Six Things You Must Do Prior to Listing Your House for Sale

If you want to sell your house quickly, you have to be willing to work hard before you list it. It took me three months of detailed work to get my house ready to list. It was worth the effort, though, because it sold in just four days.

Check this list and learn from my experience.

Remove all personal effects from walls and other display areas.

Making the decision to sell your house can be hard, especially if you're attached to it. It's this attachment that often hinders folks when it comes to un-decorating their home.

With a sturdy box, a container of spackling paste and a spackle tool in tow, go room by room and remove family photos. As you take the framed photos off the wall, immediately spackle the nail holes. This will help you to not miss any holes when it comes to touching-up the walls.

Touch-up all painted surfaces.

This includes painted trim, doors and walls. You'll be surprised at how scuffed up these surfaces are, but won't necessarily be able to tell until you get close to them. Clean them first, then touch-up or repaint as necessary.

An uncommon, yet smart place to repaint is the interior of all closets and pantries. After years of abuse, they'll shine with a fresh coat of white paint and will be an impressive sight to future buyers.

Purge, purge, purge!

Purge your closets to make them look bigger. If it's spring, remove all fall and winter clothing, shoes and accessories. I sold my house in the spring, so I boxed all off-season clothing and stored it in the basement. An added bonus is that it starts the packing process.

Donate or sell everything you can in all storage areas. The idea is to remove clutter to make your house look bigger and cleaner. If you sell items, the proceeds can be put toward updating your home and/or moving expenses.

Purge your pantries, your cabinets, your drawers, your garage, your work bench - any surface that prospective buyers will see (yes, they open cabinets and drawers).

Organize everything.

Organized storage rooms, cabinets, drawers, closets and pantries tell the buyer that you care about every detail of your house and that you take good care of it.

Be detailed with what and how you organize: line-up shoes in closets, place under-sink toiletries in baskets, arrange labeled pantry products with the labels facing front. Be sensible and logical. It may seem silly, but it does make a difference to both Realtors and buyers.

Update your appliances.

We chose to update our appliances a couple of years prior to moving so we could enjoy them ourselves.

Tend to landscaping.

Curb appeal is very important. Go through every aspect of your grounds with a fine-tooth comb. Perform seasonal maintenance as necessary. If you know you will be listing your home in the spring, plant spring-blooming bulbs in the fall.

Flowering plants are great for curb appeal. Be smart with it, though. Plant annuals in urns and pots rather than in the ground so you can take them with you when you move.

These chores are definitely time-consuming, but well worth the investment. Realtors will see how easy your house is to show and this will translate well to the buyer. You'll be able to pat yourself on the back when the SOLD sign is staked in the front yard.

SOURCE: Personal Experience