Get Your Home Ready To Sell in Parker Colorado
Planning to get your house ready to sell.
Get Your Home Ready To Sell for 2016
Let me start off by stating that I’m NOT a big fan of spending a lot of money to get your home ready to sell. Work with what you have an present it in the best possible way without breaking the bank. I think it’s stupid to spend thousands to get your home ready to sell unless we know for a fact it will bring thousands in return.
When you decide to get your home ready to sell it can be hard to know what needs to be done. I’ve been listing and selling homes in Parker Colorado for over 14 years. I know what it takes to get a home sold and what matters most to home buyers when looking to buy a home. Below are some tips and tricks to help you save money and present your home in the best possible manner to the buying public. If you read this and still feel like you need additional help don’t worry. I’m happy to setup a time and come walk room by room through your house and let you know what needs to be done to sell your house. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes and you will have a very clear picture of what needs to be done in order to get the house ready to sell. It’s not too early to start this process. I generally have these walkthrough consultations months in advance of actually putting a home on the market. So, November of 2015 is a good time to get started if you are going to sell your home in the Spring of 2016.
Home buyers and their Realtors seem to do math in $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 increments.
That means when a buyer or buyer’s agent sees a problem with a house they use the above figures to determine how much less they need to offer on the house. Or, how much they need to ask the sellers to credit them at closing to fix the problems later. Yeah and most never make the repairs…some do but many do not. Example: If a buyer or buyer’s agent sees ugly or dirty or missing grout in a master bathroom they would typically calculate $500 or $1,000 to correct it when in fact you could have probably had it repaired before listing the house on the open market for just a few hundred dollars. This is what I’m going to try and explain the the article below.
Remember there will be a lot of people that will be seeing your home when it’s time to sell. It needs to be cleaned and kept clean through the entire process. Think about it this way. You will probably have several buyers and Realtors look at the house before you get an accepted offer. Once you get an offer the buyer, Realtor and a home inspector will be back to see the house at least one more time. Then you have the appraiser. Yes the appraiser has to be sold on your house too. Your house should look awesome and be in show quality when the appraiser comes to see the house. In the current market we are selling homes for more and more money and many times selling them for well above what the house two doors down just closed for last week. So, in order to get the appraiser to recognize the value in your house we also have to sell the house to the appraiser.
Did you know I will come to your house and walk room to room and around the exterior of the house and show you exactly what needs to be done to get your house ready to sell? Quite often I will do these walks with home sellers as far out as 6 to 12 months before they are ready to sell. It gives you a lot of time to get the house into shape and ready to sell. I will also come back out on multiple occasions to help keep you on track and discuss options with you to get your home ready to sell. Steven Beam Parker, Colorado Realtor 303-941-4663 Email Steven Beam for a FREE home sale consultation
Tips to get your home ready to sell.
First of all please understand that only a few of these items listed below will pertain to any given seller. My advice below covers a lot of different tips to help get your home ready to sell. The home selling tips below
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- The # 1 tip to get your home ready to sell is declutter. Get rid of your junk. If you have kids and they are getting older donate their toys from when they were 5 years old. That goes for the old tricycles in the garage too. Clean out your closets. Donate old unwanted clothes. Make your closet organized. All of your closets not just the master bedroom closet. Pair down the 44 coats in the entryway closet. There are people here in Colorado that could actually use them so donate old coats. You should have 1 or maybe 2 coats per person the entry closet. Emptying out closets makes the closet look large and usable. Extra tip…When you open the closet door coats should not come poking through the door at you…you should not have to hold the coats in the closet with one hand while you close the door either. Clean and organize your pantry if you have one. Nothing says these people are a disaster more than seeing food all over the floor in your pantry. Clean it and make it look presentable. Your kitchen counters should have no more than 3 items on them if possible. Cull down the excess items and you will be shocked how large and spacious your kitchen counters look when you get all of the junk off of them. Clean off the dining room table too. Believe it or not that is not supposed to be a computer work station. Finally-please remove the 5 year old magazines from the bathroom…GROSS!
