Get Organized for Your Home Sale

If you’re getting ready to sell your home, it’s time to get organized. Selling your home is a big undertaking, and you can help yourself in the long run if you get organized beforehand. Here are our best tips for what you need to get together before putting your home on the market.

Organize your papers

There are key documents you will need to have readily accessible as you move through the sales process. Get as many of these together as you can at the beginning to avoid scrambling at the last minutes. Paperwork you should gather includes:

• Original sales contract with the purchase price listed
• Documents related to financing
• Tax records
• Title and ownership records like property surveys and certificates of compliance with building codes
• Homeowners’ insurance records
• Appraisal and inspection documents
• Receipts from home improvements and repairs
• Manuals and warranties for included appliances
• HOA documents

Organize your marketing strategy

Work with your real estate agent to devised a comprehensive marketing strategy. How will you get the word out about your home sale? Some tactics to consider include:

• Determining where the home will be listed online, including social media sites
• Deciding who will take the listing photos and videos
• Creating a stand-alone website for your sale
• Holding open houses
• Designing and printing flyers and mailers

Organize your home

A crucial step in getting organized for your sale is to prep your home for showings. In order to make your home look as inviting as possible to potential buyers, you should:

• Remove all personal items by stashing them in drawers or packing them up and keeping them in a storage unit. You want potential buyers to be able to imagine their own families in your space, which is tough if your grandmother is looking down on them from the fireplace mantel.
• Make the space feel bigger by removing bulky furniture and rearrange what’s left to create the best traffic flow.
• Thoroughly clean every room of the house. Remember, this includes closets and cabinets, as potential buyers are likely to take a peek inside them.
• Make necessary repairs such as fixing leaky faucets, repairing loose doorknobs and replacing burnt-out lights.
• Repaint in neutral colors and keep curtains open to let in as much light as possible.
• Spruce up your curb appeal by cleaning up the yard, patching the sidewalk and driveway and planting colorful annuals.

Organize your mind

Lastly, it’s important to get in the right frame of mind as you prepare to sell your home. There’s no denying that you have formed a strong emotional attachment to your home during your time living there. It’s essential that you take time to emotionally disengage so that you can treat your home sale like the business transaction that it truly is. Decide beforehand how you will handle certain situations, like a bidding war, and don’t take it personally should a potential buyer ask for modifications. Instead, focus your emotional energy on the next phase of your life, and understand that selling your home is a necessary step in achieving your goals.

Compliments of Virtual Results