Getting the house ready to sell.... long road ahead!

[SDSorority]

Hi all! DH and I are seriously talking about selling our house in the country(ish) and moving back to the 'burbs. Not a far move- 10 miles maybe. We have a number of reasons as to why we're ready to move on, so it's time to start talking home sprucing/cleaning/purging/painting.

So. Overwhelmed.

So here's my question- what do you look for when shopping for a new home? I'm trying to get ideas for things to fix up that I might not have already thought of. Right now on my list is:

Touch up paint outside around windows/front door
Touch up paint on house numbers
Repaint front door (inside and outside)
Repaint garage door (leading into the house, inside and outside)
Touch up paint the ceilings where I did a sloppy job and got wall paint on them (d'oh)
Replace AC/Furnace (it's old and needs it)
Fix up poorly finished basement
Purge clutter
Really give everything a good clean/polish (hardwood, detail cleaning of windows/glass/sinks/fridge/oven/toilets/showers, carpet/rugs)
Paint a few rooms (kitchen, bedrooms, laundry room)
Organize closets (I hear buyers look in here)
Replace a few dated light fixtures
Weed the yard (just had it mulched and trimmed recently so it looks pretty good already)
Sweep out the garage

Most of this I want us to do ourselves, though there are some things we can't do alone (replacement of AC/Furnace, basement fix, some really high painting areas).

Any suggestions on other things buyers look for that I haven't thought of?

 

[hanutedmansionmomma]

Hi all! DH and I are seriously talking about selling our house in the country(ish) and moving back to the 'burbs. Not a far move- 10 miles maybe. We have a number of reasons as to why we're ready to move on, so it's time to start talking home sprucing/cleaning/purging/painting.

So. Overwhelmed.

So here's my question- what do you look for when shopping for a new home? I'm trying to get ideas for things to fix up that I might not have already thought of. Right now on my list is:

Touch up paint outside around windows/front door
Touch up paint on house numbers
Repaint front door (inside and outside)
Repaint garage door (leading into the house, inside and outside)
Touch up paint the ceilings where I did a sloppy job and got wall paint on them (d'oh)
Replace AC/Furnace (it's old and needs it)
Fix up poorly finished basement
Purge clutter
Really give everything a good clean/polish (hardwood, detail cleaning of windows/glass/sinks/fridge/oven/toilets/showers, carpet/rugs)
Paint a few rooms (kitchen, bedrooms, laundry room)
Organize closets (I hear buyers look in here)
Replace a few dated light fixtures
Weed the yard (just had it mulched and trimmed recently so it looks pretty good already)
Sweep out the garage

Most of this I want us to do ourselves, though there are some things we can't do alone (replacement of AC/Furnace, basement fix, some really high painting areas).

Any suggestions on other things buyers look for that I haven't thought of?

awesome list! I wish you were the previous owner of one of my houses...

yes, we'll look in the closets to see how much room there is, if there are shelves, whatever.

do you have any wallpaper? whenever I see that I know it will be a lot of work to take down.

put away any family photos. I feel like a creeper when I'm in someone's house and see family looking at me.

clean off the everything from the kitchen counter and magnets and photos from the fridge

make sure it smells good (not like pets)

again, your list is great! Not sure that all sellers go that far

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

What we did when we were selling our house was pre-pack,

we packed away stuff that we didn't use often, or stuff we knew was safe to pack away.

It makes it look like there is more space/storage when it's really pared down.

Such as, I packed away about half of everything from the linen closets, packed away clothes from the opposite season, packed away about half kitchen stuff, cleared out the garage, etc.

That way when they open the closest and pantry's it looks nice and neat and spacious.

The other biggest thing was smell. Either make sure there is NO smell of anything or a light crisp clean smell. Do not go overboard with scented candles, air freshners, etc.

We purchased a few of those small wall plug in air purifiers. They were $15 at Target, we put one right by the front door, one in the laundry room and one in the baby's room.

Some people say to put a frozen apple pie in the oven and set it on like 250, so it cooks low and slow but won't burn at that temp. It can stay in the oven for hours. What dosen't smell more like home, than apple pie ?

The best thing we did was have a brokers open. It was great, we had about 20 brokers come through and then when we had out 1st open house, we knew we'd get a lot of lookers, we had over 50 lookers. After our 1st open, we got an offer that sold the house.

Good Luck and hope it sells fast

 

[shoney]

We rented a storage unit and packed away tons of stuff.

We resealed the blacktop driveway.

We put a fresh coat of wood sealer on the front porch and the wood flower beds in the back yard.