- Baseboard, door and trim paint. This is a few hundred dollars and worth every penny. Why is this important? Look at your baseboards. Are they scratched, dirty and beaten up by kids or pets? A fresh coat of trim paint on your baseboards will make your floor POP. Don’t forget to have door trim and doors looked at too. Nothing says DISGUSTING more than brown or black handprints all over entry door from the garage. What a major turn off. Especially if you have wood floors or darker colored carpet. Dirty baseboards are a dead giveaway that a house has deferred maintenance. When I sold my Parker, CO home last year I had a pro painter come in and spend half a day painting all of my trim on the main level of the house. It gives your house a nice clean appearance and lets potential home buyers know you care about your house and how it is presented to the buying public. You can call me for a referral for a painter 303-941-4663 or stop by Guiry’s, Lowes or Home Depot and they can usually give you a list of local painters looking for work. I know Guiry’s in Parker, CO always has a list on hand to give out.
- Deep cleaning of the entire house. In the Denver Metro I suggest The Cleaning Crew 303-799-8921. I suggest asking them for a deep clean. They will do baseboards, windows, appliances and bathrooms. I know everyone thinks they are the best at cleaning their homes but sometimes a pro can do it better.
- Appliances must be spotless. Having your appliances 100% spotless is absolutely crucial! I cannot stress this enough. They need to look clean and new inside and out. Most stoves have a self cleaning option so use it and then wipe them out…Don’t leave the dust and grim in the oven and clean the burners too. Make sure not to forget the microwave. Microwaves get filthy inside and many people never think to clean them. Please wipe them out and scrub off all the finger prints from the door.
- Can I leave all the crap on my kitchen refrigerator? NO, NO, NO. Refrigerators need to be free of family photos and kids school work and they also need to be clean inside and out. Quite often the kitchen refrigerator is included in the sale of your home so…Yes home buyers do open your frig from time to time so make sure they are sparkling clean inside and trash all the old leftovers that stink. It’s a huge turn off when a buyer opens the frig and it makes the entire kitchen smell bad. Buyers will RUN out of your house.
- Bathrooms need to SPARKLE. This is another crucial item that not only must be done when getting the home ready to sell but also must be maintained on a regular basis throughout the selling process. This is not a one and done deal. Make bathrooms sparkle and keep them that way until you are cleared to close on the house.
- Tile grout. It amazes me when I walk into a house that has a beautiful tile shower or backsplash and the grout is filthy or missing in places or maybe even tiles have fallen out and are missing all together. Did you know there are companies out there that can clean tile grout and make it look brand new? They can fill gaps too and even replace missing or broken tiles. I use the Grout Dr. out of Denver or Colorado Springs. They are quick and relatively cheap. I have them come into my house and replace missing tiles, fill gaps in grout and even clean my entire master bathroom shower. The entire bill was $367. Pretty cheap and easy fix to get your home ready to sell.
