PREPARE
Preparing Your Home For Sale
If you don't want to do this yourself, ask your RE/MAX Hallmark agent to recommend a professional stager. It can pay for itself by helping sell your home more quickly and for a better price.
Introduction
You can help get the results you want by staging your home. Staging is not about redecorating your entire home. It is about rearranging what you do have and making a few improvements to appeal to more buyers.
If you don't want to do this yourself, ask your RE/MAX Hallmark agent to recommend a professional stager. It can pay for itself by helping sell your home more quickly and for a better price.
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Create Great Curb Appeal
Make the first impression count. Clean up, paint front windows and doors, keep the lawn mowed and the bushes trimmed, plant or pot colourful flowers, clear the sidewalks.
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De-Clutter
Less is more in creating home appeal. Keep counters free of personal items, pare furnishings down to the bare essentials, pack up those cute knickknacks.
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Make the House Shine
A home in immaculate condition sells more quickly – and for more money. Wash windows inside and out, make sure kitchen and bath features gleam, shampoo or replace carpeting, clean and dust throughout, take care of any pet odours.
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De-Personalize
You want buyers to imagine themselves living in your home. Pack up those family heirlooms and personal photographs.
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Make Minor Repairs
Don’t let maintenance shortcomings affect the sale. Patch any holes in the walls. Consider painting them in a neutral colour. Replace cracked floor or counter tiles, fix leaky faucets and doors that don’t close properly, replace burned-out light bulbs.
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Remove Favorite Items
If buyers don’t see something, they won’t want it to be part of the deal. Remove fixtures or window coverings now if you’re going to take them with you.
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Rearrange Closets and Cabinets
Tidy, organized closets make a positive statement about your home. Keep medicines and other personal items out of sight, pack away much of your clothing, neatly arrange shoes and shelf items.
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Show Your Home in the Best Light
Your home needs to be at its friendliest when buyers go through it. Open the drapes and let the sunshine in, have fresh flowers on display and set a comfortable temperature.
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Lighten up at Night
Turn on the excitement by turning on all your lights, both inside and outside, when showing your home in the evening. Lights add colour, warmth, and make prospects feel welcome.
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Keep a Low Profile
Nobody knows your home as well as you do. But RE/ MAX Sales Associates know buyers – what they need and what they want. Your RE/MAX Associate will have an easier time articulating the virtues of your home if you stay in the background.
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Be Absent During Showings
Try to leave your home during showings to give potential buyers comfort when they are viewing your home.
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Don't Apologize
No matter how humble your abode, never apologize for its shortcomings. If a prospect volunteers a derogatory comment about your home's appearance, let your RE/ MAX Associate handle the situation.
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Watch Your Pets
Dogs and cats are great companions, but when you’re showing your home, pets have a talent for getting underfoot. So do everyone a favour, keep Kitty and Spot outside, or at least out of the way.
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Think Safety
Homeowners learn to live with all kinds of self-set booby traps: roller skates on the stairs, extension cords, slippery throw rugs and low handing overhead lights. Make your residence as non perilous as possible for uninitiated visitors.
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Be Prepared
You never know when your agent may need to show your home on a moment's notice. So make your beds and tidy up each morning, just in case.
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Think Volume
Rock-and-Roll will never die. But it might kill a real estate transaction. When it’s time to show your home, its time to turn down the stereo or TV.
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Don't Turn Your Home into a Second-hand Store
When prospects come to view your home, don't distract them with offers to sell furnishings you no longer need. You may lose the biggest sale of all.
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Avoid Crowd Scenes
Potential buyers often feel like intruders when they enter a home filled with people. Rather than giving your house the attention it deserves. They’re likely to hurry through. Keep the company present to a minimum.
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Defer to Experience
When prospects want to talk price, terms or other real estate matters, let them speak to an expert - your RE/ MAX Sales Associate.
Sarah Spegel is an experienced real estate agent with the RE/MAX Hallmark Realty. She specializes in dealing with residential real estate properties like detached and semi-detached homes across the city of Toronto and Downtown Toronto.