Oh girls, it’s been a wild couple months. We decided to take the leap and sell our home! So that meant LOTS of prep as quick in a short amount of time.
So many of you have been interested in this process so I thought sharing more about what we did would be helpful!
How to prep your home to sell…Fast without hiccups!
1. De- Clutter : Luckily Covid kickstarted us cleaning out our entire home. I wanted to clear out the messiest areas first : storage, garage, closets! What do we actually use or wear??? Decluttering will also make areas of your home look larger. Any space that is packed to the brim is hard to see the vision.
2. Fresh paint : It’s easy to look over small scrapes or chips of paint in your home when you are living life. Now is the time to touch up those areas, stick to neutral colors that are on trend! It’s so hard for some buyers to imagine themselves in a home if colors are too bold!
3. Large appliance checks : Potential buyers will want to know more about the maintenance and age of big ticket items! Being On top of regular maintenance and knowing that a professional company completed the installation is HUGE! Luckily our AC and Furnace are under Hoffmann Brothers Home Protection Plan! We know they are in great condition and ready for the next family! If you are in the St. Louis area, I cannot recommend Hoffmann Brothers enough. They can cover everything in your home including Heating, Air Conditioning, Plumbing, Electrical, Appliance Repair and more!
4. Curb Appeal : This is a first impression for anyone driving by or glancing at the photo of your listing! We worked for two months to make sure our landscaping and lawn were on point! We also replaced our mailbox, pay attention to the little details. Drive around and take pointers from well maintained homes in your neighborhood.
5. Cleaning : Have you ever walked into a open house and cringed. Not our house 🙌🏻Once we were nearing the end of this process we had our favorite carpet cleaning company out to put the finishing touches on cleaning. They cleaned all our hardwood floors, carpet for in our master and stairs, plus did a deep clean for the grout in our master shower! We will be leaving the homeowners with a CLEAN home to move into!
6. Power Wash : While I am all for power washing our patio we needed our entire home, driveway, and patio freshened up! Be sure to have your home power washed prior to having your windows professionally cleaned.
7. Windows : It might seem silly, but your windows and window sills can collect soooo much dirt and grim seasonally! I personally don’t clean our window sills often 🤣! Another great tip is to remove your screens to show off pretty windows. Put them in your basement or garage for the next owners.
8. Small fixes (or big) : If there is anything you haven’t fixed make sure it get it done. Small issues will be a red flag. Luckily we have been proactive and our only “issue” was fixed a few months ago by Hoffmann Brothers. Remember that leak in our sink? A quick call to Hoffmann Brothers and they were there that day and replaced it within only a few hours.
9. Stage Your Home : With 2 wild boys our home is very much staged to living in. Aka full toy room, lots of fun in the basement, and 75,000 of stuffies! Pack things away that everyone doesn’t need, add extra lights, decor (breakables)! You can pull items from your own home or call in a professional to do a full or partial staging!
10. Smell : When we purchased our home it smelled soooo weird! I cannot explain it! We cutout cooking smelly meals + clean clean clean + spa like candles! Do not put overpowering candles or sprays all over your home! It will set off alarms to buyers that their might be issues. Did you know that the Air Scrubber also removes smells from homes. So if you have one, that could also help with odors or smells in the home you cant seem to get rid of. (Also, CANNOT wait to install this in our new house!)
I hope this helps you prep you home to sell and reminds you to use reputable companies like Hoffmann Brothers when working on your HVAC, plumbing, and electrical! Quick reminder too that for any work you have completed at your home within the last 12 months of selling you will need a receipt and lein waver signed. This took Hoffman Brothers less than 6 hours to email the documentation – a few others I am waiting two weeks later still!
Let me know what questions pop up before you start prepping your home.
-XO-
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