HOW TO PREPARE TO SELL YOUR HOME FSBO IN 5 STAGES
Whip Your Home into Shape and Let the Offers Sing!
- Get yourself ready
- Make repairs and replacements
- Remove clutter
- Stage
- Choose your new home
Getting your home ready for sale means repairing, improving, and staging it before inviting buyers inside.
1. Get yourself ready
In the process of selling your own home, preparing your home (repairing, improving, staging) is certainly a priority, but preparing yourself psychologically is what really matters. A smooth sale is less likely to occur if you are not prepared.
Don’t let your emotions get the best of you
During the process of packing up and saying goodbye to a home, many sellers experience emotional reactions. The end goal should be to find the right buyer and close the deal. Instead of thinking about selling your home, think about selling a house. The more personal items you remove and the more you stage your property in order to attract buyers, the easier it will be to look at your property objectively. A potential buyer’s realtor and their potential buyers might be overly critical when you show your home. Using such comments as negotiating tactics or improving your listing is possible if you react neutrally to them.
Find a real estate lawyer and hire him or her
You’re not on your own when you sell by owner. Even real estate agents consult attorneys and title agencies. Become familiar with your state’s sales process and hire a real estate lawyer. A lawyer will need to review the final sales contract, but they will also make sure you comply with your state’s legal requirements. By getting an attorney on board from the start, you can avoid legal pitfalls. A buyer’s and seller’s lawyer typically finalizes sales contracts in some states, such as Massachusetts. It is important to understand the sales process and to ensure that you are legally protected in your area since, in some states, the initial offer to purchase is actually the sales contract.
Do your homework
Begin assembling important documents, such as:
- Your original home purchase survey
- Home improvement receipts from the contractor
- Documents and laws pertaining to homeowner associations
- Home improvement permits
- Costs of utility services
- An up-to-date property tax bill
Your state and town may require you to submit property disclosure forms. In most states, property defects are required to be disclosed. Likewise, mold, asbestos, and lead paint disclosures are not uncommon. In addition to giving buyers the opportunity to do their own due diligence, disclosures help sellers make buyers aware of things they should consider when making a purchase decision. It is critical to fill out these forms honestly in order to prevent claims later on by the buyer that he was unaware of the property’s defects.
2. Make repairs and replacements
Those little items you’ve been putting off for years are now the perfect time to get them done. Potential buyers are likely to see defective latches, leaky toilets, leaking under sinks, or faulty electrical outlets as signs that the home hasn’t been maintained properly, meaning more work for them if they buy.
Inspections of homes prior to the sale
Examine your entire property for problem areas that require repairs or upgrades, and make a prioritized list according to your budget and time frame. Pre-sale home inspections can help sellers identify any major problems with their property before listing it for sale, although buyers will hire a home inspector before the sale goes through.
Work Worth Doing
Putting new knobs on cabinets and freshening up the living room with a neutral paint color are minor, inexpensive “polishes” you can do on your house, as opposed to doing an extensive and costly renovation. Make judicious use of your money when preparing your home for sale. Brand-new roofs will impress buyers, but they are unlikely to pay the extra money required to pay for them. If you’re planning to upgrade your home, consider the costs and benefits before hiring a contractor.
It might be wise to get a written estimate or two on the cost of repairs you cannot afford right now. The seller should acknowledge the deficit after disclosure is completed and then show the estimates to the buyer when an offer is made. The average buyer estimates the cost of repairs much higher than what they will actually have to pay (and then subtracts it from the agreed-upon price).
3. Remove clutter
In order to declutter a space, you must edit the items in the space to make it less cluttered and more functional. Staging a home involves creating appealing “vignettes” in each room that appeal to a diverse group of potential buyers. Make a decluttering and staging plan before you’re ready to show your home. Spend some time evaluating the interior of your home.
You should begin by decluttering to minimize or eliminate distractions that could otherwise cloud their vision and reduce their focus on the things that truly matter. A potential buyer may feel that your kids’ soccer trophies look impressive in your family room. However, they’re more likely to deter them from seeing the space’s true potential. Pack them up and put them away.
There are a lot of things to consider when decluttering. As long as you are still living in your house, your possessions are important. Organizing your house doesn’t mean converting it into a campground. The goal is to selectively cut down on anything that distracts potential buyers from seeing what you’re offering.