A clean house
- Get your home ready to sell by having the windows cleaned inside and out. This is such an easy way to make the house look awesome from the inside and from the curb. Have you ever noticed the reflection of the front yard or sky on the front windows of a house as your drive past? Home buyers do… This is a must do item and can gain you extra cash at the closing table. I’ve had clients clean their windows and they were shocked that they had been living in a house with such filthy windows. I’ve had buyers ask me if the seller installed new windows because my sellers had the windows cleaned. I think everyone in Colorado should have their windows cleaned each year and for the small cost associated with it I’m surprised more people don’t get it done and especially when it’s time to get your home ready to sell. Let’s face it we have a lot of wind and alot of dust. Make sure the window cleaner you use cleans the tracks inside the house too. Most pro window cleaning companies will clean tracks whether you ask for it or not and they usually clean the screens too. We have such beautiful views so why not showcase them with clean windows. If you have clean windows it will help show off any views you have from the house plus it gives your house a good clean feeling to anyone who enters it. If the windows are clean the house must be well taken care of. Yes, I have a great window cleaning company if you would like their contact info and i also have a great screen replacement guy too. Holes in screens is no good and remember what I said above about buyers doing math in $500 and $1,000 increments. Steven Beam is a Parker, CO Realtor CRS. 303-941-4663 Email Steven Beam for his window cleaner’s contact info
- Is your garage clean? This can be a very quick deal killer. Guys view a garage almost as important as women do their kitchen and master bathroom. Clean, neat and well organized garages will tell potential buyers that you mean business. They think if you are picky enough to keep the garage clean the house must be well taken care of too. I don’t care if it looks like a tornado hit your garage while you are living day to day. When it’s time to get your home ready to sell clean it up, store the junk and throw out stuff you never use. Goodwill and the Salvation Army will take most anything you don’t want anymore and they will give you a nice tax deduction too. Get the cobwebs out and if your garage is finished then consider putting a fresh coat of paint on it. Call me…I have an 18 inch roller that will make painting your garage quick and easy if needed. You can borrow it.
- Bagster is great for junk removal and yard waste. If you have a lot of garbage or yard waste or just plain old junk and need a way to get it out of your house/yard try Bagster. You buyer these big bags from Home Depot and they cost $30. Once you fill them up call Waste management and they will come pick them up with a huge truck that has a lift on it. We emptied a basement and our garage using two of these things and it was awesome. Basically anything you cannot sell or give away can be put in these things and hauled away and is a cheap easy way to get your home ready to sell.
- Curb Appeal! Other than a bad location bad curb appeal will turn off home buyers quicker than any of the above. Spending money to get your home ready to sell doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of money. Buyer will tell their Realtor to just keep on driving if your curb appeal is lacking. Here are a couple of quick easy steps to take to get the exterior looking awesome. Fertilize the yard. Scotts has a spray on fertilizer that works within days. It will make a brown yard look green within a week. Get your home ready to see by cleaning out the flower beds. Plant flowers if the season allows. Hanging baskets are great and spend the money to get the FULL bigs ones not the ones that are going to take months to grow in. AGAIN, have the windows cleaned. Nothing says I’m a beautiful home more than sparkling clean windows as seen from the street. Trim up the shrubs. Add fresh mulch this will really make the property POP. Check your exterior trim and especially around the garage. Replace rotted trim around windows if needed and repaint around the garage doors if needed to get your home ready to sell. Water bounces up and removes paint at the ground level around the garage doors. Make it look fresh. This is seriously less than an hour worth of sweat equity to get your home ready to sell.
- Driveways and sidewalks – We have expansive soils out here and builders typically don’t pack the dirt properly when installing from sidewalks and driveways. If your concrete driveway looks like a gravel driveway have it repaired. A new driveway for a typical 3 car garage house costs around $4,000 so keep it maintained. Maintain it and make it look good and it will help you sell your house. I have my driveway sealed every 2-3 years by Concrete Painters 720-334-1356 ask for Josh. It will make your driveway last for years longer than it normally would. Uneven sidewalks can be repaired with mudjacking. If your entryway is uneven or a bad tripping hazzard be prepared as a buyer is most likely going to ask you to replace it so it’s much easier and less expensive to get it done before you have an offer in your hand.
- Interior painting. Finally when you are ready to get your home ready to sell think about the paint in your rooms. I know paint is cheap and an easy fix but it can runoff some buyers. If you have rooms with bright flashy colors you may want to consider toning them down a little. Try more neutral colors as they appeal to a larger audience.
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Call me when it’s time to get your home ready to sell. I will stop by and help you make smart decisions that won’t break the bank. Don’t take my word for it. See what my past clients have to say about me and how I can help you get your home ready to sell. Steven Beam client testimonials.