Prepping and staging your house
Every seller wants their Gallatin TN home to sell fast and bring top dollar. Does that sound like you? Well, it's not luck that makes that brings top dollar for these homes for sale. It's careful planning and knowing how to professionally spruce up your home that will send Gallatin TN home buyers rushing for their checkbooks. Here is how to prepare a house and turn it into an irresistible and marketable home.
Disassociate Yourself With Your Home
- Tell yourself, "This is not my home; it is a house - a product to be sold much like a shirt on the clothing store shelf.
- Make the mental decision to "let go" of your emotions with the home and focus on the fact that soon this house will no longer be yours.
- Picture yourself handing over the keys to the new owners!
- Say goodbye to every room in your Gallatin TN home.
- Don't look back, always look toward the future.
De-Personalize Your Home
Pack up personal photographs and family heirlooms. Home buyers don't need to see personal articles, and you don't want the home buyer to be distracted. You want home buyers to imagine their own personal photos on the walls, and they can't do that if yours are there! You don't want any potential home buyer to ask, "What kind of people live in this home?" You want home buyers to say, "I can see myself living in this house."
De-Clutter Your Home
People collect an amazing quantity of stuff. Consider this: if you haven't used any item in over a year, you probably don't need it.
If you don't need it for your new home, why not donate it or throw it away?
- Remove books from bookcases.
- Pack up those little knickknacks.
- Take everything off of kitchen counters.
- Put essential items used daily in a small box that can be stored in a discrete place when not in use. Think of this as a head-start on the packing you will eventually need to do anyways.
Rearrange Bedroom Closets and Kitchen Cabinets
Home buyers love to snoop and will open closet and cabinet doors. Imagine the message it sends to potential home buyers if items fall out! Now imagine what a home buyer believes about you if they see everything organized and tidy. It says you probably took good care of the rest of the house as well.
This means:
- Alphabetize all of your spice jars.
- Neatly stack your dishes.
- Turn all of your coffee cup handles facing the same way.
- Hang shirts and pants together in closets, buttoned and facing the same direction.
- Line up shoes in closets.
Rent a Storage Unit
Almost every Gallatin TN home shows better with less furniture inside.
- Remove pieces of your furniture that block or hamper paths and walkways and put them into a storage unit.
- Since all of your bookcases are now empty, store them as well.
- Remove extra leaves from your dining room table to make the dining room appear larger.
- Leave just enough of your furniture in each room to showcase the room's purpose with plenty of room to move around.
- You don't want home buyers scratching their heads and wondering, "What is this room used for?"
Remove/Replace Favorite Items
- If you want to take some of the window coverings, appliances or fixtures with you, take them out now.
- If the chandelier in the dining room is an heirloom and once belonged to your great grandmother, take it down. If a home buyer never sees the chandelier, they won't want it. Once you tell a home buyer they can't have an item, they will covet it, and it could blow your deal.
- Pack all those items and replace them, if necessary.
Make Minor Repairs
- Replace cracked floor and/or counter tilesin bathrooms, kitchens and foyers.
- Patch holes and knicks in walls.
- Fix leaky faucets in kitchen and bathrooms.
- Fix doors that won't close properly and kitchen drawers that jam.
- Consider painting your walls neutral colors, especially if you they are purple or pink walls.(Don't give home buyers a reason to remember your home as "the house with the orange bathroom.")
- Replace light bulbs that have burned out.
- Considered replacing worn bedspreads.
Make the House Sparkle
- Wash all of the homes windows inside and out.
- Use a pressure washer and spray down sidewalks and exterior.
- Remove cobwebs.
- Re-caulk tubs, showers, sinks, backsplashes and trim.
- Polish chrome faucets and make mirrors streak free.
- Remaove all unneccessary items from the refrigerator.
- Vacuum each and every day.
- Wax all the floor floors.
- Dust all furniture, ceiling fan blades and light fixtures.
- Bleach dingy grout between tile.
- Replace worn out rugs.
- Hang up fresh towels in bathrooms.
- Consider using bathroom towels fastened with ribbon and bows.
- Clean and air out all musty smelling areas. Odors are a BIG no-no.
Scrutinize
- Go outside and open your front door to your Gallatin TN home. Stand there and ask yourself, do you want to go in and see what lies inside? Does the house welcome you inside?
- Look through the doorway of every single room and imagine how your Gallatin TN house will look to a home buyer.
- Examine carefully how all of your furniture is arranged and move pieces around until it makes sense.
- Make sure window coverings are hanging level.
- Tune yourself into the room's statement and its emotional pull. Does your room have impact and pizzazz?
- Does it look like nobody lives in this Gallatin TN house? If so, you're almost finished.
Check Curb Appeal
- If a home buyer buyer won't get out of the agent's car because they don't like the exterior of your Gallatin TN home, you'll never get them inside.
- Keep the sidewalks cleared and clean.
- Mow the lawn frequently.
- Freshen up the windows by painting faded window trim.
- Plant yellow flowers or group flower pots together outside your Gallatin TN home. The color yellow evokes a buying emotion.
- Trim your bushes and shrubs.
- Make sure potential home buyers can clearly read your house number.
