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5 Ways to Ready Your Home for Sale While Practicing Shelter-in-Place

Written by Posted On Friday, 17 April 2020 03:24
5 Ways to Ready Your Home for Sale While Practicing Shelter-in-Place

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, people are placing their homes on the market. They are turning to innovative real estate agencies to take advantage of digital real estate marketing such as virtual home tours to market their homes to potential buyers. Real estate agencies that offer virtual home buying programs provide home buyers a safe and convenient way to search for the homes they want and to make a purchase without risking their health. Still, some home sellers are choosing to wait to place their homes on the market until the coronavirus pandemic has settled down.

If you don’t feel comfortable placing your home on the market during the pandemic, you can use your time while quarantined to prepare it for sale. This way, when you feel the time is right to list your home, you can do so quickly. Here are 5 tips for preparing your home for sale while you are practicing shelter-in-place.

 

1)  Remove Carpet Stains

It is best to remove carpet stains as soon as they happen, but sometimes that just isn’t possible. A carpet cleaning machine is a wonderful tool that can quickly clean new and old stains. 

If you don’t have a carpet cleaning machine, you can still try to clean your carpet by hand. You’ll first want to use a spoon or fork to remove any physical debris from the area. Make sure you are gentle because you don’t want to rub the debris into the carpet. When the debris is clear, use a towel or paper towel that is both plain colored and damp to dab the stain gently. Do this for several minutes to remove as much of the stain as you can. 

Now you want to use a carpet cleaning solution meant to remove the type of stain. The Carpet and Rug Institute provides a list of certified cleaning products you can use to remove stains. Depending on the cleaning product you use, the waiting period to wash away the product varies. The last step is to use cool water and a dry plain clothed towel or paper towel to dab the area dry.

 

2)  Paint Your Walls

You may have walls where the paint is faded, chipped, or cracked, or maybe you have wallpaper that you’d like removed. Even if the walls are pristine, they may be an uninviting color such as a vibrant red or green that had fit your mood at the time… and only your mood. What about the potential home buyer? Is a fire engine red living room going to be something they can imagine themselves living in?

It is best to paint your walls a neutral color like white, beige, or light gray. These colors do well under standard lighting and give the room a larger appearance. 

 

3)  Upgrade/Replace Lights and Buy Bulbs

Having proper lighting in each room is a vital part of selling a house and will help the property show better. When a room is not well lit, it makes the room appear smaller and gives the impression of hidden flaws. You want to give the buyer the best first impression of the house. Take the time to test how each room appears under its current light fixtures and with natural light from outside, both during the daytime and at night. Make sure the blinds are open and every light in the room is on and working properly to see how the room appears under the best lighting conditions. Replace any lightbulbs that are burnt out or too dim. LED light bulbs are the best choice since they provide more lumens while using less energy compared to incandescent lights.

Make sure to buy at least one set of back up bulbs for each light fixture. Showing your home requires more light usage than normal, which means it is a good idea to always have replacement bulbs if one suddenly burns out.

 

4)  Declutter and Organize Your Home

Now that you're spending more time in your home, you may be discovering items you haven’t used in a while or even forgot you owned. What better time than now to declutter your home? This can be a big and sometimes overwhelming project. It is better to start with a small area, such as the kitchen cabinets or a hallway closet. This way, you will eventually develop an efficient decluttering process to make those huge projects go smoothly.

A great method for decluttering your home is using the 4-box method. You will have one box for items you want to keep, one box for items you want to give to charity or sell, one box for items you want to store, and one box for items you want to throw away. When you use this method, it makes you think about every object you pick up and how to properly categorize it, leaving fewer items in the trash and a better organized home.

 

5)  Note Needed Home Repairs

It is tempting to make home repairs yourself to try to save money, especially when you can easily look up how-to videos on your phone and have more time on your hands than usual. However, certain types of projects, especially plumbing and electrical work, are best reserved for the pros who can complete them safely and correctly the first time. What you can do is go through the inside and outside of your home with a notepad and pen and make a list of what needs to be repaired. Also keep an eye out for pests, pests’ droppings, water and mold damage. It is best to have a certified professional provide you an assessment so you can understand which areas need to first be addressed.

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The Young Team is a top real estate agency in Cleveland, Ohio that provides stellar realty services for home buyers, home sellers and real estate investors. Our realtors are proud to service Northeast Ohio. 

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