If you’ve recently decided to list your home, congratulations! Selling your home is a huge life step, but with the right help, it doesn’t have to be an overwhelming one. While Charleston is a great market to be a seller in, there are still some important steps to take in order to prep your home for listing day—but with a solid plan, taking steps to prepare to sell your home can be a breeze!
How Should I Prepare My House for Listing?
Put Yourself In the Mind of a Buyer
Your home is an extremely personal place—you likely have put a lot of work into maintaining it and have made many special memories throughout the years. However, when buyers come in, they’ll be thinking of how to make their own memories once they move in, so giving them a clean slate to envision their dream home is key. Taking some time to “depersonalize” your home can help with this tremendously. Strong paint colors and specific style choices can be a detractor for buyers, so eliminating these things when possible is advised.
Take Care of Minor Repairs
Most buyers will want to pursue a home inspection before finalizing the purchase of the home, so if you know of any repairs that might come up on the report that can easily be fixed, it may be wise to go ahead and take care of them beforehand. Potential buyers can use these issues as bargaining chips to negotiate money off the asking price, so any small-scale problems are generally easier for sellers to handle on their own.
Pose Your Home for Photos
With the rise of online home listings, pictures truly do say a thousand words in the world of real estate. As you get ready to list your home, think of some ways to make it more photogenic, too. Small changes, like adding greenery, painting your front door, and giving everything a thorough cleaning can go a long way towards showing off what makes your home special.
Get (and Keep) Your Home Ready for Showings
While a good realtor will minimize the impact that having your home on the market has on your overall quality of life, in a competitive market like Charleston, buyers are used to having to book showings ASAP—meaning you may be in the position of accommodating a last-minute showing to get your home out there. Before listing, it’s a good idea to give rooms a good organizational sweep (including cabinets and closets!), and be in the mindset of keeping your home more or less show-ready throughout the selling process.
Are you ready to take the plunge and list your Charleston home? We’d love to be a resource for you! Get in touch with us today to learn more about the listing process and how we can help.
