19 Things to do Before Putting Your Home on the Market

An often overlooked aspect of selling a home is generating a positive experience for potential buyers through curb appeal and great interior condition. These 11 tips will will have your home ready for buyers and help to net you top dollar! 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 and make sure they're free of any hard water stains and dirt. Inside Your Home 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!

Get on every waiting list you can while you decide This is without a doubt step one to finding childcare in Naples. Nearly every daycare will have a waiting list and you don't want someone else to beat you to an opening. Sure, you'll have to make some phone calls and apologize for removing yourself from a number of lists later but you need to be on the lists early. Check with the local schools Once you know the part of town where you'll be moving, reach out to the local school to see what their childcare options are. I also recommend joining the school's Facebook group (if they have one) and ask other parents for recommendations. Ask around and you may uncover a great option. Ask around to find an in-home provider In-home providers are a mixed bag—some love them while others hate them. If you're looking for traditional daycare and are running out of luck, this could be a great option. You will have to ask a lot of questions! Are they CPR trained? Is the in-home daycare in its own space or shared family space? Are they insured? Do your due diligence and see if this could be an option for you. Hire (or share) a nanny It may be cost-prohibitive to hire a nanny but it is worth looking into. Some come from abroad and you may be able to sponsor them and save some money. Hiring a nanny will bring a new person into your home so you'll have to decide if you need a larger home now to accommodate that extra person.Another option is to share a nanny. More than one family will have access to the nanny so ensure the nanny isn't taking on more than he or she can handle. Look for out-of-the-box ways to get child care I recently heard a story about 5 Naples moms that watch each other's kids in their homes in a very structured, almost businesslike way. Each mom takes a day of the week and watches all of the kids from their group so the other 4 moms can work. That gives you 4 full days to work or do what you need to do while your child is in competent hands. Look at your family for opportunities You may have family members that could use some extra spending money (retired grandparents maybe?) and this could be a win-win. Ask your family members and you may uncover a good option!"

This debate has been going on for years but there is only one correct and logical answer. Real estate sellers often want to take $1 off of the price of their home to make it look better. So, you’ll see homes priced at $499,999 instead of $500,000. Well, which one is better? After all, $500,000 sounds like a lot of money! To illustrate why prices ending in 999 are incorrect, let’s look at a call I received today. One of my buyers called and asked me to modify her real estate search. She said to make the minimum $850,000 and the maximum $1,300,000. Right this second, there are 47 homes on the MLS selling between $849,000 and $849,999 and she’s going to miss seeing every single one of them! 47 sellers have made a mistake that will cost them buyers! Even sites like Realtor.com allow for a range of prices to be put in (see the screenshot). Who is going to put in $499,999 as their minimum. You can bet your bottom dollar that people will put in $500,000 even as the minimum. Who knew $1 could cost you so much! So there you have it! Don’t miss buyers over $1! When you list your home, keep that number round and you’ll get some extra traffic.