The 6 Best Strategies to Sell Your Home in 2019
The number of property purchases in Vancouver, Victoria, and Kelowna has slumped in 2019. On the other hand, home prices in Ottawa are smashing records, and Toronto condo prices continue to hit new peaks. Regardless of the market conditions, we’ve developed six simple strategies that will help you sell your house quickly and at the best price possible.
1. Declutter Your Home
By reducing the amount of stuff in your house, the prime features will truly stand out, and it will look bigger than ever before. It’s essential to do this in all rooms of the home and also in the storage spaces. Storage space is a significant selling point for buyers, and the less full your closets are, the bigger your storage spaces will look. It's time to go through everything you own and eliminate anything you don’t need or adore. Decluttering now will help you get top dollar for your home and reduce the amount of stuff you have to move when it’s time to go, making the moving process far more straightforward and cheaper.
Pay close attention to the following areas that seem to attract clutter:
Kitchen and bathroom counters
Fireplace mantels
Laundry room shelves
Tabletops
Magazine racks
2. Find the right real estate agent
An essential part of selling your home is finding the right real estate agent. Invest time getting to know a few real estate agents before selecting the best match for you. Yes, they’re getting paid to sell your home but the best selling experiences happen when you and your agents values and priorities are aligned. A great agent will also have deep local knowledge and experience selling homes like yours. They can also help you stage and photograph your house. Some key questions to ask yourself are:
Do they know your neighbourhood well?
Are they aligned with your values and priorities?
Do they have a sales track record with homes similar to your own?
What do they think of your initial staging and planned repairs-refurbishments?
Our platform matches you with local, pre-screened, values-aligned Realtors because shared values make better working relationships.
3. Make Small Refurbishments
Selling your home is not the time to make major investments into the house because it is unlikely that you will get much of a return. However, small upgrades like newer appliances in the kitchen or re-tiling the bathroom can go a long way toward making the home more sellable. Walk around your house with your Real Estate Agent and identify small defects that can be easily fixed such as loose light fixtures, old shower curtains, and squeaky doors. Again, get in the mindset of a buyer and think about those small things that could distract you from what is otherwise a beautiful home. A couple of maintenance items that are a must:
Repaint the walls with neutral colours
Cut the hedges and mow the lawn to add curb appeal
Repair squeaky floors and doors
4. Perform a Deep Clean
You can either hire a professional cleaning company or get down and dirty yourselves. It’s best to leave this until just before staging so that clutter has already been removed, refurbishments have been made, and all unnecessary furniture has been removed. That way the home will be cleaned and immediately ready to be shown to potential buyers. Make sure all carpets are cleaned by a professional carpet cleaning company. This can be fairly expensive but you won’t believe how fresh the carpets look and feel afterwards. Once the clean has been completed try to make sure you are diligent with cleaning as you go from there on out. You may even want to schedule a regular weekly cleaner until the home has sold because a professional cleaner will often see issues that you do not.
5. Stage Your House
Staging your house is essentially cleaning and decorating your home to make it more visually appealing for photographs and viewings. There are professionals that do this for a fee but you can do it yourself (DIY). Professional stagers try to look at your home from a buyer's point of view and highlight its strengths.
Some straightforward ways to DIY stage your home are to:
Add some flowers and greenery
Open the blinds and let in as much natural light as possible
Remove unnecessary furniture so that each room is functional but spacious
If you think that your home needs a more dramatic makeover then a professional stager is probably the way to go. They’ll rent furniture that will help make your home look more contemporary and spacious.
6. Take love inspiring photos of your home
If someone falls in love with your home (they think it’s their dream home) then they will likely pay a little more just to make sure their offer is successful. How do you make sure your photos will evoke these kinds of emotions? Firstly, make sure to use as much natural light as possible. Open up the curtains and turn on all the lights to make sure the rooms are as bright as possible. Next, try to get shots from the corners of the room and the doorways to show off maximum space. Finally, make sure to take lots of photos and spend some time editing them. You may not feel qualified to take and edit the pictures so consider hiring a professional or asking a friend passionate about photography. Keep in mind there is a difference between portraits, modeling, and nature photography, and knowing the next angles and strategies for selling a home is no different. Make sure whoever takes the pictures of your home is an experienced professional or has done a lot of research on how to do real estate photography.
Conclusion
By using these simple tips you can improve the sellability of your home and very likely get a better offer for it. Some of them require a little bit of an investment but most can be done well on your own with a little bit of time and patience. These days we are lucky that if you want to do some home DIY you can google it and find 100 videos that will teach you for free! If you’re buying a new home as well see our full home buyer guide to make sure you get the best value for money on your next home purchase. Good luck!
