Selling A Home in Saratoga Springs
Selling a home in Saratoga Springs is easy with these great real estate tips! If you're willing to put forth a little cash and a little effort, the return on your investment will be rewarding and certainly worthwhile. Saratoga real estate firms offer a wealth of knowledge on perfecting your home for sale, including tips on staging your home!
To get you started on your home selling journey, here is a guide to cleaning up, clearing out and making your house appeal to the broadest range of buyers.
Real Estate Tip #1: Clean Up and Clear Out!
Prepare to get your hands dirty! New home buyers are interested in seeing your home, not your stuff. Simplify your home to attract more buyers.
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Lose the Clutter
Crowded rooms filled with personal belongings can really turn a visitor off at open house. If your home in Saratoga Springs is still packed with all your clutter, it's hard for visitors to really appreciate each room and visualize their stuff in your home. The solution is to pack up extra items you don't need and move them out early. You can stow your belongings at a family member's house or a self storage unit. What should you focus on?
- Collections - you may love model cars or antique dolls or cookie jars…but your potential home buyer is there to admire your home - not your display shelves. Move out all the collections (yes, even your race track bobbleheads) and reclaim that space.
- Personal pictures - you DO have the cutest children, but potential home buyers get distracted by too many personal photographs lining stairway and living rooms walls, or in frames all along horizontal spaces. Keep one or two in beautiful frames that complement your décor and pack everything else away.
- Closets and cupboards - everyone who comes to your home will look inside your cupboards and closets. Unorganized and overfilled storage areas tell the potential buyer that this house has a lack of space…and that's not a message you want to send.
- Kitchen counters - remove everything… everything… and then add back one or two pieces you really need. Clean, open counters add space to the smallest kitchen.
- Kitchen refrigerator - don't forget to clear magnets, notes, and photos from your refrigerator!
- Toys - there's an entire section on that below!
Clearing out the clutter will make each room feel bigger and show off the true details of each space, making it easier for potential buyers to picture themselves there.
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Break Out the Bleach
Clean, scrub and sparkle! Your home should be spotless for potential buyers. This means no soap scum in the shower, no dust on the cabinet tops, no grime in the tile grouts, no mold on the ceiling, no spots on the mirrors and no cobwebs in the corners. Go through your house, and clean everything! Contact a house cleaning service if it's too much to tackle on your own. Many offer an intensive, full-house clean sweep. When finished, freshen up with a pleasant (but not overwhelming) air freshener or deodorizer.
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Get Rid of the Toys
Selling your home in Saratoga Springs means you want to appeal to the broadest range of buyers. Not all homebuyers have children. Seeing lots of toys scattered about the yard or around your home can be a major turn off to these buyers. That lifestyle simply doesn't resonate with them, and makes it difficult for them to imagine the home the way it would be if they owned it.- Clear out toys your children have outgrown or tired of by passing them down to a relative, giving the items to charity, or selling them in a garage sale.
- Pack up toys you want to keep but can live without for the next couple months and send them off to storage. Once you are in your new home, the kids will appreciate rediscovering these new-again treasures.
- Restage the playroom. Whether it's a corner of your family room, or an entire spare bedroom or den, chances are, you have a play area. You will need to redefine that space for potential buyers, especially if it's an entire room. Stage the new space as an office or a guest room - people are paying for that square footage and you need to help them visualize its potential.
- Keep only the toys that can be stored neatly in a designated toy chest or storage container in your child's room. The 'clutter' and horizontal space rule applies here as well, so those Barbie and transformer collections that are lining the room will need to head to self storage for now.
- Note -- The same goes for pets! If your children are your cats or dogs, pack up the multiple pet toys and especially for open house, remove the pet beds and litter boxes. YOU may have gotten used to Fido's scent, but potential home buyers will notice!
Tip 1: Clean Up | Tip 2: Cater To The Crowd | Tip 3: Set The Stage | Tip 4: Get Off The Set