The Process of Selling a House - A Checklist

There are two moments in life that you’ll always cherish: The day you bought your house, and the day you sold your house because you got a new one.

And there’s a good reason for that. A home is where we grow and live our lives. It’s where we feel safe and secure. It’s where we laugh and where we love. It’s also where we change, and change sometimes means making a new home in a different house. 

While there are a lot of good feelings associated with home, the idea of selling one can also be pretty daunting if you’re not properly prepared. So, to help you out, we put together this little checklist of things that you’ll absolutely need to have covered before you’re ready to sign the papers over to your house’s new owners. 

1. Honestly Assess Your Curb Appeal 

Look, first impressions matter. The first thing any prospective buyer is going to see is the front of your house. That impression is going to stay with them for the rest of the journey, so you’ll want it to be a good one. 

Take a look at how your house appears from the outside. Is it a little shabby? Is it missing color and life? That’s okay, there are some easy fixes you can make to spruce up the looks. 

For instance, try planting some flowers in the front, or place potted flowers if you don’t have the space for any gardening. 

Also, consider repainting your front door. Adding some color can breathe new life into your house’s curb appeal and make it instantly more attractive to buyers. 

2. Declutter Your Living Space

You surely have a beautiful home, so you’re going to want to be sure that people can see it before showing it off. That means it’s time to declutter your space so everybody can see your lovely floors and furniture. 

Take your jackets off of the chair (we all have a jacket chair), and do a clean sweep of all your counters, tables, windowsills, and any other visible areas. You’ll also want to make sure your cabinets and drawers look tidy, since you never know where a curious buyer will be looking. 

In this way, the process of selling a home can lead to a more organized lifestyle! At least until the clutter comes back. 

3. Depersonalize the Living Areas

This one can be tough, because it means removing the “you-ness” that you’ve accumulated in your home over the years. 

The idea is that you want buyers to be able to visualize themselves living in the house. You want them to look at the walls and the floors and be able to picture their own family’s setup. 

The less of your personalization there is to get in the way of that visualization, the better they’ll be able to see themselves living in the house! 

4. Paint Your Walls in Neutral Tones

Yes, your bright blue walls are lovely. But blue is also one of your favorite colors. What if a potential buyer looks at your home and they personally hate that color? Suddenly you have a much harder sell on your hands. 

Repainting your walls to a neutral tone will help keep them from being a distraction to somebody who wants to live there. Light colors also have the benefit of being easier to picture in another color, so the buyer can imagine what the walls will look like after they’re painted the color of their choice. 

5. Touch Up All of the Scuff Marks

Look, we get it. It’s inevitable that a house is going to accumulate some scuff marks over time. It’s the true mark of being lived in. But that doesn’t mean those scuff marks should be there when a buyer comes to take a look. 

You want the buyer to fall in love with your house while they’re walking through it. Scuff marks will take away from that and instead be added to a list of things they’ll need to fix when they move in. 

If you have dents in the drywall or other dings, go get some materials at the hardware store and patch them up. 

6. Fix the Loose Handles

Yes, even a small thing like a loose door handle or a missing or broken lightbulb can have a cumulative negative effect on a buyer during the house-selling process. 

Take the time to fix the small things, and you won’t have to worry about them being a bigger problem later in the process. 

7. Add Some Greenery

Adding plants to your interior is a quick and easy way to instantly make the inside of your house more attractive. Green is the color of life and will introduce a pleasant atmosphere. 

They don’t even have to be real plants. If you’re not somebody who’d consider themself to have a “green thumb,” buy some realistic looking fake plants and place them around your home. 

8. Clean, Clean, and Clean Again

You already know that you’ll have to do a thorough cleaning of your house. After all, whoever buys this house is making a big investment. They’re almost definitely committing to a mortgage, and it’s a major decision. You’ll want them to see it at its cleanest when they’re making that decision. 

So after you’ve cleaned everything, gotten the floors spotless, dusted every last mote from the mantle, stop and take a breath. Then, do it all again. 

You never know when a potential buyer is going to schedule a last-minute tour, so you want your house to always be ready and in a state of peak cleanliness. 

Find a Real Estate Agent!

This is the most important step, and it should probably be done before everything else. 

Maybe the housing market is hot and you’re feeling tempted to go it alone instead of using a realtor. More often than not, this is going to turn out to be a huge mistake, one that will end up costing you both a lot of money and time. 

A good real estate agent will help you get through all of the steps involved in the process of selling a house. They’ll help you find the proper selling price, they’ll help you market it, and they’ll help you make sure your house is ready to sell when the time comes. 

And when you do find a buyer and legal documents start entering the picture, a real estate agent will make sure the process goes as smoothly as possible. Trust us, you want an agent on your side. 

Harvey Goodman Realtor® Has Your Back

Of course, you don’t want just any real estate agent. You want somebody you can work with and trust. 

At Harvey Goodman Realtor®, all of our agents are at the top of their game and experts when it comes to the process of selling a house. We’ll help you get through everything from putting your house on the market, getting it ready to show, and navigating the paperwork and inspections. We’ll be at your side from start to settlement. 

If you’re considering selling your house, make calling Harvey Goodman Realtor® the first item on your checklist.