If you’re thinking about selling your Seattle area home, it’s a good idea to start researching tips for selling your home in advance. Your house represents a huge investment, and in order for it to sell for the most money possible (we all want to maximize your profits on the home sale) you’ll want to make sure it shows well in comparison to other Seattle homes your potential buyers may be considering.
You know that when you sell your home, you have to make it as appealing to buyers as possible. But that’s not always an easy task when there are other homes in the neighborhood with similar – or even the same – features. Although most homes in Seattle are not in giant uniform developments, neighborhoods tend to be developed during the same general time period, and are frequently similar to their neighbors in terms of square footage, layout and yard size.
Your job as a Seattle home seller, then becomes making your home stand out from all the others that may be very much the same. You will, of course, need a good real estate agent to help you accomplish that, but there’s much you can do on your own. So let’s take a look at 5 tips for selling your home so you can make your house stand out from the competition in Seattle.
Tips For Selling Your Home #1:
De-Clutter and Clean (… And Keep It Clean!)
Even though decluttering and cleaning should be standard elements of prepping for a sale, many people, for whatever reason, neglect to do it or don’t do it well, especially if they are still living in the home instead of selling a vacant property which you can clean once and then leave it more or less alone. So, yes, something as simple as decluttering and cleaning can help you make your house stand out in Seattle.
Here’s why you should declutter. “Excessive clutter makes a home look dirty and small, neither of which are selling points. If you have a significant amount of things with nowhere to put them, consider getting a storage unit for your stuff until the sale is complete and you have moved into your new home. And the garage, basement and attic are not appropriate places to store clutter. Buyers want space in all areas of the home.” You can store neat and tidy boxes ready to move in the garage or basement, but if the place looks like your car or your work shop exploded and left body parts all around the room, you need to get those spaces cleaned as well.
Cleaning and keeping your house clean are just as important as decluttering, especially now in the COVID-19 era. A dirty cluttered home is simply not appealing to buyers, but a tidy, spotless one is. So if you want to make your Seattle house stand out, you may need to hire professional cleaners to do a deep clean. And, then, be sure to keep your home clean. Many sellers fail to do this, so you’ll be ahead of the game.
Tips For Selling Your Home #2:
Fix the Small Things
When sellers come to your house and notice little things are not maintained or well taken care of, they start to wonder about your ability to take care of the big things, too. You know, like the roof and foundation! (Eek!)
Since a lot of home sellers in Seattle overlook these small items, one great way to stand out in Seattle is to fix/repair/upgrade all the little things. They may not seem like much to you – in fact, you may not even notice them anymore – but buyers will definitely notice them.
Here are some things that you might notice around your house and could easily repair with a dedicated weekend or a handyman who you could pay to go through this type of “Honey Do List.”
Fix These Things Around The House
- That smudged place on the wall where your cat likes to rub his face.
- The broken doorknob that wiggles when you pull out the bathroom drawer.
- The leaky sink: drip, drip, drip.
- The mildew stain between the tiles in the bathroom.
- The toilet that’s always running when the kids don’t flush right.
- Dead spots on the lawn.
- The hole in the drywall where your son had the little crash.
- The cracked tile in the kitchen.
According to the pros, “You may have been meaning to get to all of them, but you just haven’t. Well, now is the time. The more polish you can put on your home through little repairs, the more appealing it will be. One of the best things you can do is walk around each room in your home looking at all the imperfections. Try to be a home buyer for a moment and think through their eyes. The more things you can scratch off the list the better.”
Many small items like this are considered “cosmetic” and won’t necessarily come up on your buyer’s home inspection. Nevertheless, it is important that they be done because it give the buyer confidence in the maintenance of the bigger (but harder to see) components of the home. Home buyers are afraid of making a mistake or buying a lemon. Small problems tell them, at a subconscious level, that this home may be falling apart and they don’t want an part of it.
Besides making your house stand out, performing these minor repairs and upgrades will yield the best return on investment at sale time. Consult your local agent for tips on fixes that will give you the most bang for your buck. Find out more by calling (206) 578-3438.
Tips For Selling Your Home #3.
Improve Curb Appeal
If you really want to make your house for sale stand out in Seattle, WA, you have to make sure it looks good to buyers when they first pull up in your driveway. You have only one critical chance to create a great first impression, and curb appeal does that.
Buyers see that outside of your home first, so you have to make sure the lawn and house exterior are in tip-top shape. Improving curb also yields a good return on time and money invested because it can increase your home’s value. When it comes to real estate, people do judge a book by the cover.
Tips For Selling Your Home #4. Depersonalize and Neutralize
Another great way to make your Seattle home stand out is by making it look less like your home. Your goal should be to create a blank canvas effect so that buyers can envision your house as their home. You want the prospective home buyers to be able to visualize the house filled with their belongings and to imagine themselves living there.
The first step in this area, then, is to depersonalize. Remove all objects and adornments that stamp the home with your personality – family photos, weird colors, doll collections, and so on.
“You don’t want your house to be null,” industry pros advise, “but it should be blank enough for your visitors to imagine imbuing with their personality. In that spirit, colors and furniture should be neutral, along the lines of brownish, beige, grey, with no extravagant elements that steal the show and get stuck in people’s minds.”
Tips For Selling Your Home #5. Listen to Your Agent
Finally, and perhaps most important, you need to listen to your agent if you want to make your house stand out in Seattle in order to beat out the competition. A qualified local agent with a good sales track record will know exactly what it takes to make your home stand out – in your area with its unique requirements. Find out today how our agents can help you accomplish this goal. Just give us a call at (206) 578-3438 or send us a message!
