If you’ve decided to try to sell your Scottsdale home this year, you need to complete a few tasks before you officially put it on the market. Even if your house is in pretty good shape, there’s bound to be some wear and tear you’ll want to fix before you try to get the attention of buyers. But the process of preparing your Scottsdale home for sale doesn’t have to be overwhelming. You can take it one step at a time with these tips on getting started.
Get rid of the clutter
This is the first stage of preparing your Scottsdale home for sale. It may be the simplest step, but it’s often the most time consuming. Since buyers usually peek into closets and even drawers, you can’t just shove everything into those nooks and crannies in your home. Instead, you should make a point to go through one room a week and clear out old papers, broken items, and anything else that’s taking up a lot of space in your house. Then you need to organize whatever is left!
One thing that surprises many sellers is that not all clutter is obvious junk. You might adore the two couches in your living room or the eight chairs at your dining room table, but they might actually be too big for the space, which means they qualify as clutter. You’ll need to remove them before putting your house on the market so that your house looks larger. If you need them in your next home, you can put them in your garage for now or consider renting a storage unit.
We work closely with a moving company called Get Your Move On, and they provide storage for furniture pieces ranging from antique pianos down to those pesky over-sized dining chairs. This can be a good option, too because they’ll already have the chairs stored and ready to move when you find your next home.
Put away the personal items
You might have the prettiest picture frames on the walls, but if they contain family photos, it’s best to take them down and pack them away for your new house. This way, buyers can visualize themselves in your home, which may help you sell it faster.
Keep in mind that pictures are not the only personal items you might need to put away for now. If you have a collection of unique items – such as dolls, wine bottles, or license plates from every state – pack them away before buyers come to your house. The chances are low that they have the same interests and you want to provide a blank slate in which they can envision their own interests.
Fix up your home
Unless you’re marketing your home as an as-is sale, you’ll need to make any necessary repairs before you put it on the market. These days, buyers tend to want a move-in ready home. This means you might scare them off if they immediately see leaky faucets, holes in the walls, or cracks in the ceiling, windows, or tile. So be sure to walk through your house and make note of any repairs that need to get done, and then take a trip to the local hardware store if necessary.
While you’re at it, now is a good time to paint over any bold colors with neutral shades so you can appeal to as many buyers as possible. This means painting over that bright green accent wall in your home office. Popular neutral colors you should consider include white, cream, and tan.
Clean and make simple upgrades
You want your Scottsdale home for sale to shine, and there are a few ways to do that. First, you should make sure it’s spotless before you get any pictures taken or invite buyers inside. This calls for some deep cleaning, so don’t forget to dust, clean your window treatments, make your windows sparkle, and wipe down baseboards and appliances.
As you clean, you might come up with a few easy ways you can improve your home. For example, if your kitchen doesn’t currently have a backsplash, consider adding one to make it stand out. This is a project many homeowners can do themselves in a few days. You can also install cabinet pulls, upgrade your sink faucets, and swap out old light fixtures with new ones.
Don’t be afraid to get assistance
You likely plan to hire professionals for certain steps of the home selling process, so why not get help preparing your home for sale, too? For example, you’ll hire a Realtor to help you sell your home, and your agent will hire a professional photographer to take quality pictures of your Scottsdale home.
If you’re having trouble keeping your house clean enough for buyers to walk through at any time, hire a cleaning service. If you don’t know where to begin when it comes to arranging your furniture in a way that buyers will like, hire a home stager. If you can’t seem to fix that leaky faucet yourself, hire a handyman! It often makes more sense to outsource these tasks to the professionals than try to tackle them yourself.
This might seem like a lot of work, but if you give yourself a few months to do it all, it won’t seem so overwhelming. Plus, the payoff is that you get to sell your house and buy a new one! If you’re ready to get started on the process of putting up your Scottsdale home for sale, call The Matheson Team today.
Don Matheson
Realtor | Founder
The Matheson Team – RE/MAX Fine Properties
21000 N. Pima Rd., #100, Scottsdale, AZ 85255
480-360-0281
don@scottsdalerealestate.com
