The 6 Best Strategies to Sell Your Home in 2020
With a Coronavirus Recession putting a damper on the market, there are fewer homebuyers from Vancouver to Toronto. A challenging market doesn’t have to make life difficult for you. We’ve come up with six simple strategies that will help you sell your home quickly for the best price possible.
1. Declutter Your Home
When you reduce the amount of ‘stuff’ in your home, it allows its prime features to stand out, and it will appear more spacious than ever before. Do this in every room of your home and also in the storage spaces.
Storage space is a major selling point for homebuyers. The less you have in your closets, the more generous your storage spaces will look.
Go through everything you own and eliminate anything you don’t need or adore. If it helps, use the Marie Kondo method. Decluttering now will help you get top dollar for your home and it will reduce your stress levels when it’s time to pack everything for your move. Less ‘stuff’ makes the moving process much simpler and cheaper.
When we say ‘declutter’, we are also referring to extra furniture. A mismatched chair in the kitchen you keep for guests. The super-comfortable oversized office chair that’s seen better days. If there’s a piece of furniture that you believe would be difficult to sell on Craigslist, then think about putting it in temporary storage or giving it away because it certainly won’t help the homebuyers touring your home to envision their picture-perfect future.
Pay close attention to these areas because they often attract clutter:
Kitchen and bathroom counters
Fireplace mantels
Laundry room shelves
Tabletops
Magazine, coat, and umbrella racks
2. Find the right real estate agent
The right real estate agent is critical to de-stress your home selling process. Invest time to interview a few real estate agents before choosing the best match for you.
Yes, they’re getting paid to sell your home but the best selling experiences happen when you and your agent’s 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?
Article Like This: How to Find the Best Real Estate Agent to Sell Your Home
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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.
Small upgrades like newer kitchen cabinet doors, a fresh coat of paint, 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.
Get in the mindset of a homebuyer and focus on the small things might distract you from the beautiful aspects of your home. A couple of maintenance items that are a must:
Repaint the walls with neutral colours.
Trim shrubs, replant flower pots (if necessary), cut the hedges, and mow the lawn.
Repair squeaky floors.
Fix doors that stick, squeak, or don’t close properly.
4. Perform a Deep Clean
Either hire a professional cleaning company or get dirty yourself. It’s best to leave the deep-clean until just before staging so that:
All the clutter has already been removed.
Unnecessary furniture has been removed.
Refurbishments have been made.
That way the home will be cleaned and immediately ready to be shown to potential buyers.
We recommend you use professional cleaners, they will see your space with fresh eyes. Most homeowners are surprised to realize how clean their homes can be after they see it professionally cleaned.
Make sure all carpets are cleaned by a professional carpet cleaning company. This can be a little expensive but fresh the carpets look and feel fantastic.
You may want to schedule a regular weekly cleaner until the home has sold because a professional cleaner will often see issues that you can not.
5. Stage Your House
Staging your house is essentially decorating your home to make it more visually appealing for photographs and viewings.
You can do it yourself (DIY) or there are professionals that do this for a fee. If you’re hiring a professional, then visit a few listings that they’ve staged. Professional stagers look at your home from a buyer's point of view. They highlight its strengths and minimize the flaws.
Some straightforward ways to DIY stage your home are to:
Add some strategically placed flowers and greenery
Open the blinds and let in as much natural light as possible
Pretend you are touring your home and make sure no furniture blocks the flow of your walkthrough.
Remove unnecessary furniture so that each room is functional but spacious
If your staging doesn’t make you have second thoughts about moving, then consider a professional stager. They’ll rent furniture that will help make your home look more contemporary and spacious.
6. Take love inspiring photos of your home
Someone who falls in love with your home (they think it’s their dream home) will subconsciously overvalue it and offer a little more just to make sure their offer is successful.
How do you make sure your photos will evoke these kinds of emotions?
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.
Try to get shots from the corners of the room and the doorways to show off maximum floor space.
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, modelling, nature photography, and real estate photography. Professionals know the best angles and lenses for making a home look extraordinary.
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.
Summing-up
Use these simple tips to improve the sellability of your home and help you get a better offer.
Some of these tips require a little bit of money or time, but you can do most of this on your own with a little bit of time and patience.
If you’re not sure how to begin, you can google hundreds of DIY 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!
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