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Are you looking into selling your old home?
Across Australia, flocks of internal migrants look towards finding and settling into one of Australia’s greatest cities. Just in the year 2018, Muval showed record breaking numbers of 404,000 interstate movers alone – a staggering year on year increase by 2.9%. These reasons for moving primarily consist of education, a relationship, an illness or disability, or a brand new job opportunity.
And with every move, you’ll leave behind a perfectly capable home for another individual and family to call their own.
Here are seven things you should do before selling your home.
Declutter
Over the years, you may have accumulated a tonne of memorabilia, items, and gifts that are sitting cozily in your shelves or taking space in your drawer tops. While they may hold sentimental value, you can’t just bring them all without further stressing yourself out with more items to take care of during the move.
So our number one thing to do: declutter and put all of your old stuff in organised boxes! Whether you plan on donating your clothes and items towards a better cause like a charity, or sell them on a garage sale, it’s up to you. Do whatever makes you happy, and try to set the decluttering process in the early stages of your move to avoid delays and inconveniences once a prospect scouts your place.
Dust off the windows and top shelves
Have you ever looked behind the cupboard lately? How about those top shelves in you or your child’s room? The upper windows?
It’s a known fact that dust accumulates everywhere we don’t look. A dust-filled house can be a deal breaker for any interested prospect since it tells a lot of the overall maintenance of the home from the previous owners (aka you).
Put in a couple of hours dusting off the hard-to-reach areas around your home. For higher areas like the ceiling, grab a long broom and frisk away the dust and cobwebs in the corners of those spaces. Try to clean it a bit later along the moving process; you wouldn’t want the dust to resurface again as time passes and tick off the potential buyers.
Organise the cabinets and pantries
The space where you keep your clothes and spices can have two states: neat and orderly, or a massive headache. No in-between.
If your case falls under the latter, look into setting aside time in your day to prop everything back up to something decently presentable. If you have expired condiment containers, throw them away or lug them for safekeeping for your new home. For your clothes, slowly pack them in boxes and keep a small rotation of clothes available on the days leading up to the move.
Once the insides of these spaces become neat and orderly, wipe the sides with damp cloth. Clear out anything in excess, either by putting it in the bin or the moving box.
Replace light bulbs and fix loose handles
Do you have a light bulb in your home that doesn’t light up?
It’s broken. Check for available bulbs in the hardware store (be sure you find a compatible type) and replace the bulb to make it look brand new. By doing this, your potential buyer will feel comfortable with the fact that everything seems to be working – which means less stress for them and a potential profit for you.
Aside from light bulbs, replace any loose screws and door handles around your home too. A fully functional home would give you a much better shot at securing the deal.
Take out the trash
Let’s face it: no one likes looking at a pile of used napkins, soiled food, and overflowing garbage on a kitchen bin. Before the potential buyer arrives, try to keep your litter down at a minimum as much as possible. If your bin is an open-mouthed prototype, try to keep it to as few foul-smelling emitters as much as possible. Even closed bins can emit a foul odour in a good number of cases – so try to get rid off the trash and the scent as well.
Keep your trash secured in a trash bag, throw it away in the dumpster, and ensure your floors aren’t littered with stray papers and plastic too.
Vacuum and sweep
Whether you have carpeted flooring or tiles, it’s always a good idea to vacuum and sweep your place before anyone visits. Dirt patches and dust heaps lying about can be unsightly to most people – and it tends to get easily noticed too.
Vacuum the living room, kitchen, and bedrooms to bring the dirt levels as close to spotless as possible. Also, sweep tile floors and outside patios to keep those walking areas clean.
Paint walls a neutral tone
While this may seem like a tall order, repainting walls can give off a fresh, new feeling to your home. It can conceal the wall’s personalised touches too, like the drawings or squiggles that your child drew in.
You may love your cyan blue painted walls, but your buyer may not be so keen on that colour. Instead, give your walls a fresh coat of neutral paint. It’s simple, uncontroversial, and a great tried-and-true colour. And if your prospective buyer wishes, they could even just go around and paint in the walls themselves!
