What Do You Need to Do Before Putting Your Home on the Market?

There are many Howard County area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a free property valuation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call us at 410-964-2400 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

We hope you had a safe and happy Labor Day! We're here today to give you some tips on how you can prepare your home for the market. Regardless of whether you plan to move today, in a few months, or years down the road. we think you'll find these 5 tips helpful:

1. Decultter: This one is obvious, but you would be surprised by the number of people who don't clear their home of clutter before putting it on the market. By storing seldom-used appliances, cleaning out junk drawers, and moving random items from surfaces you not only make your home look better, you make the moving process easier.
2. Depersonalize: You need to make your home as neutral and anonymous as possible. Remove family photos, artwork, refrigerator magnets, and other personal items. You want potential buyers to think of their families living in the house, not yours. 
3. Study the market: If you are familiar with the real estate trends in your area, you will have a much better chance of selling your home. Contact anyone from our team and we'll happily send you the comparables from your area.
4. Search your home: Get online and go to the various home search sites and see if your home stands out in terms of price and condition. Your home needs to be in the top 6 in your price range if you want it to get maximum exposure. An agent can help with this.
5. Improve: Do small, affordable jobs around the house to improve your home's value. Replacing light fixtures, applying a fresh coat of paint, and cleaning your carpet will go a long way toward making your home look great. Ideally, you want to spend less than 1% of the sales price on these little improvements.

These 5 tips are just a starting point. There are plenty of cheap and easy things you can do to and around your home to sell it quickly and for top dollar.

If you're interested in selling your home, shoot us an email with your address and neighborhood, and we'll send you a free comparative market analysis on a monthly basis - simply email us at Homes@Hiban.com. As always, if you have real estate questions of any kind, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We're your number one Columbia real estate resource!