Preparing Your Home for Sale (Without Breaking the Bank)
Preparing your luxury home for sale is no small undertaking. Unfortunately, many of us don’t know where to start. Here’s the good news: you can get your home ready for sale without spending a month’s salary on a design expert. Here are four tips from Lucrum Real Estate Group to help you get started.
Hire a Real Estate Agent
You have a job and a family to tend to, and chances are you’re not in the real estate business. That means two things: 1) you can’t dedicate very much time to selling your home, and 2) you don’t really know how to sell it.
When preparing your home for sale, make sure to discuss your options with a Lucrum real estate agent, a team that’s experienced in working with luxury homes in Southern California. Our experts will steer your preparations in important ways, and we have invaluable insight into what is working in your part of the market as well as what isn’t working. By having that objective opinion, you can set yourself up for the most success.
Affordable Ways to Declutter
When a buyer visits your home, it should be spotless and clutter-free. The good news is that you don’t need much for this phase of preparations, just some boxes, storage bins, and a plan. Often, you can find moving boxes up for grabs on community sites like Nextdoor, while retail stores like Target sell attractive storage options that will hold excess items and act as decor for your spaces. Before you shop, look for Target coupons and discount codes to help keep your costs down.
Begin by writing down all the rooms in your house and make a list of clutter hotspots. In the kitchen, for example, many people use the island or kitchen table as a dumping ground for mail. Use your hotspots as a starting point. These are the most cluttered spots of any room, so working on them will automatically make the room appear much cleaner.
Then dig into cleaning. You’ll find with your extra belongings out of the way, this is a simpler undertaking. If it’s too much to take on, you can always hire a professional service to tackle it on your behalf.
Easy Ways to Depersonalize
Depersonalizing your home is the art of taking the home out of your house. You want buyers to see your house as their potential home rather than your home. If they see too much of your style and mementos, they have a hard time envisioning themselves in the house.
The good news is that depersonalization isn’t as hard as it sounds. The easiest place to start is photos and personal memorabilia. They’ll need to be packed before moving anyway, so this is the perfect time to put them into storage.
From there, take a look at your overall decor. The Spruce recommends painting the walls with a neutral palette for a sophisticated look that is easy to work with, and from there you can remove any decorations that are distracting. If you have any wallpaper or wall treatments, update them or remove them altogether.
Staging Your Home for Photos and Open Houses
From there, you’re ready to start staging your home. If you’ve already cleaned, decluttered, and depersonalized, you’ve already covered the first few steps of staging your home. You have two primary concerns in staging your home: lighting and space.
If your home is dim, add extra light fixtures, brighter bulbs, and open or remove your window coverings. As for space, arranging your furniture to create ample flow and room for movement will make your luxury home feel even more open and spacious.
Your Home’s Future Buyer is Out There
Remember, there is a perfect buyer for your property. Your home just has to be ready to meet them. These tips will help you get a good start in the right direction.
For assistance with buying or selling a luxury property, contact the Lucrum Real Estate Group today!