How to Prepare Your Home for Sale

What can you do to catch the eye of a potential buyer? First impressions are important. So get your home into shape for the market. If you have the funds, hire a contractor to come in and fix up the place. If you don't have the money you can do it yourself.

So what is needed to prepare you house for a buyer? Here are some of the things you should do or have done:

Exterior

The outside of your house should catch the buyer's eye. It should look amazing. The outside of the house is the first thing a person sees and first impressions can make or break the deal. When a potential buyer walks into the front yard of the house, they should not only be awed by the sight of it, but also by the smell. You should have flowers, trees and grass. All these things give not only a fresh colorful look to your home but they also give the same feeling when you smell them.

Here are some tips to help your front yard look great:

Cut the grass. Not only does the grass look nice and short but it also has that freshly cut grass smell. Make sure you water the grass and all the plants.

Prune all your trees and shrubs. Make them all nice and tidy with no dead branches or leaves.

Clean the side walk in front of your house, if you have one. Pull any weeds from around its edges. Adding flowers around it is a nice touch also.

Be sure to clean all your windows and doors and paint the outside of the house if needed. If you have a fence, make sure it is in good condition and freshly painted or stained.

Don't leave any miscellaneous items lying around, like your child's bike or your lawnmower. Every thing should be very tidy.

Interior

Once you've hooked your potential buyer with the amazing exterior of your home, you mustn't disappoint him or her with a low quality interior. You have to keep that good impression up once they walk into the home. They should feel at home when they walk into your house. Be sure to:

Replace any bad tiles or flooring. Your floors should be clean and shine. Your carpets should have no stains on them and should be freshly shampooed so that they feel soft on the feet and smell good.

Your ceilings and walls should be freshly painted or if you have wall paper then it should also be newly replaced. If you have trim on your walls then you should paint those too.

If you have any furniture in the house, it should look really good. If it doesn't, move it out before showing the house.

Closets, garage and basement should all be very clean and freshly painted if needed.

Your windows and sliding glass doors should be very clean.

If anything in the house needs fixing, have it fixed before showing the house. Leaky sinks, rusted bathtubs, holes in the wall, leaks in the ceiling, etc.

Test

Have someone, like a family member or a friend, come to your house and look at it as if they were a potential buyer. Ask them if it feels cozy and if there is anything about the house that they didn't like. Note there observations and use them to better the look of your home.