clutter your home. Extra toys in your child's room and knick-knacks may actually make your home appear smaller
- Clean your home from top to bottom. A professional cleaning service can do this for you (let me know if recommendations are needed)
- Wash windows
- Clean fans and ventilating hoods
- Clean and polish floors
- Remove stains from toilets, tubs and sinks
- Stack all items in the garage against the wall o show maximum floor space
- Clean the garage floors and rafters
- Make sure the garage door opener functions properly
For more information on anything Lake Texoma visit my website or contact me directly. Lainie Ramsey, Realtor, Century 21, Dean Gilbert Realtors 903-624-0688
Lainie Ramsey, Realtor with Keller Williams Realty
903-624-0688 Direct
866-279-2787 Toll Free
Lakefront Homes at Lake Texoma
Great tips. I would also suggest to the owners baking something smelling deliciously (like cookies) before a showing or an open house. Potential buyers are going to like that "sweet home" smell. Be careful with using deoderizer; sometimes it is too strong or unnatural, giving impression somebody wanted to cover some odor.
Good points! I personally am really big on smell!! Two smells I am very fond of are - Creamy Nutmeg home fragrance oil (used in an oil burner) from Bath & Body Works and Charleston from Lamberger. Love both of those smells and think they are great for showings!!
Lainie,
Great tips, I think it's more critical than ever with the amount of inventory to make your home stand out from the competition.
This is a great checklist Lainie! I am going to bookmark the page. It is so helpful to have a list because it is always easy to overlook something!
A new coat of mulch(it can be real thin if you have a good base of previous mulch) always looks great newly applied before a house is ready to go on the market.
Lannie,
More great suggestions for sellers. If we could only get them to buy into all of these.
What a great post and a good letter to send to sellers or put into a listing pack.