How to Make Your House More Appealing to Buyers: 6 Simple Tips
Are you getting ready to sell your house and wondering how to make your house more appealing to buyers? If so, you’re not alone!
This is one of the most common questions that homeowners ask their realtors. There are definitely some things you can do to get your house ready to sell. And the best part is that while they are all simple and easy to implement, they are very effective.
Here are 6 simple tips for how to make your house more appealing to buyers:
- Deep clean and maintain
- Declutter and de-personalize
- Use neutral paint colors
- Repair what you can
- Update lighting fixtures
- Enhance curb appeal
1. Deep clean and maintain
If you’re wondering how to make your house more appealing to buyers, the first thing you need to do is deep clean your entire home and keep it that way.
Some people are naturally tidy and maintain a clean home, but that’s not true for everyone. Either way, if you are putting your home on the market you need to look seriously into your home’s cleanliness.
Unkempt houses are unappealing to buyers. The poor maintenance will override any other would-be selling features and deprive your house of having a fair chance on the market. The simple solution is to make sure your home gets a recent deep-clean.
Even if you have maintained your home in a state of overall cleanliness and tidiness, hiring a professional company to come give your house an official deep clean before you begin showing it to buyers is a good idea. However, if you would prefer to save that expense, you can always deep clean your house on your own.
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After this deep cleaning, continue to keep your house clean, tidy, and ready to show off to potential buyers who come to see it. You want it to look, feel, and smell fresh, new, and appealing.
2. Declutter and de-personalize
Another tip for how to make your house more appealing to buyers is to declutter and de-personalize your home.
Cleaning (as previously discussed) and decluttering are not the same things. Your house can be clean and cluttered at the same time. Cleanliness has to do with the hygiene of the house, while clutter or tidiness deals more with the organization.
A cluttered home is not appealing to potential buyers who come to see it. A cluttered home is distracting, makes a room seem smaller, unphotogenic for listings, and makes the house seem poorly maintained, hinting at the potential for hidden problems. The simple solution is to declutter your house.
Part of decluttering your house to make it more appealing to buyers is to also de-personalize it. This doesn’t mean make your house impersonal, because you always want it to feel welcoming. Just make sure to take your personality out of it to make room for buyers to visualize their own personality inside the house.
This means that if you have family pictures on the wall or a large collection of eclectic memorabilia, it’s time to take those down and box those up. If you have a lot of personal items and extra furniture that need to be boxed up and stored ahead of time to make your house more appealing and sellable, don’t just put them in the garage. You want all of the spaces in your house to be uncluttered and look spacious. If needed, rent a storage shed for these items until your house sells. And get excited to unpack these items into your new house to make it feel like a home. Be sure to wrap precious items in a newspaper for safekeeping!
3. Use neutral paint colors
The next tip for how to make your house more appealing to buyers is to use neutral paint colors.
If you have a bold style when it comes to paint colors in your house, that can oftentimes distract potential buyers from being able to imagine their own style. Because of this, it is usually a good idea to repaint those rooms with colors that are more neutral and light.
Keep your house looking inviting, but make it a clean slate upon which potential buyers can see themselves living there and making decorating choices of their own.
4. Repair what you can
When considering how to make your house more appealing to buyers, don’t forget to address all those little repairs you’ve been putting off for months (or years).
All those little repairs that need to get done that you’ve just grown used to being there really add up. People just seeing your house for the first time with the critical eye of a buyer will notice all those things. This can possibly add up to an overall unfavorable view of your house as a potential purchase.
So do yourself (and your home) a favor and go through your house viewing it as a buyer, and make notes of what needs fixing. Things such as stubborn doorknobs, broken tiles, chips in the paint, etc. should all be addressed before you begin showing your home to candidates.
5. Update lighting fixtures
If you have an older home, another way to make your house more appealing to buyers is to consider updating your lighting fixtures.
If you’ve been living in your home for years and haven’t redecorated very often (or ever), your light fixtures might be outdated and could make your house look old and dingy to potential buyers. Modern home buyers prefer bright homes with a lot of natural light, or enough artificial light to keep rooms brightly illuminated.
So whether you need to change some bulbs or install some upgraded lighting fixtures, make sure your house meets this standard to help get it sold faster.
6. Enhance curb appeal
One of the most important things to consider for how to make your house more appealing to buyers is that they will see the outside of your house first.
This might sound obvious, but if you don’t pay attention to and address your home’s initial curb appeal, potential buyers might not ever even come in to see how wonderful it is. You don’t need to spend a fortune in landscaping to do this. Some simple gardening maintenance, removal of any debris and clutter, possibly a fresh coat of paint, clean and clear sidewalks and driveway can do the trick.
This can give your house an overall manicured look that will appeal to potential buyers and increase your chances of a fast and successful sale.
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