Three Suggestions for Preparing Your Home for Sale

Getting your home ready to go on the market can be an intimidating task. The prep work is usually rushed, demanding, and typically requires a lot of old-fashioned hard work. This is especially the case if you're like most sellers and get your home ready for sale a week or two before putting it on the market.

Plan ahead
Get your "honey-do's" out of the way in small chunks. Doing everything at the last minute is a recipe for disaster. Create a list of things that need to be fixed now, and get to them a weekend at a time every few months. By dedicating small chunks of time here and there to do a few tasks throughout the year before putting your home up for sale, you will be saving yourself a lot of headaches when it comes time to actually sell. Not only will you feel more prepared, but you won't be as rushed to get things fixed, and you'll do a far better job.

The front yard
If you know in the fall that you might be selling in the spring, be sure to plant bulbs in the fall so you'll have some beautiful blooms come springtime. Many homeowners focus so much on decorating the home itself that they forget that the yard will be the first thing that potential buyers will see when they pull up. A green, well-tended lawn will go a long way toward giving buyers a favorable impression and the idea that your house is the right one for them.

Minor repairs
If you hire a handyman or contractor as part of your fix-up campaign, you can save money by getting the work done in the off season. In the summer many contractors will be booked, or have higher rates. Painters, for example, are really busy during summer months. Negotiating a painting contract during winter or fall will allow you to get your home painted for a better price. This will always be true for the interior work, and surprisingly so for the outside too, except for the most severe climates. The same goes for heating and air conditioning contractors and the rental of storage space.

Using these easy tips, and with some simple planning, you can do a better job of preparing your home for sale without driving yourself crazy.

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