For a first time, even second or third time seller with children, getting your house on the market can be a terrifying experience. It’s hard to know who to trust when it comes to the value of your home, and it’s hard to know what improvements to make when trying to increase your home’s value. All together, this makes for a lot of work. Most people can get overwhelmed by the extra work, but, with some preparation, you shouldn’t have any trouble. 

Preparing Your House For Sale:

Of course, when you sell a home, there’s some preparation to take care of. It’s important that your house is ready to be sold when you decide to sell it. Otherwise, you could be losing out on potential income. Below, you’ll find some of the steps that you need to take for your property, before putting it on the market.

One of the most important steps to making your home as attractive to new buyers as possible is the decoration. When people see your home for the first time, it’s one of the main things that they’ll notice. The way that a room is decorated will change the way that it feels. So, you want to make sure that rooms are decorated in a way that makes them feel large. You should use neutral colors that will appeal to everyone. In most cases, you won’t need to decorate the whole home. Just rooms that are particularly dated or could perhaps be considered a bit ‘weird’.

When it comes to selling your property, you want it’s value to be as high as possible. In the run up to selling your home, you should try and add as much value to your house as possible. It can be hard to tell what’s best to do. So, it’s worth talking to a professional. Try to determine the areas of your home that can be improved the most, and see if they would add enough value to your home to make them worth it. These additions can include anything from driveways to new windows. Always make sure that the work costs will be less than any added value, though.

Like your decoration, buyers will also notice if the house is unclean or untidy. It makes it hard to visualise yourself living in a home if it’s dirty when you see it for the first time. Buyers won’t feel confident that the house will be clean when they take it on. So, it’s very important to make sure that you clean well. Your house at the time of viewing represents the final product, that also means tidying up the toys!

Likewise, your house should be free from bumps and scuffs. Little bits of paint here and there will always get damaged. It’s impossible to avoid. But, it’s also very easy to fix these blemishes. A tub of paint and a small brush are easy enough. Just try to match all of the colors well. Otherwise, the house will look patchy.

A lot of buyers will base their decision heavily on the state of a garden. Even if they love the house, an overrun garden can be too much for a lot of people to deal with. So, it’s wise to make sure that the garden is looking good. It’s not too expensive to hire gardeners for a day to do the work for you. Or, you can hire tools and do the work yourself. Most of the labour will be simple grunt work. So, you don’t need to be skilled to do it.

Once your house is prepared, you’re ready for a final valuation. For the most accurate valuation, it’s best to use multiple sources. Try to have at least three valuations made, and take an average from them. This will give you an accurate asking price for your house. If you try to sell the house for too much, it may make it impossible to get off the market. Or, if you go too low, you could get ripped off. Neither of these are ideal situations, so it’s worth making sure that you get a good valuation. At this point, you have a great opportunity to get any other paperwork in order, as well. It’s worth doing research and talking to a professional at this point, to make sure you do things correctly.

Your New Home:

Let’s take a break from your current home. Now, it’s time to think about your new one. It’s wise to start planning for your new home before your old one is on the market. Of course, for most of us, it’s not possible to buy a new house until you’ve sold the old one, but, it can be helpful to have an idea of what you want.

One of the most important things about your new house is practicality. This applies to both the location of the house and the house itself. For example; if you work inner city, but don’t drive, it would be a bad idea to live somewhere with no bus or train links to your place of work. Or, if you plan to build a family in your new home, not having enough rooms will force you to move again. It’s very important to make sure that your new home will fit into the rest of your life. Otherwise, it will make your life harder, and it’s not worth putting energy into something that creates more challenges.

You also need to think about the affordability of your new home. This doesn’t just apply to the price of the house, but the running costs as well. If you choose to live in a massive house, it will cost much more to heat and power it. Or, if you choose a listed building, you may have to perform extensive repair work to it in the future. All of these things need to be considered before making a purchase.

Most importantly, you should love your new home. It should be a place that you could spend the rest of your life, and a place that you feel comfortable. Of course, you have to be willing to make compromises, but, that’s just part of life.

Getting Your House To Market:

Now, here’s the hardest part. You have a lot of options to choose from and a lot of work to do. Don’t worry, though; most estate agents can help you through this process and will be more than happy to do so.

Choosing your estate agent is instrumental when it comes to selling your house for a fair price, in a short time. You can save a fortune in fees for selling your house by using one of the new breed of online estate agents. They operate much like a normal estate agent, but, instead of dealing with viewings for you, you have to show people around your home. The estate agent will still arrange the viewings for you, but it will be advertised online. Most house purchases are made from online views, nowadays. So, it’s not a risky way to sell your house. You may feel that a more traditional approach suits you more, though. For this, you’ll need a normal estate agent. It’s worth researching to find the most successful agents in your area, to avoid getting a bad deal.

Selling a house is about being patient. It could be several months before the right person stumbles upon your house. If you need to make a quick sale, it’s best to keep your house in the best condition possible. Make sure that you’re always willing to accommodate viewings, and be willing to negotiate your asking price. Of course, you could always lose money by being willing to budge. So, it’s worth having an absolute minimum that you’re willing to get for the house.

To make your home desirable, it’s worth keeping it clean and tidy. You may only have one day to prepare for a viewing. So, it’s worth keeping everything up-to-scratch all the time. If not, it will be hard for you to impress people during viewings. This can be hard to accomplish, so it’s a good idea to schedule cleaning and try to get everyone in the house to pitch in. Tidiness is just as important as cleanliness. People won’t want to live in a house that appears to be filled with clutter.

Being willing to negotiate is good, but, if you go too low, you could miss out on a better offer. It’s a bit of a gamble, trying to accept or decline offers. So, it’s well worth making sure that you know exactly how low you’re willing to go. Otherwise, it will be easy to crack under pressure. And, that could result in missing out on the best offer that you’re going to receive. Be careful to avoid being ripped off, and always make sure that you get enough for what the house is worth.

Hopefully, this will help you when it comes to selling your home. Like anything like this, it’s worth doing plenty of research before you dive in. It’s easy to make mistakes in an area like this, especially when it’s your first time – but, good luck, and try to get the best deal.