Most buyers form their first impression of your home before they even get out of the car. Indeed, today’s buyer sees your home online well before they make the drive to your location. That is why professional photography is so crucial for marketing your home effectively and produce the best possible outcome on your home sale.
Make sure your home is ready to make the best first impression.
Prepare Home Exterior
Curb appeal is the view from the curb that gives potential buyers the first chance to fall in love with your home.
The exterior of your home should be in pristine condition – clean, cleared of clutter, with no visible repairs needed. A broken step, overgrown bush, or abandoned toys in the yard can spoil both the home’s appearance and the potential buyer’s first impression.
Here’s a simple cleanup and spruce up checklist to make sure your home leaves a stellar first impression:
- Clear driveways and walkways of weeds and debris. Repair or replace cracked steps or pavers.
- Whenever possible, driveways should be clear of vehicles.
- Keep your lawn mowed, edged, and watered. Prune dead branches and plants. Weed flower beds and replace leggy, thin landscaping with fresh plants and flowers.
- Replace loose or damaged roof shingles, clean the gutters, and paint and caulk window trim and doors.
- Make the front door area shine: consider repainting your front door and placing a new welcome mat. Polish the door hardware and make sure all front facing windows are clean.
- Power wash siding, brick, windows, and porches.
- Replace light fixtures -and if possible, pick new fixtures with the same mounting system to save time and hassle.
- Install new house numbers that match the finish of your light fixtures.
- Consider upgrading your mailbox; it’s an inexpensive fix and the first thing that buyers will see when they pull up to your home.
- Install flowerboxes or pots of blooming flowers for a pop of color.
- Hang a seasonal wreath from your front door.
Prepare the Home Interior
Step inside and the home’s essence meets the buyer’s senses. Everything they see, everything they hear, and everything they smell effects the way the buyer perceives your home whether consciously or not.
Here are a few tip to get your home’s interior ready for sale and keep your home show ready:
- Tidy the home and declutter. A buyer can better appreciate the space of your home’s interior when there are less distractions and can move freely.
- Clean the blinds and windows. Allow as beautiful natural light as possible brings life and energy to your home. This simple task can have remarkable results
- Consider hiring a professional cleaning service. Many reputable cleaning services get into the corners , baseboards, behind the couch, top of the refrigerator and other commonly over looked areas.
- Make sure all light bulbs are working.
- “What’s that smell?!” We acclimate to our home’s smell and sometimes don’t realize it has a smell. Every home has a smell: Clean, fresh, musty, damp, sour, freshly painted, pet owner, smoker. Have an honest friend or REALTOR® Erick Salgado tell you what they smell.
