If you’re trying to prepare your home for sale, chances are you’d love for your house to sell for as high a price as possible. Who wouldn’t? Unfortunately, though, many sellers don’t make the simple yet necessary changes for the home to sell as high as it can.
Sellers might spruce the home and yard up a bit, vacuum behind the TV set and clean the baseboards. But beyond that, they’re not exactly sure what to do.
That’s where my team and I come in. At Jessica Foote & Associates, we get excited about creating a plan to ensure that our clients’ homes sell for as much money as possible. After all, we do more than just sell houses—we work with clients to get the maximum profit for their houses and find their dream homes.
Here in California where we work, we have found that a fresh coat of interior and exterior paint, basic landscaping improvements, flooring, and new fixtures—such as doorknobs, lighting, and modern staging—go a long way.
We saw this principle play out with one of our recent clients after they hired us to implement some improvements on a home they were selling. They had already relocated to Texas for work, so they entrusted their home to us to improve it as we saw fit. The house had been a rental for them, and they connected us with the property management company to obtain keys for the home. Once the tenant moved out, we immediately proceeded to obtain quotes for painting and staging.
As a result of the changes we made, our client’s home sold for $75,000 above comparable homes. Yes, $75,000 more! The home was only on the market for a few days and received 7 offers.
To give you a better picture for what a great investment this was, I should tell you that the money our clients invested in pre-listing improvements ended up making a 5-10 times return for them.
So how did we do it? And how can you do the same to prepare your home for sale? I’d love to show you.
Changes That Allowed Our Client’s Home to Sell Higher
When we received access to our client’s house, it was already pretty clean. It had received the standard treatment from the tenants who had moved out, but we knew we had to do even more to make potential buyers fall in love with the home. So we got to work.
The first step was knowing what style to aim for.
On a daily basis, we have the opportunity to speak with many different buyers and sellers, and tour a plethora of different types of homes, both new and resale. As a result, we have a unique understanding of what design trends are current and how people use their homes to live.
For this client, we started by painting the inside of the home with brighter and lighter colors, such as light gray and white. This gave the rooms an open feel, making those rooms seem even bigger than before.
Take a look at how simply brightening the color of the living room walls and opening the windows gave it a more inviting sense.
You probably noticed that we also did some redecorating in the living room. We chose furniture, décor, and fixtures that we knew were in style. Note how the room doesn’t look overcrowded with decorations. A few simple yet elegant pieces made this home look clean and inviting.
Staging is a great way to prepare your home for sale to increase the price. Doing so gives potential buyers an immediate image of what it could look like to live in the home. House hunters are much more likely to picture themselves sitting at the dining room table enjoying a meal if the room is decorated than if the room were bare.
We did the same thing to the kitchen—repainted with brighter colors and added a few key pieces of décor.
The biggest change we made is obvious—we painted the light wood cabinets and doors with a light gray color. While wood can be a beautiful addition to the home, it’s common for cabinets and pantry doors to have a few scrapes and scuffs after years of people living there.
To get rid of those scratches without breaking the budget on new wood, you can simply paint over it with a light color as you prepare your home for sale. Again, the light gray opens up the room, making it seem not only more spacious but also classier and modern.
Many of the decorations were also white, including the orchids we placed on the kitchen island and table. Another tip when redecorating is to include some plants, which always makes a home seem more inviting.
The last room I want to show you is the bathroom. Again, we painted the wood cabinets a light gray color and added some white flowers.
You can enhance this light color scheme even further by adding stark white towels. If your bathroom has windows, open the blinds and let the light in.
More Tips for Improving Your Home for Sale
Some other suggestions to prepare your home for sale so it can sell high include:
1. Add fresh mulch to your garden.
2. Consider adding a few new plants, too.
3. Repaint the front door. A few porch decorations and a welcome mat can go a long way to make your home appear more inviting from the front.
4. Make any necessary repairs. If you have a broken window or rusty door hinge, consider making those repairs before showing the house.
5. Clean the outside of the home. That includes washing the sides and eaves of the house to get rid of mildew, cleaning out the gutters, and mowing and edging the lawn.
These practical tips can help you make the kind of improvements to your house that can cause it to sell higher than other comparables. Of course, it’s also important that you understand what’s trending at the moment to increase buyers’ interest. That’s why Jessica Foote & Associates is always studying the latest home decoration trends.
Do you have questions, or would you like to discuss a strategy like this for your home? Contact our office at office(at)teamfoote(dotted)com or book an appointment online by clicking here.