We recaulked the tub.

I bought new placemats, cloth napkins and rings to keep the dining room table set. I also purchased fresh flowers for the center.

I also did the same for the outdoor table on the patio.

I organized all of the closets.

Good Luck!!

 

[furb & dez]

Deep clean (and I mean DEEEEEEEEEP) the kitchen and bathrooms.

Take absolutely everything off the counters. If you have a garage, keep nothing in it except a car (in other words, when you purge, put all that stuff in storage, not in the garage!).

 

[The Wise One]

Check your baseboards! When we purchased our house I didn't look too well at them until I had to get down on the floor and clean them and OMG they are horrible! Lots of cracks/breaks that the previous owners painted over so now there is dirty junk stuck under the paint.

So when we sell the house we will have to replace all the baseboards.

 

[moonpie85]

You have a great list. One thing you have on there that I would wait on is the AC unit. I always tell my clients that buyers are funny, if you offer them the new unit during negotiations they will see it as a way better deal than if you say the AC unit is new when they first look at a house. They like the feeling of oh yeah look what we talked them into!

 

[akcire]

You have a great list. One thing you have on there that I would wait on is the AC unit. I always tell my clients that buyers are funny, if you offer them the new unit during negotiations they will see it as a way better deal than if you say the AC unit is new when they first look at a house. They like the feeling of oh yeah look what we talked them into!

I agree. I wouldn't replace the HVAC. The reason being, the new buyer may wish for a different system than you install.

I would make certain the rest of the home is spotless. If you have carpets make certain they are cleaned.

 

[cornflake]

Check the little things when cleaning like the above baseboard suggestion - check all the vents to everyplace and dust or remove and clean them. Same goes for any molding.

Also get a friend WAY taller than you and one WAY shorter than you, or a kid old enough to know what you're asking but short enough to be short to come in and look around and see what you've missed.

It may be like, dust or something on the top of the fridge or stuff stuck to the underside of a table or things you'd think no one would notice or care about - someone will notice and care about, even if it's dumb, and even if they're bent over or on tippy toes to do so, people are odd.

Also go around and check your grout - everyplace. Carefully. Have a bleach pen and grout knife and a little pail of mixed for touchups. Sparkly perfect grout gives an overall really good impression, marred grout gives a worse impression than it is, if you know what I mean.

If you have carpet, steam clean it. Even if someone is going to rip it out, places show better with cleaner/fresher looking carpet and it'll help with any odors you don't know you have.

Oh, for the apple pie smell, don't need to waste a pie, you can get the same effect on the cheap - set up a full teakettle with a couple cinnamon sticks and a few cloves and a drop or two of vanilla in the water. Boil it for a while before they're coming and then turn it off right before you skedaddle.

 

[SDSorority]

I am LOVING all of your tips everyone! My list is pretty extensive, and a little overwhelming. I'm just going to do a little each day and not go overboard to the fact that I want to rock in a corner

The HVAC unit is leaking from inside and is so old that it's not worth it to fix it, and since we know that something is wrong with it, we can't sign off that everything is a-ok, KWIM? Luckily we have an HVAC friend that can do the replacement for us at a lower cost than the "big companies" with the same amount of service (or better). But I do appreciate the advice on that, as that was my initial thought, too.

So I guess I better make a checklist... first step, purge as much as possible. We don't have a TON of stuff (it's only DH and I) but there are items that haven't been touched since we moved in back in 2006. Guess we don't need those

 

[funantiques]

DvR a few episodes of "Sell This House" on A&E, Saturday mornings.. they have some great tips!

 

[powelweb]

If you will be listing your house with an agent when you're ready to sell, you might want to have him/her go through the house now to help put the punch list together.

Another idea is to pay to have your own home inspection done so that you are not surprised by anything that comes back when you're under P&S- might be worth a few hundred $$$ to know if you need to replace the roof or if there are any other big concerns you should be aware of.

 

[emksmama]

When we sold our house in 2006, we knew which realtor we wanted to use as she specialized in our neighborhood. We had her come over and give us HER recommendations for interior paint colors, window treatments, and other things we could do to make the house stand out. She was phenomenal, and really helped us focus our budget and time...we went from that meeting to listing in 30 days, including stripping wallpaper in two rooms, painting LR, DR, kitchen, MBR and MBA, new floor in MBA, stripped and painted all kitchen cabinets, steam cleaned all carpeting, and packed away personal pictures and decluttered...all with a 2 & 3 yr old underfoot.

Good luck!!

