Selling Your Home, Getting a Strong Offer, and Moving in Ottawa
It pays off to prepare your home before putting it on the Ottawa real estate market. By taking the time to clean, repair, and stage your home, you can improve your chances of selling, and at a better price.
To start, look at your home through the eyes of a homebuyer, taking note of areas to fix. And while you’re fixing up your home, start preparing for your move with a convenient checklist.
You’ll want to be ready to move soon after you sell, so start packing and researching Ottawa moving services as well.
Before you put your house up for sale, consider these tips for selling your home so you can appeal to more homebuyers.
[su_list icon=”icon: dropbox” icon_color=”#0055A5″]
-
SELLING YOUR HOME, PART 2: WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO LIST MY PROPERTY?
-
SELLING YOUR HOME PART 3: THE ETIQUETTE TO FOLLOW FOR SHOWINGS
[/su_list]
Hire A Home Inspector
Homebuyers will hire home inspectors to inspect your house. And if they find too many problems, homebuyers may not want to go through with the purchase. But you can address these issues before you put your home on the market by hiring your own home inspector.
The cost of the inspection and making necessary repairs ahead of time will be worth it when it comes time to sell. Keep a record of all the repairs you made so you can inform buyers about how you addressed problems with your home.
Rent A Storage Unit
With a storage unit, you can start removing items from your home that you won’t need while your house is on the market. Packing and storing items will make moving easier once you sell your home. And it will help you declutter, organize, and remove personal items from your home that could affect the sale of your house.
Remove Personal Décor and Evidence of Pets and Kids
Prospective homebuyers want to envision themselves living in a home. So hide personal items and décor that will prevent them from becoming emotionally attached to a home. This includes family photos, evidence of kids—i.e. kid drawings on the fridge—and evidence of pets—beds, dishes, and toys.
Some homebuyers, for whatever reason, may not want to live in a home that has clearly housed kids. And due to pet allergies and pet odours, evidence of pets in a home can be a deal breaker.
Try to remove all pet odours in the home on floors, furniture, and carpets. And keep your cat’s litter box clean and out of sight when it’s time to show your home.
Keep the décor to a minimum. Your personal décor may not suit the tastes of all homebuyers. So to avoid turning people off, remove any bold or eccentric items.
If your living room furniture is worn down, consider covering your furniture with slipcovers to improve the overall look of the room.
Replace Outdated Fixtures and Carpets & Touch Up/Repaint Walls
Fix all the small things that you’ve been meaning to take care of over the years, such as tightening loose door knobs.
Also, fix any leaky faucets and replace outdated fixtures, faucets, and hinges. Consider updating door handles, chandeliers, and light switch covers to improve the overall appearance of your home.
Repaint any bold-coloured walls with neutral colours to better suit the tastes of homebuyers. Neutral colours like whites and tans allow homebuyers to focus on the rooms in your home instead of being distracted by bold colours on the walls.
Be sure to touch up scrapes, nail holes, handprints, and any other markings on the walls with paint. And touch up exterior surfaces too, such as siding, trim, mailbox posts, fences, and sheds.
Clean or replace outdated carpets. For newer carpets that aren’t damaged or stained, a deep carpet cleaning will do. But for consider replacing older, worn out carpets if you want to boost the selling price of your home.
To avoid turning off homebuyers, your carpets should look and smell clean when showing your home.
Clean, Declutter, Update, & Organize
Give your home a deep cleaning—as in, clean every surface, nook, and cranny.
Dust and clean everywhere, especially those hard to reach places—ceiling fan blades, tops of cupboards, fireplace mantles, and behind appliances.
Also, wash the windows on both sides, and polish appliances and faucets.
To ensure your home is thoroughly cleaned, consider hiring a professional cleaning company. A clean house gives off the impression that you have taken good care of your home. Your house will also appear easy to move into for new homeowners.
Avoid lingering smells from cooking, especially strong smells like bacon. You want your home to smell clean and fresh. Open curtains and windows to let fresh air and natural light in.
Take time to clean out and organize your closets. Ample storage space is a big selling point, so don’t make it look like your home doesn’t have enough space. Remove extra items you don’t need right away and organize your closets with boxes and dividers.
Declutter anything lying around your home, including piles of mail, shoes, clothes, and trinkets. Clutter will distract buyers from the attractive features of your home.
Give your rooms an organized sense of purpose. If you have a spare room that you use as an office, craft room, guest room, and storage room, stage it to emphasize a single purpose. Remove the clutter and turn it into that room you’ve always wanted. This will show buyers how they can use the room themselves.
Remove excess furniture and over-sized furniture that make your rooms appear smaller. Also arrange your furniture so it allows for an uninterrupted flow through the home—i.e. you won’t bump into it.
Refresh Your Landscaping
Your home’s exterior will make the first impression on homebuyers. As such, to boost your home’s curb appeal, take care of your landscaping as well.
Remove weeds, trim shrubs and overgrown plants, clean up your yard, and add a fresh layer of mulch to your garden. You should also consider adding bright-coloured flowers to stand out with the new mulch.
Fix any peeling paint on your home’s exterior, and maintain a clear path to your home. And if you don’t have much in terms of a garden, you can add a wreath to your front door and potted plants out front.
While there may be a lot of work to do around your home, it will be worth the time and effort.
Once your home is ready to sell, you can be rest assured knowing you did everything to improve the likelihood of selling your home.
