Are you considering selling your home? We created this blog to help people just like you. 19 years experience at Hoffman Homes Tucson has given us insights into all aspects of the home selling and buying experience.
Here are some equity boosting tips that have helped us when trying to sell a house for our clients, with successful results! This article is really about first impressions and how to get the best of them.
Keep in mind that we have a list of vendors we can refer to help you get your home ready. Need a house cleaner, a painter, a roofer, an estate sale company, or a landscaper? We got it! Just let us know. So get out your pen and paper and let’s get started!
Curb Appeal
Home buyers are very attentive as they approach their possible future home. You’ll want to be sure to keep the exterior of your house and yard looking its best at all times. This includes trimming trees, keeping landscaping manicured, and cleaning windows inside and out. Make sure any leaves or dead shrubs or disturbed rocks are tidied up on a daily basis.
A good landscaper can make cost effective improvements too, such as replenishing rocks where there are bald spots, repairing walkways, power washing walls, and clearing out weeds and growing things that are not part of your original landscaping design. Remove personal “stuff” from the yard as much as possible.
And don’t forget cosmetic items on the structure of your home, like damaged fascia, touch up paint, or cracked and missing roof tiles. Yes, the roof is as important to curb appeal as your front door step. The condition of your roof can be seen a block away!
When venturing to sell a house they’ve lived in for years, homeowners often think that structural things like the roof will not become an issue until they have an offer and it’s time for the home inspection. However, it’s amazing how much of a roof you can see when driving into a neighborhood. Get a roof inspection and repair visibly cracked or missing roof tiles.
First impressions not only apply to a block away, the driveway, and the front door, they also apply to every room in your home.
Good Smell
It’s often said that context, in communication, is everything. True. And strangely enough, smells also require context.
For example, everyone loves to be invited to a great home cooked meal. Nothing creates more mouth watering expectation than walking up to your host’s front door and catching the scent of a dinner prepared just for you. In contrast, imagine yourself walking into a business meeting or an interview and catching the aroma of what an employee just cooked up in the microwave. It’s off putting to say the least.
Same is true in the context of a potential buyer walking into a home. In this context, the scent should communicate that no one lives here. Remember, you want this to be their home. Make it “new” to your potential home buyer with the least amount of scents possible.
Avoid covering over existing smells with those air fresheners, even in the bathroom. If your home is going to smell like anything, it should have that new house smell. What exactly is a new house smell? Fresh paint and carpet and a sense of deep cleanliness.
Deep Clean
Best way to create that clean and fresh, non lived-in smell is to do a deep clean. Clean your home like it’s never been cleaned before. Floors, counter tops, mirrors, bathrooms and shower tiles. Anything that has a visible stain and can be removed, should be removed. High powered steamers are great for this as they not only break down years of greasy grime and dirt, they also sanitize bad smells away with no harsh chemical cleaning smell left behind.
A good guide would be to walk into a high end multi business building with high end conference suites. These places usually have top of the line cleaning practices. You’ll notice a clean smell but you can’t quite smell what they cleaned with. It’s just…. Clean! That’s what you’re aiming for. So, get those carpets professionally steam cleaned if you can or replace them in really bad cases.
Cosmetic First Impressions
As we said above, first impressions not only apply to a block away, the driveway, and the front door, they also apply to every room in your home.
Make sure each room has drywall holes repaired and touched up with paint. Anything that stands out should be remedied. If you have strange and odd colors because your 9 year old wanted space rangers on the walls, best to cover over that with an inexpensive fresh coat of pain with a neutral color.
With this tip, you get two benefits. You remove any eye-soars and get the new house scent you’re looking for.
Kitchen
Last but certainly not least, the most important room in the home, the kitchen! You cannot over deep-clean your kitchen. The refrigerator, oven, microwave, sinks, walls, cabinet surfaces and windows should be nearly spotless.
Declutter your kitchen as much as possible. Downsize your kitchen utensils and counter top appliances to the bare minimum. Whatever you can live without, pack up and put away. Make sure you can see as much of the counter top space as possible. That means keeping dirty dishes cleared away at all times during showing hours. Decluttering is so important, we wrote a whole article on How to Declutter before You Sell Your Home.
Be sure to remove left overs and unsightly open food containers in the refrigerator, cupboards and pantry. Most home buyers will understand that you still live there and having a few items in these places will not mean losing the sale. The important thing is to create a kitchen environment where a potential buyer would be happy to move in without worrying about doing their own deep cleaning.
Why go through all of this to sell a house?
In this market, we have found that in many cases buyers will pay between 5% to 10% more than appraised value because of the emotional reaction they get from a property that overwhelms them with the urge to buy. By following these steps and taking advantage of our expertise, you can get top dollar for your home and move on with confidence.
Are you in a rush and don’t have time to handle all of these details or no longer live in Tucson? Erica and Josh at Hoffman Homes Tucson can handle all of these details for you. We love to see our clients get the most out of their hard earned equity.
