Preparing your Lake Tahoe home to list can seem like an overwhelming task. You will often times hear friends talking about wanting to do upgrades and remodels before they put their home on the market, which can be very expensive. Getting your home ready to sell doesn’t have to be a huge production with sky high costs. In fact, there are a few simple steps to take before putting your home on the market that are also very affordable.
Declutter.
After living in a home for years, one can accumulate several items without noticing. When preparing to list your Lake Tahoe home, it is a good idea to go through your junk drawers, closets, garage and any recreational space and get rid of things you don’t use anymore. Depersonalizing the home is also an extra step to ensure your home is appealing to a wide variety of buyers. After all, a potential buyer likes to imagine themselves in the space, and when they walk into a home that has your favorite color on the walls, your taste in art and a ton of family photos, it can be a bit distracting. This easy step actually serves as a double purpose. It creates a cleaner canvas for the buyer to imagine their things in the home and also gives you an early advantage on packing and storing valuables away from strangers touring your home.
Make sure your home is clean and sanitary.
This means paying attention to the little details when cleaning. Chances are you do a deep clean weekly, with surface cleaning throughout the week. But are you reaching the high up spaces and clearing cobwebs, dusting on top of fans, cleaning blinds and making sure cupboards and all the nook and crannies are clean? A fresh set of eyes will notice something you no longer pay attention to. Additionally, if a home doesn’t seem sanitary, a potential buyer can get scared off. This is also a perfect time to get out the magic eraser for any art done at the hands of little ones, or stains you forgot about. Even cleaning off your furnace and water heater can make a big impact on the buyers’ eyes.
Fix repairs big and small and get a heads up of ones you may not be aware of.
If paint needs to be touched up, or a small piece of trim replaced, this is the time to do. Over time, homes see wear and tear from living and can usually be fixed easily and affordably at your own hands. For the big stuff, ask your real estate agent for a referral on a local handy man and then schedule a time for them to come out to the property and inspect all the systems that could come up as needing to be replaced on an inspection report. Ask for the cost of each repair to gauge what you can do yourself or what tasks you can delegate to the referred handy man. The water heater, roof, furnace, appliances and electrical are all things most buyers want in working order before closing escrow. Not to mention, any of these repairs or replacements can be highlighted in the marketing that goes into your property such as flyers, postcards, and MLS verbiage.
Once the inside has been taken care of, take a tour of the outside of your home.
There are little things that can go a long way when sprucing up your curb appeal. Is your mail box intact and upright? If not, a new one is affordable. Or repaint and apply new numbers to your existing one. Speaking of numbers, how are your house numbers looking outside? The local home and garden store usually has a plethora of different styles to choose from for a more updated look. Simply planting some new flowers or bushes against the house or along the drive away can also add a lot and cost little. Make sure toys are picked up from the yard and any outside storage is clean and orderly. If you have a bigger budget, consider the exterior paint job, repaving the driveway, hiring a landscaper or replacing shutters or other exterior finishes.
Due to Lake Tahoe’s Mountain conditions, there are a few steps to take that are very specific to our area.
Pine needles can gather in large numbers in yards, decks and walk ways. Clearing these off not only help curb appeal, but they also cut down on surface fuels that can be a fire hazard during dry summer months. In the winter, make sure that your home is easily accessible and snow removal has been done in the driveway and walkways. Don’t forget to keep your home temperature at a minimum of 60 degrees. Something to keep in mind all year around is that entry ways in Lake Tahoe homes can take a hit due to the granite. Consider buffing your wood floors or replacing the tile entry to make a good first impression. This will go along way when listing your Lake Tahoe Home.
While these are a few of the basic steps one can take in preparing their Lake Tahoe home to list, always be sure to ask your Lake Tahoe Realtor® for other recommendations. Realtor’s® are a fabulous resource of information as they have chatted at length about potential buyers feedback on a home for sale. They are also very familiar with competing homes on the market and what they have to offer in comparison to yours. A quality Lake Tahoe Realtor® will take extra steps to ensure that your home is listed and sold in the shortest amount of time for the highest selling price. If you are thinking of listing your home, call me at 888-827-8957 and let me know how I can help.
