Download Your Home Seller’s Guide & Checklist
Now that you have decided to sell your Seattle-area home; perhaps the overwhelm is setting in… you’re probably asking yourself “Where should I start?” This is a common reaction when people face the potentially overwhelming prospect of a move. Take a look out our home seller tips and checklist so you can get ready to sell your house.
Thinking About Selling?
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Download This Step-By-Step Guide On The Home Sale Process
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Let’s Get Started Preparing Your Home For Sale
Here are a few guidelines to follow to get your home sold Faster and for MORE MONEY! 😊.
Hi, I’m Emily Cressey with HomePro Associates at HomeSmart in Seattle and grew up in Lake Forest Park, WA near Shoreline, WA and have been involved in millions of dollars of real estate transactions. If you’re feeling overwhelmed about the idea of selling your home: I UNDERSTAND!
I have found that by having a plan to follow, you can better prepare your home for those house hunters that are desperate to find a home these days!
Watch these videos to help answer many of the most common questions and concerns, and then call my office for an appointment.
Four Home Seller Tips To Help Prepare Your Home For Sale
Whether or not it’s your first time selling your home, here 4 Tips To Selling Your Home that ANY Seattle Home Seller can benefit from to help prepare their home to show well!
Home Selling Checklist For Inside The House:
#1) De-Clutter and Deep Clean that house! This can be a long process, but the sooner you start, the better. You have to pack anyway, so you might as well start putting away the things you wont need for a few months and open up your space.
Take a really good look at each room, and pack up anything that you wont need for the next few months. This includes any personal items, including pictures, your kids artwork from the fridge and trophies or personal collections & display items.
Next, you want to make sure that your home is sparkly clean, so it photographs like a model home on pinterest. If youre not a great cleaner, we can have it professionally cleaned right before it goes on the market, so (fingers crossed! ) youll only have to keep it that way for a week or two if it sells quickly!
Remember, when a buyer sees a dirty home, they feel that the home may not have been well-maintained and we dont want to give buyers any reason to look elsewhere or lower their offer.
Help your home shine by cleaning the walls, cabinets and especially the kitchen and bathroom. Pay special attention to the grout in your shower and tile.
#2) Finish Those Fix-Up Projects: Next, Check your “Honey-Do” list and make sure you finish any little projects around the house that you haven’t taken care of yet. This could be fixing a closet door, a dripping faucet, washing the windows, or changing dead light bulbs. Be SURE that structural or mechanical items are in working order and recently serviced – things like your furnace and water heater, for example.
#3) Paint and Carpet: If your home hasn’t had a fresh coat of paint on those walls for a while, you may want to consider painting. Although YOU may really like that purple kitchen, it may make your kitchen look like a cave to a prospective buyer. These are some great tips for the inside of your home to help it show its best when you’re ready to sell.
I ALSO want you to think about creating a great first impression for buyers when they arrive at your house, which brings me to:
#4) CURB APPEAL! To learn more about this and for more practical steps to you need to think about when selling, just keep reading!
Following these steps will help you sell your home faster and for more money. For more information, feel free to call us or fill out the form at the bottom of this page. We are your Seattle, Everett and Bellevue Washington real estate experts! And remember we’re here to serve!
Home Selling Checklist For Outside The House:
So… you’re thinking about putting your home on the market, and you want to make sure you’re going to get the BEST return on your investment, right!?! Let’s Talk About How Curb Appeal Creates A Strong First Impression! These tips will help!!
I know: Selling homes is second nature to me as I’ve been involved in real estate for 18 years, but some sellers I’ve talked to are nervous about selling – OF COURSE YOU ARE! Selling Your Home Is A Big Deal!
So, let’s talk about how you can make sure your home makes a GREAT positive impact on buyers when they first see it. In the real estate biz we call this “Curb Appeal.”
How your home looks when buyers first roll up gives them an emotional “gut sense” of what your house will be like. This is when they decide if they “love it” or not.