 

[littleelf]

If you are fairly handy/can use a miter saw, you might want to consider putting up crown molding in one or two rooms. Paint it white before you put it up or get the already white kind, then just fill the nail holes. It's a relatively cheap improvement that makes a room look fancier and more expensive. Plus it can cover those spots on the ceiling if it's wide enough! Try it in the master bedroom, dining room or formal living room if you have one.

 

[skhermsmeyer]

We're going through the same thing now.


Clean, declutter, and have an agent (or two) come in and they can kind of tell you what you should and shouldn't spend your time on. DH was going to do a ton of stuff and both agents told him to do a,b,x, but skip all of the other stuff. Saved us time and money. Hope you get everything done that you want!

Good luck on the move!

BTW, the Salvation Army will pick up anything at your house you want to donate. We gave away our DS's room furniture because he was out of his "baby" furniture and DH wanted his new set to match. We gave away a ton of Gymboree, Gap, Janie & Jack, etc clothes along with the bed, dresser, pots, pans, etc. Everything was VERY gently used and the donation guys were really nice.

 

[prncess674]

As someone who just put an offer on a new home last night, I would say make sure any repairs you do are done properly. I looked at several "do it yourself" improvement jobs that were obviously done to help with resale, but so many were sloppy with poor craftsmanship, that I knew if I were to buy those houses I would have to rip out the old owner's "improvement" and do it correctly. If you aren't going to do it right, just leave it be.

 

[sherreis]

Thanks for starting this thread! We just returned from WDW this week and are strongly thinking about relocating to Florida in 2 years when DS16 graduates high school. So, now, everything I look at in our home is "operation Florida."

 

[richmond282]

You could go ahead and have a home inspection done. That way there shouldn't be any surprises when a potential buyer requests one. And please, please when you are ready to list, have your realtor take really good pictures of hte interior and exterior of your home. My DH and I often look through the listings on realtor.com for fun. I am utterly amazed at the poor pictures (or lack of pictures) people post. Seriously, if it looks bad in a picture, I don't want to see it in real life.

 

[angwill]

What we did when we were selling our house was pre-pack,

we packed away stuff that we didn't use often, or stuff we knew was safe to pack away.

It makes it look like there is more space/storage when it's really pared down.

Such as, I packed away about half of everything from the linen closets, packed away clothes from the opposite season, packed away about half kitchen stuff, cleared out the garage, etc.

That way when they open the closest and pantry's it looks nice and neat and spacious.

The other biggest thing was smell. Either make sure there is NO smell of anything or a light crisp clean smell. Do not go overboard with scented candles, air freshners, etc.

We purchased a few of those small wall plug in air purifiers. They were $15 at Target, we put one right by the front door, one in the laundry room and one in the baby's room.

Some people say to put a frozen apple pie in the oven and set it on like 250, so it cooks low and slow but won't burn at that temp. It can stay in the oven for hours. What dosen't smell more like home, than apple pie ?

The best thing we did was have a brokers open. It was great, we had about 20 brokers come through and then when we had out 1st open house, we knew we'd get a lot of lookers, we had over 50 lookers. After our 1st open, we got an offer that sold the house.

Good Luck and hope it sells fast

We did all the OP listed and repainted any rooms that were not neutral in color and any painted doors and trim that needed it got repainted.

I wanted to note that with the above it is good to pack away those things but beware. I went around with the idea in my head that I would pack away anything we would not need in the next 6 months. Well that would have been great if our house sold in 6 months like the realtor claimed was the norm. The problem is our house has now been on the market for over a year and when winter came around we were digging to find the winter clothes, coats, and blankets boxes. It was a real pain so make sure you know where the next seasons stuff is. I have also found myself wanting and needing some of those things I could have gone without for 6 months.

 

[2disneyboys]

Most of my suggestions are already on your list or previous posters...

I totally agree on...

Freshening paint inside and out.

De-clutter to the max! Then put the excess in storage.

Walk around your house, inside and out and snap random pictures... Then look at them on a Larger (than your phone/camera) screen a day or so later... It's shocking what will jump out at you...while looking at the pics, ask youself, would you accept what you are looking at in you next house/dream house? Ask someone you trust will give an honest opinion to look at them and offer suggestions.

Take any advice your realtor suggests seriously. 99% of the time, they are right on. After all, their goal is to sell your home for as much as they can, as quickly as they can. The more they get for you and the "less time" they have to spend on it = bigger profit for them, so take their suggestions seriously.

Did I mention de-clutter?

Good luck op!