Preparing Your Home For Sale

Fall is the second most frequent time to get your house on the market, so now might be a good time to create your punchlist for readying your home for sale.

Our first recommendation is that you conduct some research online to help you determine what is on the market within the price range you think you home will fit (including new homes), what you see different in the homes being marketed from your home (particularly the new homes) and identify from that research your tenative “To Do” punchlist for your home.

First, let’s start with the exterior and the mechanical. The Cone Team recommends that all owners considering selling their home consider hiring a qualified, professional home inspector so you can determine, before listing, what an independent third party identifies as the important issues. From that, we recommend you develop your final “To Do” punchlist for you home and proceed to get those important deficiencies noted by the home inspector repaired in preparation to listing your home. We also recommend keeping all receipts that were paid for contractors to do that repair work so prospective buyers can see that you have been proactive about delivering to them a quality, well-maintained home.

So the sign’s in the yard, your house has been staged, cleaned, photographed, and now you’re living like a monk!! The clutter’s gone, the lawn’s edged, the kids’ toys have been stripped to two boxes… you’ve worked hard! You’re now ready for the offers roll in! Right?

Need to sell your house in Dallas?

Meanwhile, “life” is still happening full force and you’re just trying to say ahead of it. Here’s a quick checklist for getting out the door so that your home is working hard while you’re hard at work:

  • Empty the showers of everything and put away all but the décor on the sink.
  • Hang the pretty towels then don’t use them. Toss any wet towels in the dryer, set it for 10 minutes and gather them when you come home.
  • Scoop the kitty litter, empty the diaper genie, flush toilets, lower lids.
  • Make beds, open drapes and tilt blinds.
  • Turn the a/c down to “ahhhhh!” so your hot and cranky buyers love you for thinking about their comfort.
  • Empty dishes from the sink and put away the paper towels, scrubbies, stoppers, and soap.
  • Turn on lamps in rooms that tend to be dark.
  • If there’s a pull-chain in the middle of your dark storage area leave the light on so buyers don’t have to grope around your boxes.

Take a moment to smile in satisfaction at knowing you’ve done all that you can and someone is going to fall in love with your home and feel very happy here. Onward!