Is Your Home Ready to Hit the Market?

With spring literally just around the corner, are you in the market of selling your home?

As winter goes into hibernation for another year, it is not uncommon for individuals and families to put their homes on the market, figuring spring is a new beginning and this might be the best time to unload the current home before moving into a new one.

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In order to get your residence ready to be shown and hopefully sold, you might have a ton of work to do or just a little here and there to spruce it up.

Whatever the case may be, take stock now of where you are in the home-selling process and check a number of items to see if this is time to move on.

Review and Proceed

First take a look at the condition of your home. Is it ready to be sold in its current shape or is there still some remodeling necessary before it can be listed?

In some instances, you may avoid having to do the remodeling depending on the person or persons that will be purchasing the home.

If it is a major repair, there is a good chance you will need to make it or at least come down on your asking price. In other cases, some may be so eager to get the home from you that they will agree to do the needed repair in order to keep the residence from going to someone else.

Also review the cleanliness and orderliness of the home before you have the first visitors step foot in it.

While your home may be in a beautiful section of town and look great on the outside (see more below), having what essentially looks like a dump inside will be a turn-off for many visitors. Yes, it should look like it has been lived in and not appear to be a museum, but keep it tidy so that you increase the chances of getting positive reviews.

Another area of focus should be the outside appearance.

This is another reason why showing the home off in the spring or summer months (especially if you reside areas where winter can be tough) is a good idea.

In waiting until spring or summer, the grass, bushes, trees etc. have had a chance to rebound from the colder winter months. Your home presents itself to potential buyers much better on the outside when the grass is greener, the bushes are nice and thick, and the trees are displaying their leaves.

The Little Ones

In the event you have one or more children, make sure they do their role or roles (unless they are really little) in getting their rooms ready for others to see.

Once again, while you want the house to look like it has been lived in, messy rooms of toys, handprints/fingerprints on the walls, and trash here and there are all recipes for disaster.

The same holds true if you’ve had a pet or pets with you over a period of time.

As much as you love your animal or animals, there is no denying they make for excess dirt in several forms.

From cat or dog hair to those hard-to-clean paw prints; your pets can leave a lasting impression on a home that is up for sale. And of course do not forget the smells that they can leave behind, this despite how much cleaning you might do.

Is Renting an Option?

While it typically doesn’t have the popularity that selling a home does, it is certainly not unheard of for people to rent-out their homes.

Whether it is vacation rentals, holiday rentals or even really short-term rentals such as when a Super Bowl or other mega-event comes to town, people looking for a little extra cash will oftentimes open their homes up to others.

Yes, there are the occasional incidents when visitors get a little too carried away and do not leave the rental home as they found it, but those are typically few and far between.

If thinking about renting out your residence for a short time, once again, make sure you have it looking spiffy and not like a war zone. When it is the former, you stand a much better chance of getting those extra dollars you are looking for.

With all of that said, is your home ready to hit the market?