Anything you won’t be taking with you should be thrown out or sold. Closets should be cleared out. Even if you’re a packrat, overstuffed closets send buyers the message that the home isn’t spacious. Almost all basements, storage areas, laundry rooms, and garages require similar maintenance.
Decluttering is the first step in the home preparation process; staging is the next. In other words, staging helps the buyer visualize living in your home. By making the house inviting and welcoming, buyers will see past your furniture and mementos and imagine themselves living there.
4. Staging
A well-staged home will make buyers want to purchase it. A simple solution would be to clean, remove extraneous items, and repaint. To make your place look good, it may be necessary to remove your belongings, redecorate, or even rent furniture and art. You can stage each room of your house, including your outdoor spaces, using these basic steps.
Put a focus on functionality
Wear-and-tear appliances and systems cannot be disguised by clever staging. It is possible for an appliance that is more than 10 years old to appear outdated, even if it is perfectly functional. Check out some open houses in your area and look for finishes and functions that command a high price. Choose high-quality stoves, refrigerators, dishwashers, and faucets. You shouldn’t get carried away with gimmicks such as built-in espresso makers, which are expensive and unattractive.
Keep an eye on your step
Observe the floors carefully and decide what needs to be done. If worn wood floors need to be refinished, a simple cleaning might suffice. Consult a professional, at least to find out what they recommend. Alternatively, if you just need to revitalize a small section of a floor that has been heavily used, check out Home Depot, Lowe’s, or your local hardware store.
Have your carpets professionally cleaned or shampooed yourself. Those with excessive wear should be replaced. A clean carpet helps keep odors at bay in the home.
Create an inviting environment
When your house is staged, potential buyers can envision it as their own. Your house’s details will help them do that. In staging, you want visitors to linger in each room, absorbing its features and noticing its benefits.
- It is important to consider how each doorway will affect the view. In what ways can you encourage visitors to explore each room? It is often effective to arrange an easy chair and lamp that can be seen from the door, or an easy chair arranged in a small room.
- Visitors will be enticed to enter the room if fresh flowers are partially visible from the door.
- It is important to arrange seating so visitors can see it, and not with their backs to them, as this can discourage them from entering.
- It may be a good idea to store old, worn furniture and bring in a few new, brightly colored rental pieces in its place.
To stage your home successfully, it is recommended that you remove all personal items and open up the space. You can free up space by storing extra furniture while your home is on the market. To replicate the experience of guiding a prospective buyer or buyer couple through your house, walk from room to room with one or two other people. If three people are standing in a room, note which rooms seem crowded and what you can do to make them appear more spacious. Get together and identify the items that make crowded rooms seem crowded.
If you want to stage your house professionally, you can hire a stager. An empty house always shows better with furniture arranged by a stager if you’ve already moved out. Your property’s size and the services you need will determine the cost of your consultation, which may cost $150.
Make sure you clean again and again
When decluttering and staging, don’t forget to clean. Make sure every crevice is thoroughly scrubbed and polished, ferreting out dust and dirt in every corner. Remember to clean the sills, the spaces between the windows, and the screen or storm window when you clean the windows. Take special care of the grout in bathrooms. For this job, you should use a cleaner that has been specially formulated. Tiles that have been damaged should be rerouted or replaced. Polish woodwork and scrub it. Look up from time to time. Cleaning your home involves removing cobwebs, dusting, replacing burnt-out bulbs, and polishing light fixtures. Keeping the house in show-ready shape, later on, will be easier if you do a thorough job ahead of time.
5. Choose your new home
It seems simple enough, but sellers need to prepare themselves for moving just as much as they do for selling. Your next home should be on the market as soon as you’ve decided to sell, whether you intend to buy or rent. Preparing for a new beginning requires the following steps:
- Research properties that are on the market or available for rent in the neighborhood(s) of your choice.
- You can identify properties you are interested in visiting by looking through listings online or in the local newspaper.
- Identify a home you are interested in and develop a solid idea of what you can offer.
- Find out what lenders’ current interest rates are.
- Discuss getting pre-qualified for a loan with a loan officer after you’ve selected a lender or two you’re comfortable with.
- Attend open houses and schedule showings as a buyer so you can narrow down your options.
You will have a good idea of what goes into a good listing ad and a solid marketing strategy if you’re looking for a new home in the same market where you’re selling your home. You will get insight into your competition and pointers about how to (or not to) show your home by attending open houses and showings.