How To Prepare Your Albuquerque Home To Sell
Preparing your Albuquerque home to sell is one of the essential tasks a seller can accomplish toward getting their home sold. It’s a proven fact that proper cleaning and staging will best prepare your Albuquerque home to sell quicker and glean better offers with higher returns. Here is a YouTube video by John McCormack discussing how you can use the philosophy of a home builder to prepare and stage your home.
Get it Squeaky Clean!
When you prepare your Albuquerque home to sell, have the carpets professionally cleaned, mop and shine the tile and wood floors, and wash the walls, windows, blinds, drapes, baseboards, and lighting fixtures. Consider hiring a cleaning service for these items recognizing the overall benefit and added value to your home. Note it as a moving expense.
Kitchen and Bathrooms:
These rooms should be sparkling clean. Clear off countertops and refrigerators. Remove all magnets and artwork from the fridge. Leave your canisters and little else. Clean the stove, microwave, and refrigerator. Maximize the available counter space to show off all the usable space. Organize the pantry, cabinets, and drawers. If unsightly, have the tub re-caulked and remove mineral (hard water) deposits and grime from shower walls and glass.
Primary Storage Areas:
Like the garage, remember, you can do it now and reap the benefits of preparing your Albuquerque to sell with a more attractive space, or you can do it several months from now, in the process of moving, when there is no advantage. Please do it now; it may even help the move process.
Repairs:
Identify and make necessary repairs. Dripping faucets, sticking or creaking doors, and other unseen repairs. When people see areas of disrepair, they naturally wonder whether there may be other unseen problems or deferred maintenance issues. The buyer will almost surely have a professional home inspection performed as part of the purchase contract terms. So you can fix it now or later when the inspector calls it out and the buyer wants it repaired. Please do it now; this will help eliminate buyer objections and reduce concerns.
Closets:
Clean out the closets! Yes, cleaning your closets and getting rid of old clothing, shoes, bulky luggage, and just stuff. Organize your clothing and shoes. Remove all clutter from cabinets and closets. Buyers love to look in big clean, organized, and clutter-free closets; they can more easily see their stuff in them.
Furniture:
Having minimal well-placed furniture will make the room appear larger and more functional. Using fewer rugs opens up the floor space and creates a better flow.
Light Appearance:
As a rule, do everything to lighten the appearance of the home. Open the window blinds and drapes, and use light neutral colors if painting. Repaint any room that is beginning to look shabby. When you know your home will be shown, leave ALL the lights on. It is worth the few cents on the utility bill and may bring you a ready buyer. Make sure light fixtures have all bulbs installed and working. It matters!
Exterior:
Walk the property and take notes. Jot down anything that you think is less than satisfactory without regard to cost or time. Carefully review the list to determine what you can and can not repair. The more you can accomplish now, the less will come up during a buyer’s tour or the home inspection process.
The House:
Take a close look as you walk the entire property. Clean anything that looks unkempt or dirty; repair or replace anything that looks loose, dingy, rusted, or broken. Replace a tired-looking mailbox, clean the exterior light fixtures, and wash the windows. Try to spot hanging or rusty gutters, crooked antennae, loose shingles, or shutters. Use a leaf blower to knock down cobwebs and dirt on ledges, windows, and doors.
The Yard:
Remove all weeds; trim the trees and shrubs and lay in some ground cover. Mend any fence issues. Pick up all yard litter. Consider a professional lawn care service for at least the initial clean-up. Again, this can be a moving expense.
Outdoor Furniture:
Examine and spot-paint your old furniture. If it’s rusty or in disrepair, consider disposing of them. Homebuyers appreciate outdoor living spaces, so take the time to stage these critical areas. Having a tidy outdoor space is just another essential aspect of how to prepare your Albuquerque home to sell.
Front Entrance:
It’s the first thing your prospective home buyer will see as they wait for the door to be opened by their Realtor®. It’s worth the extra effort to spruce it up. If the front door is dirty or faded, this is a great time to repaint or wash it. Ensure all dirt and trash have been eliminated from the front door area. A new bright and inviting rug at the front door is always a plus.
The Garage:
The time has come. A good rule of thumb is discarding virtually everything in the garage you have not used for over a year. Wash it down, and mop the garage floor. If the garage is needed to store the boxes from what you packed earlier in the home, that is fine. Just keep it neat and organized.
Prepare your Albuquerque Home to sell.
In summary, consider a builder’s model home you may have toured. They are bright, sparkling clean, and uncluttered. They spend a lot of money to ensure that the prospective buyer never sees anything but WOW! We realize that most people reside in their homes; however, doing everything you can to prepare your Albuquerque home to sell will help you sell for more money and with less time on the market.
Consider this: If you looked at two identical homes side by side and one was cluttered, poorly decorated, and just unkempt, and the other one was squeaky clean, organized, staged, and just looked great. Which would you choose? Buyers are paying attention and making subtle decisions about every home they see. So, take the time and make an effort to prepare your Albuquerque Home to sell.
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