Taking Shortcuts

We encourage you to follow our plan: declutter, repair, clean, and revitalize. It will take time and effort, however. Depending on the age of the house, how big it is, and your collecting habit, it could take a couple of days to a month or more to re-condition it for sale. But what if you’re in a real hurry to sell your house? (Perhaps it’s already on the market and you are not getting any action.)

Reducing the price is the obvious solution. But don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Focus on some key areas!

1. You must declutter your house. Fast-track by packing as much as possible (don’t think too much). Sort things out after you’ve moved. Learn to live on bare essentials while the house is on the market.

2. Hire a professional to clean the whole house. It’ll cost a few hundred dollars but it’s an investment that will pay for itself.

3. Steam-clean your carpets. Buyers value a clean floor. When your flooring is in poor condition, it may not be a good idea to replace it now. It will cause more disruptions and delay the sale of your house. Give the buyer an allowance so they can fix the floor themselves.

4. Don’t want to paint the whole house? Touch up small blemishes. When a wall looks bad, paint the entire surface because old and new paints never match exactly. Choose a colour closest to that of adjacent walls.

5. Concentrate your efforts on three key areas that sell houses: the front yard, the kitchen and the bathrooms. Enhance the curb appeal and ensure the kitchen and the bathrooms are spotless.

6. Correct high-visibility problems such as cracked windows and doors, mold in the bathrooms, broken light fixtures, dripping taps, etc. Hire professionals to do the necessary repairs.

More tips from 'Prepare Your House For Sale'