When you are planning to sell your house, you need to see it differently. Talking about a house you are going to sell means talking about a product which might have to compete with other products from different brands.

Nowadays, there are a lot buyers who don’t have enough time to renovate the houses they’ve bought. Therefore, you need to make your house ready for settling in. This writing will help you with what to do and what not to do concerning your “product”. This pericope provides you with ideas of corrective action that is required to make sure your house look clean, fresh, and tidy when you hang the “For sale” board in front of it.

Fix It First

If you have considered to fix or add something to some parts of the house, do it before you sell the house. Potential buyers are not interested in listening to your stories about fixing the damage in several parts of your house, before you both exchange the ownership status. They will remember the damaged parts after their visit.

Professional Inspection, Is It Necessary?

A professional buyer might hire a professional to observe the condition of your house thoroughly. So it is worth a consideration to hire a building expert to check the conditions of the roof skeleton and other parts of the house, so that potential buyers can be convinced and therefore decide to buy your house.

Start From The Outside:
Analyze the House from Across the Street

How does your house look from across the street? There’s where a buyer candidate usually take a look at your house and from there they will get their first impression of it. Stand on a certain height in a position where you can get a complete sight of your house, then take notes about what you see:

• Get rid of every clutter and mess in your front yard
• Fix the crack or any broken part of the pathway to your house
• Fix or replant if there are parts of your plants that won’t grow. Cut uninteresting parts or dry branches. Place several flower plants to catch attention. Make sure the grass is trimmed regularly.
• Do the windows and the house walls look clean?
• Does the front door needs repainting?
• Make sure the roof is free from dry branches or decaying list-plank
• Are the back yard and its pathway clean? If they aren’t, do some necessary cleaning or painting.
• If you have a swimming pool, is the area surrounding it clean and free from dry leaves?
• Make sure all the outside lamps are switched on. Replace broken lightbulbs and clean the lamp armatures
• Check whether the existing gazebo or carport can be a point of attraction
• Do the front door and windows need refinishing? Even after 6-7 years, the finishing will be dried up and need refinishing
• If you have decorative wood pillars in the front terrace, do they look fine, or do they need repainting?
• If you have a fence gate, check whether it needs to be lubricated so it won’t make disturbing noise when you open it

After you are done with observation from across the street, analyze other exterior part of your house.

Check Your House Roof

If you have trouble climbing the roof, use a binoculars to check many parts of the roof. Be careful when you are doing some work or moving something on the roof. Unless doing a very simple task, you’d better hire a worker.

• Check the whole condition of the roof. Loose roof-tiles, curved plane, water duct, and corrosion on metal roof needs mending or replacing.
• Joints for smoke tube or antenna pole should look tidy.

Check The Walls

The outer walls will directly influence the appearance of your house.

• Peel off loose layers of your walls before you repaint them.
• Do the outer walls look fine? If their color is faded and the paint cracked, or looks pale, you need to repaint them. Make sure you get the best deal by comparing the prices of several painting services.
• A wall that is layered by natural stones or terracotta brick can be cleaned or repaired, but the work needs good skill.

Then We Move On to the Inside of the House

A buyer candidate usually enter the house from the front door, so you need to take a good look at your interior from this spot. You expect the buyer to see clean, tidy, and fresh interior, so make sure the floor or carpets look pretty clean and the walls and profiles look fresh or new, especially those with neutral or light colors.

Is there any unpleasant odor or smell inside the house? Make sure all the lamps are free from dust. Remember, you want your house to look spacious, bright, and fresh.

You’d better keep interior accessories or other kind of memorabilia out of sight. Remember, your objective is to make the buyers feel like home. They might become resistant if they have the impression that the house belongs only to your family.

The Whole Interior

• Observe the stair treads and check whether there are parts of the carpet that are peeled off or torn up, or any broken part in the handrail
• The common problem usually comes from the appearance of the walls surface. This can be solved by covering the hairline cracks with wall filler and repainting them. 
• Open and close all the windows to make sure the hinges are working fine

Living Room, Guest Room, Corridor, and Bed Rooms

Don’t place too many furnishings so that the rooms look more spacious than their actual sizes. Make sure people can get in, get out, and walk acrross the room without any obstruction. Put your books in their place and organize them. Make sure the bed room closets look tidy and organized, don’t put them in every corner of the room. Remember, keep your valuable belongings such as jewelry, camera, etc, before you invite a buyer to enter every room.

Kitchen and Bathrooms

• People will see water stains around the kitchen and bathrooms, so check your sink, water drainage, and water taps. Problem occurs when the bathroom water leaks through the wall. Condensation on the window glass and water respiration on the surface of toilet water tank indicate high level of humidity. This can be reduced by using a fan or opening the window to allow air circulation.
• Clean up all the kitchen equipments and keep them free from oil and smoke stains. Clean the inner and outer part of your kitchen cabinets.
• Store your food in a cabinet or your refrigerator. Keep interior accessories which reflect the characteristics of your family out of sight.
• Remove water stains and rust on the wash basins, bath tubs, water taps. Tighten up loose taps or other parts of the bathrooms, clean up the dusty exhaust fan grill with a vacuum cleaner.
• Clean up the mirrors, electric switch and cabinet handles.
• Consider to fill the bathroom open tanks with water to the level of the stained line.
• Make sure ceramic floor tiles in the kitchen and bathrooms look clean.

Garage

Get rid of broken equipments and used spare parts, old bikes, used thins and hundreds of used stuff which are usually piled up in the garage. Again, you need a clean and spacious room. Use the right cleaner to remove oil stains on the floor.

It’s Time to Sell!
 
After you are done with observation and problem solvings, now is the time for “open house” and invite buyer candidates! You need to share the “duty” of keeping the house in good condition with other members of the family untill it is sold.