7 Ways to Prepare to Sell Your Home this Spring

 Spring and summer are generally considered the best times to sell your home, which means the hottest home-selling season is almost here. The days will be longer, flowers will be in bloom, surrounding mountains will be greener, and – according to Realtor.com – you are more likely to get a higher price and more favorable appraisal during this time of year.

There will also be more inventory, which means buyers will have more homes from which to choose. This means that you might need to do a bit extra to make sure your home stands out and makes a good first impression on potential buyers.

What will work best for your home will depend on your home’s unique qualities and needs, but here are seven ideas to help you think about the best way to prepare your property to sell this spring.

1. Clear the clutter.

This is always a good first step to prepare your home to sell. You can instantly improve your curb appeal by decluttering your front yard and will make the interior of your home feel larger, cleaner, and more comfortable by removing excess stuff.

2. Depersonalize at least a little.

You want potential buyers to see themselves living in your home, which is easier for them to do if every room is not filled with uniquely personal items. This does not mean that you need to take down all your family photos, but it does mean that you might at least want to consider reducing them and removing your personal collection of snow globes, religious relics, or souvenir spoons. When deciding which items to remove, keep in mind that you want potential buyers to remember your home, not your belongings.

3. Deweaponize your house.

This one might sound a bit odd, but I cannot tell you how many times I have walked into a home that is about to be put on the market and has guns, knives, swords, spears, or some other type of weaponry on display. This is not a great look for selling your home. If you have a valuable collection of antique weapons, you probably do not want to advertise this. If you have dangerous weapons in your home, you probably also do not want to advertise that. Plus, having weapons on display or laying around your house is going to turn off some buyers, and turning off potential buyers is not going to help you sell your home.

4. Take care of deferred maintenance.

Make a list of all the maintenance tasks that would make your home safer, more visually appealing, or better functioning but may have been put off due to a busy schedule or limited budget. Peeling paint, broken windowpanes, overgrown weeds, scuffed walls, broken sprinkler heads, and other deferred maintenance can make buyers wonder what other tasks you have been putting off. To avoid buyers questioning how well you have maintained your home, take care of those tasks that you have been putting off for too long.

5. Improve curb appeal.

Buyers begin to form an opinion about your home the first time they drive by or pull into the driveway for a showing. This first impression is paramount and is heavily influenced by your home’s curb appeal. You may have become a bit desensitized to how your home looks from the street, since you probably pull into the driveway at least once a day, so you may need a new perspective to help you determine how best to enhance the curb appeal of your home.

One way to do this is to walk across the street and look at your house. Could your exterior light fixtures use updating? Is your mailbox a bit crooked or faded? Does your trim need to be painted? Could your house use a good pressure washing?

Anything you can do to make your home look cleaner and more welcoming will help attract buyers, so consider making repairs and updates, adding visual appeal with plants or flowers, cleaning up your landscaping, and decluttering your lawn and porch.

6. Refresh ground covers.

One of the most affordable and easiest ways to improve the look of your yard is to refresh ground covers. If you have areas of bare dirt in your yard or spots where your gravel or bark is getting sparse, add gravel, mulch, wood chips, or bark for a quick makeover that will instantly increase visual appeal.

7. Do your spring cleaning early.

Your home should be as close to spotless as possible before your agent starts showing it to potential buyers. To help prepare your home to sell, give your home a deep cleaning, or hire a local cleaning company to do it for you.

If you are ready to sell your home, list with a local real estate agent who understands the Ojai Valley market and will know how best to market your home. Once you have found an agent that is a good fit, they will be able to help you determine how best to prepare your home before putting it on the market. This may include additional cosmetic repairs or upgrades, professional staging, or – if your budget allows – home improvement projects that can increase your home’s value.

---

AimeeJo Davis-Varela is a freelance writer specializing in real estate, sustainable home improvement, eco-friendly landscaping, green living, and travel writing. She is also the owner of Mind Your Manors, which provides second home management services.