Home selling tips with a minimal budget
Home selling tips with a minimal budget
Ever wonder why some homes fly off the market – and others seem to sit there forever? While location and price point play a role, in many cases the differentiating factors are purely aesthetic. If you’re thinking about putting your home on the market soon, keep these tips in mind to help grab the attention of serious buyers:
1. Clean! Clean! Clean!
You never get a second chance to make a first impression! Unfortunately, everyone has a different idea of clean. If you want to impress all people, get your home to pass the glove test! Clean behind appliances, in drawers, window sills, windows, baseboards – take that Mr Clean magic eraser to the fridge and the side of the stove. Don’t forget to also have your carpets cleaned to remove any pet or food odour – for a house to really appear clean, it has to smell clean too!
2. Declutter.
Clean up the trinkets, take the magnets off of the fridge, pack up the family pictures – and don’t forget the closets. Do you really need 30 towels in the linen closet? Pack them up (or donate them). Chances are, prospective buyers are going to be poking through all corners of your home, so it’s worth it to have all of the closets and drawers looking clean and organized. It also appears like you have more storage than what you may actually have – and allow you to get a head start on your pre-move purge.
3. Paint.
Get a fresh look on the walls. but make sure you properly mud and tape. The only thing worse than offensive colours and dirty walls is paint slopped all over the ceiling, the carpets, and the baseboards. If a room is painted properly and neutral colours are used, this is one of the best ways to freshen up a room.
4. Modernize.
Making a home feel more modern is often cheaper and easier than you may think. You have now cleaned, scrubbed, organized and painted, but the effort will go unnoticed until you take down the ratty curtains and the old, out-dated blinds. In many cases, a quick trip to Wal-Mart can land you some nice-looking – and affordable – modern updates.
5. Landscape. Weed all the flower beds and rock gardens, prune the hedges, and pressure spray the driveway. People like nicely landscaped yards with trees and shrubs, but do not like to be tied into doing too much yard work. Low maintenance landscaping is good!
Andrea Jurgens is a Realtor with ReMax Advantage in Sherwood Park, AB. You can reach her at (780) 464-4100 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .    |
