Preparing To Sell

Once your home is for sale on the market, there are many things you as the homeowner can do to give your home the best chance to sell.  At The Munir Group, we will discuss cosmetic issues – interior and exterior, and home renovations that can help add value or appeal for home buyers.

Cosmetic issues with your home’s interior are not a necessarily a signal that your home has been poorly maintained, but buyers will want to be wowed by what they see or they may leave with a sour taste in their mouth.

What You Can Do To Improve Your Home’s Interior:

  • Clean thoroughly – walls, floors, ceilings, light switches, appliances, tiles, bathtubs, sinks, trim, shampoo carpets.
  • Get every room in your house looking as bright and inviting as possible – paint, furnishings.
  • Arrange furniture to make every area look as large as possible.
  • Complete general repairs – sticking doors or windows, lose knobs, broken outlet covers, leaking faucets, repair caulking etc.
  • Don’t disregard the basement or attic – keep the organized, clean and smelling fresh.
  • Tidy the kitchen – countertops, inside cabinets.
  • Any cleaning or repair that will add visual appeal to your home is a good thing.

We recommend renting a storage locker and moving belongings or clutter out of your home.

What You Can Do To Improve Your Home’s Exterior:

  • Maintain your yard – mow the lawn, trim hedges or shrubs, clear dead tree limbs, clear debris.
  • Plant flowers or plants to liven up your property.
  • Repair or paint fences, siding, gates, doors, trim etc.
  • Repair damaged roof shingles, flashing and eaves troughs.
  • Clean all windows from outside.
  • Keep driveway and sidewalk clean and free.
  • Make sure all doorbells and outdoor lighting is functional.
  • Keep your garage and shed organized and tidy.

Adding visual appeal to your home can go a long way in helping potential buyers fall in love with your property.

Home Renovations

Aside from cosmetic issues, the value and desirability of your home can be increased by home renovations.  Typically, the three most important areas for seeing a financial return on your investment are:

Kitchen @ 75 – 100% return rates.

Bathrooms @ 75 – 100% return rates.

Painting @ 50- 100% return rates.

Our recommendations for renovations you should consider to increase the value of your home:

  • Repair or install central air
  • Build a garage if space allows
  • Replace worn roof shingles
  • Repair or replace in-home flooring
  • Repair or replace the heating system
  • Finish the basement or attic of your home
  • Install a fireplace
  • Build a deck or other outdoor recreation area (gazebo, pergola, outdoor kitchen etc.)

These renovations should provide a 50-75% return on the money invested.

One word about home renovations to sell a house is that not every home needs renovations to be desirable.  Many home buyers wish to do the renovations themselves so they can custom tailor anything they do for themselves.  Typically home renovations are used to give an advantage to your home in a crowded buyers market.

Home Staging

We recommend home staging to sellers whose interiors are outdated, to the point that they harm the overall image of the home itself.  Staging is also recommended if a home’s furnishings are in a bad state of repair.  Just as an unorganized home can drive away buyers, an empty home sometimes isn’t ideal either, as it doesn’t show what the space is capable of and what can fit into each room.  Typically, there is no need to purchase expensive furnishings as home buyers will be decorating themselves, but something should be present to give ideas of space usage.

We will discuss our recommendations for your home during our consultation.

Getting ready to put your home on the market requires careful planning and execution to ensure the correct outcome.  This article can help give homeowners selling a home in Brantford ideas to increase their homes potential.