Home Selling Checklist – Things to Do Before Listing Your Property

Selling a home requires a bit of prep work if you want the process to go well. As such, we've prepared a home selling checklist – things to do before listing your property to help you out!

Do a home inspection of your property

If you want to sell your old home to fund the purchase of a new property, you need to do a home inspection. This is indeed something typically requested by the buyers. And you might feel compelled to leave it until then, perhaps even hoping it might not become relevant at all. However, this just means you are opening yourself up to a ton of potential problems. 

If the buyer is requesting the inspection, that means your home is already on the market. You've found a realtor, done a ton of prep work, and are now waiting for the sale. If a significant problem with your property is discovered at this stage, you either lose a ton of your home's value when you sell. Or you cancel all your plans and start the process from the beginning. So, do yourself a favour and face an inspection early.

Do your market research

While waiting for a home inspection, you can work on one of the things to do before listing your property: market research. It is essential to know what your local housing market is like. If you sell when market interest is high, you stand to earn a lot more money with a competitive property. On the other hand, the off-season has its advantages, with far less competition. Market research will also somewhat prepare you for the real value of your home. This will allow you to better plan your future, especially if you are looking into buying another home.

Do the minor repairs your home needs

The next thing to do before listing your property is to organize home repairs for the problems uncovered during the home inspection. Be very aware that your property can easily slip into a 'fixer-upper' status if you've avoided or ignored renovating or repairing it for a long time. This always tanks the value of your property, and you'll need to fix a majority, if not all, of the problems uncovered to avoid this. Especially if your home has a 'major' problem. In other words, problems with the roof, electricity, or plumbing. 

No house owner wants to deal with these immediately after purchasing a property since it is typically expensive and bothersome. If you want to sell for your home's full value, repairs are not one of the things you want to cut expenses on before selling. And if your inspection has revealed nothing of note, then you are one of the lucky few and can just move on!

Look into the ways you can enhance your home's appeal

Next on your to-do list is increasing your home's appeal. These are the cheapest home improvements you can do while also having some of the most significant impacts on the sale. Everything in this step is pretty basic: a new coat of paint, touching up your garden with some perennial flowers guaranteed to look pretty almost year-round, fixing up your lawn, etc. They are very low-cost investments that, nonetheless, really change the entire look of your property. 

Consider any worthwhile renovations

Now that you're finished with the necessary repairs and visual tune-ups, you can consider doing some easy upgrades. Renovation is a double-edged sword. This is because renovating your home can boost its value, especially if you target 'popular' rooms. A fancy bathroom, living room or bedroom can make a serious impact. On the other hand, you can very quickly sink more money into renovations than you'll earn back during a sale. You can't fully anticipate buyer response or how much money a renovation adds to your home's value. So, stick to cheaper options when doing a renovation or even DIY some of it yourself. And do not commit to major, expensive projects since they seldom pay off.

Organize your home the right way

One of the most important things to do before listing your property is to put yourself in a buyer's shoes. What do they want? As soon as they step into your home, they want to be able to picture themselves in it. However, if you're selling a home you live in, buyers may have difficulties picturing living in it. So, you want to emulate what can be referred to as the 'hotel look'. In other words, your property needs to look nice, but it should lack any personal touch, making it difficult for buyers to imagine their own lives. 

For example, one of the ways to discourage buyers is by picking up nonstandard colours for your walls. If you pick out 'unique' colours to repaint your home, you can easily turn away some buyers who consider them too outlandish. Even if they know they can easily change the colour of the walls, it's still an additional expense and complication.

Clean your property thoroughly

Next on your list of things to do before listing your property is simple: cleaning. No one sees a dirty and unkempt house and thinks: ah yes, I want to live here. Even if the home is in good condition, messiness detracts from its looks and, therefore, price. Note that you must clean your entire property, not just your house itself. At the same time, giving the exterior of your home a good cleaning is also essential. If this seems too much work, you can look into the pros and cons of hiring professional cleaners and consider hiring the pros. They can work on making your home shine while you deal with the paperwork and finishing touches on your home. 

Find a reliable real estate agent to represent you

The final thing to do before listing your property is to find a real estate agent to represent you. Realtors can offer you invaluable advice on how to stage your home, effective ways to market it, which renovations you can consider, and even when it is the best time to sell. Furthermore, they have a lot of professional contacts and connections. They can ensure your home's sale goes by perfectly, with minimal fuss and concerns. 

Following the home selling checklist to success

With our home selling checklist – things to do before listing your property, you can reliably reach your goal even without prior home selling experience. You only need to find ways to destress since compromising your health for the sake of a home sale is not worth it!

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