Essential Checklist: How to get your house ready to sell in 3 weeks or less

If there’s one thing all real estate experts can agree on, it’s the fact that the sooner your house sells, the better it is for you. The longer a property stays on the market, the lower it’s chances of selling at the expected price. So, every potential seller, as well as every real estate agent, aims to sell the property as quickly as possible.

Now, let’s be realistic. Packing up your whole house can take days, if not weeks. Even if you manage to declutter as much as possible, there are always so many things that are always lying around! The children’s toys, the dog’s water bowl, the unopened mail, the unwashed pile of laundry, the crumbs on the kitchen counter; the list is endless. And then, you need to impress potential buyers, negotiate a price and sign the deal! Phew, seems impossible in just a few short weeks, right? Well, here is an essential checklist so that you can get your house ready to sell in three weeks or less!

Hire professionals

You need to hire professionals because they are good at what they do! If you’ve got a house in Beckenham, find the best estate agents in Beckenham. If you want to get your house photographed, hire a professional photographer. Want to get a free property valuation? Speak to the experts! In fact, you even hire a professional interior designer or a professional stylist who can set up your home to make it look amazing. After all, people fall in love with homes at first sight because they like what they see.

It’s all about the paint job

Sometimes, all you need to do in order to make your house look newer and brighter is apply a coat of paint. The exteriors are just as important as the interiors – always keep that in mind. You can literally paint the walls of your home on your own, and you can even ask some friends and neighbours to help you out. You’ll be amazed at how different your property looks with just a fresh coat of paint!

Fix the little things

Okay, so you don’t really have the time to remodel the entire kitchen or create a kitchen island in the centre, but you do have time to change the little things. Fix any leaky faucets, make sure every light in the house is working, fix any broken locks, check for broken tiles in the bathroom or the kitchen, ensure all the switches are working and fix anything that might be broken or damaged. In fact, changing something as small as the lighting in the house can literally give the property a facelift! So, sometimes you might even want to fix the small things that aren’t broken.

Declutter, declutter and declutter

If you’ve got five minutes before a potential buyer is coming to visit your property, you will barely have the time to clear up. So, instead of running around like a headless chicken before potential buyers stop by, start decluttering the house. After all, the potential buyer wants to feel like they can eventually live in this home, and an endless clutter of personal belongings won’t help the buyer picture their dream home. You need to start decluttering! Start removing photo frames and decor pieces, get rid of those extra throw pillows, start packing up your closets and remove all the utensils in the kitchen that you no longer use! Plus, the sooner you declutter, the easier it will be for you to pack up and move out once the place sells.

It’s all about the simple things

Once you remove paintings and nails from the wall, cover up the hole with some cement and paint over it. If you empty out cupboards in the kitchen or the bathroom, line them with paper for a neater look. If there is a stain on the carpet, send it for dry cleaning or just replace it with a new rug.  These things are small and simple, often overlooked, but they do go a long way when buyers come to visit!

Start the process  of depersonalising

A potential buyer wants to walk into a home and imagine his or her life in this home. Seeing pictures of your family all around the place or walking into a bright pink room that might belong to your preteen daughter isn’t going to help the buyer imagine their dream home. You need to start depersonalising the space so that buyers can start to imagine how their lives would fit into this property. However, keep in mind that you have to be very careful while depersonalising. You want to get rid of too many family pictures but leave just a few so that this looks like a family home. You don’t want to have themed bedrooms, but you want every bedroom to have a certain character. It’s about finding the balance.

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