So drive up to your house and pause and see how it looks… is it dark? Is it dirty? Is it overgrown? Is there moss on the roof? Fix it: Get some solar powered outdoor lights, hire a landscaper to tidy up the yard and have someone clean your roof and gutters.
If you see mud and mildew everywhere, consider power washing the pavement, but don’t go overboard, cranked up all the way those power washers can do some damage. Hint: Do not power wash your siding on the “high” setting!
Next, pretend you’re the buyer parked in the driveway and walk up to your front door. This is where buyers hang out, waiting with anticipation.
As an agent, it takes a few seconds for me to open a lockbox, and this gives the buyer a chance to really look at your entryway while they are waiting. Take a moment to make sure there isn’t any peeling paint on the door or cobwebs around the lights. Think about some nice potted plants, or an outdoor chair or bench to make this area inviting.
Now This One Might Surprise You – Do You Need A Home Inspection When You SELL Your Home?
Should you do a home inspection if you are selling your home, PRIOR to putting it on the market?
I know there’s so much to think about when you want to sell your home: it’s hard to decipher what to or not to do. Now that you’ve spent time preparing your home for sale, why should you worry about a Home Inspection? I’ll tell you why.
The home inspection on your home is just as important as your contract offer. Almost every buyer whose contract is accepted will do a Home Inspection, even their lender will recommend that they get one. The home inspection is designed to evaluate the general condition of your home and all of its mechanical systems.
This inspection can either make or break your deal, so spending a little time on some of these issues BEFORE your home goes under contract will save you time and money in the end. Also, knowing what repairs that may come up and the cost to fix them will help give you a better understanding of what your true proceeds will be.
Let’s look at the major issues that often come up on a home inspection checklist:
#1 Electrical Issues – Make sure that all outlets, GFCIs, and switches work and replace any broken outlet covers. Also, replace burned out light bulbs to avoid a negative observation like “Light is inoperable” on the report that may suggest an electrical problem.
#2 Water and Plumbing – make sure you don’t have any leaky faucets or signs of leaking under your cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms or on outside spigots.
#3 Heating and Air Conditioning Systems – Clean or replace dirty HVAC air filters. They should fit securely.
#4 Test smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and replace dead batteries. In Washington State, this is required when you sell your home.
#5 Attend to broken or missing items like doorknobs, locks and latches; window panes, screens and locks; gutters, roof tiles, downspouts and chimney caps.
#6 – Decay, rot and mildewing items; these include Dry Rot. Dry rot often occurs around door frames on exterior doors or on the siding of homes. This is common in that they are older and/or have a lot of sun exposure, but it can be easily addressed. Also, be sure to remove stored items, debris and wood from underneath the home in the crawl space. These may be cited as “conducive conditions” for termites or they very well may already have termites on them. Also, be sure to trim any tree limbs within 10 ft of the house.
#7 Doors – make sure that all of your doors open, close and lock easily. Garage doors must also have working safety features like sensors. When you want to sell your home, this is a must for most buyers and their lenders.
Lastly, #8 Recaulk around tubs, showers and countertops in bath rooms and countertops in kitchens. Checking these areas before your home inspection is an investment in selling your property. Your real estate agent will thank you! For any clarification of these items, feel free to call us here at HomePro Associates or fill out our contact form on this page so we can be in touch with you. If you’re thinking about selling your home, we are your local experts. Let us know how we can best serve you.
Let’s Get You Started Planning Your Home Sale
Clearly there’s plenty to do when it comes to getting your home ready to sell. But good news. You don’t have to do it all alone.
As full-service real estate professionals, we can help you at any stage in the process.
- Need recommendations to local vendors?
- Need help coordinating repairs?
- Need help deciding WHICH repairs to do and which to skip?
- Need to get those repairs financed?
- Maybe you just want to sell your house as-is and not mess with any of it.
- Or maybe you want to learn more about our fast cash offer program.
No matter the situation you find yourself in as you approach the sale of your home, we are happy to guide, support and implement many steps of the process for you.
