Outside Your Home
Let’s do some much needed trimming.
Your curb appeal is too important to overlook. This is your first chance to pique the buyers’ interest!
- Add mulch in flower beds and around trees.
- Bring in color with low-maintenance flowers such as dwarf daffodils, peonies and hydrangeas.
- Cover blemishes in the lawn with sod. Any brown spot needs to be fixed.
- Replace your welcome mat with a fresh, new one! This inexpensive tip gives a sense of upkeep as the buyer enters.
- Need a bath? Check the entryway for spiderwebs, wasp nests, and dead bugs. This is a first impression, you don’t want your buyers to be disenchanted before they walk in the door.
- Make sure your front door hardware is in working condition. An agent having to jimmy a lock to get inside leaves a bad taste in the mouths of buyers.
- Consider painting your entry door if it shows any signs of peeling.
- Make sure your house numbers are perfect! There’s something creepy about missing or dangling house digits.
- Clean the exterior of all the windows.
- Polish up the exterior walls – make sure they’re free of any hard water stains and dirt.
Inside Your Home
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Pressure wash (this is really the fun part).
Pressure washing can be so rewarding! Make sure you hit up the front entryway, walkway, driveway, backyard patio and walkway, and even the sidewalk in front of your home! -
Clean tile and grout.
Make sure tile shines and grout lines are clean. A quick and easy way to clean grout is to use toilet bowl cleaner (we suggest watching a YouTube video for instructions). -
Destroy carpet stains.
You can rent a steam cleaner at many grocery stores or home improvement stores like Lowe’s or Home Depot. Get those pesky carpet stains out. The Listing Naples Group also recommends ChemDry by Warren for an alternative to steaming. -
Declutter, declutter, declutter.
You’re moving anyway, so box up things you don’t use often and put them in storage. Try to clear up the garage, too. Ask a trusted friend to store items for you or rent a storage unit for a little bit. The more spacious your home feels, the better. Think about it, buyers want to feel like they’re getting the largest home for their money. Remove large, bulky furniture and knick-knacks that don’t serve a purpose. Take awards off of the walls and personal items off of the fridge. Animal toys and beds need to be put away neatly. -
Clear out closets.
Storage space is always at the top of buyers’ lists. If your closet is bursting at the seams, it will appear that there isn’t enough storage space for you, which will make them think that applies to them. Clear out clothes that you won’t be wearing in the next six months and put them in storage along with those boxes of baseball cards you’re collecting. Anything you don’t think you’ll have an immediate need for should go to storage! -
Banish those marks on the walls.
Marks and holes in the walls need to be taken care of immediately. Nothing screams “we didn’t take care of our home” like messy walls. -
Address ceiling issues.
Stains, dips, or falling seams in the ceiling can be a big red flag for buyers. Here in Florida, buyers are very aware of signs of water intrusion or mold, and they go hand-in-hand. Don’t scare your buyer away with a water stain from an issue you fixed ages ago. -
White out your accent wall.
“When in doubt, white it out!” This is always an awkward conversation with sellers. While you might like the Alabama Crimson red accent wall (Roll tide!), 95% of your potential buyers will immediately see it as a chore to cover it prior to moving in. Help me avoid this conversation as your listing agent by just painting that wall to match the others before I even walk through your door. The same goes for kids’ bedrooms – princess decals and dinosaur murals, sadly, need to be removed. -
Replace light bulbs with daylight bulbs.
These bulbs are slightly more expensive than others, but worth their weight in gold when it comes to making your home stand out. We always tell our clients to think “light and bright” when it comes to getting their homes ready and these bulbs do 90% of that work for them!
