The dream of every home seller is to have a sale that is super easy experience that is basically as stress-free as possible. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that selling a home the last two years has been basically that for most home owners in Kansas City that sold a home. We know that some of those reasons are that inventory was down and demand was high. However as of late things have been changing in the Kansas City real estate market. Though our market is still strong, selling a home isn’t as easy as just putting it up for sale and waiting for the offers to come rolling in. If you plan on selling your house this spring, you are going to have to put som work in to make it ready. Find out below the 5 things to do right now if you want to sell your house this spring in Kansas City.
1. Declutter and Deep Clean
It doesn’t matter what season it is you still want to put your best foot forward and make a good first impression on any potential buyers. One of the first and best things you can do to get your house ready to list is to spend some time decluttering and doing a deep clean. To sell your house this spring in Kansas City, start here first.
Most people focus on curb appeal first, which if we are being honest, that’s probably the first thing that will attract a buyer to your house. Right behind curb appeal as far as list of important things to do is declutter. There are so many advantages that come when you declutter your Kansas City home. It makes your home look bigger, shows off your storage, and makes your home show better online. Whether we like it or not, most buyers have an emotional reaction that determines whether they fall in love with your home.”
Keep in mind, too, that when decluttering, your goal is to create a blank palette effect by removing all highly personal items and decorations. You want potential buyers to be able to envision your house as their home, being able to imagine all their belongings in place and them living there.
After you thoroughly declutter, then it’s time to deep clean – everything. “Plan on spending a couple of weekends doing a deep cleaning. Clean your windows, floors, cabinets, showers, etc. If you don’t have time, consider hiring a house cleaning service.”
2. Make Necessary Repairs/Upgrades
Since you’ve likely lived in your house for awhile, more than likely you are fully aware of any updates or repairs that your home needs. The next thing you’ll need to complete are any updates or repairs the house needs. Like I mentioned earlier you want to put your best foot forward and you will want to fix anything obviously wrong with the house before you list it. The sooner you can take care of this the better.
But you also shouldn’t waste money on needless upgrades that won’t help you sell your house and/or won’t yield a good return on the investment. “If you’re going to spend money on costly upgrades, make sure that the changes you make have a high return on investment. It doesn’t make sense to install new granite countertops, for example, if you only stand to break even or lose money on them.” In addition, the upgrades that will help you sell vary from local market to local market.
Your best bet, then, before dumping a lot of cash into upgrades, is to consult a Kansas City agent who knows what will work in your market. To find out more about this, just call (913) 708-1185.
3. Work on Curb Appeal
This one is pretty much a given. The first thing prospective buyers will see when looking at a house is obviously the outside. If the outside does not give buyers a good impression you can bet that they aren’t going to be intersted at looking at the inside of the property. So you will most definetly have to start working on the curb appeal of your home if you want to get a buyers attention.
“The first impression prospective buyers will have of your home is from the street. Therefore, it’s important that your curb appeal and landscaping [are] immaculate. Trimming the bushes, edging, and mowing the lawn are all low-cost things that will help improve the curb appeal. If your landscaping has old bark or low-maintenance gravel, get some bark or gravel to freshen things up. You can have these delivered from your local landscape supply company for less than $100.”
4. Get Professional-Quality Listing Photos
Another important thing to consider is getting professional listing photos. How many times have you looked at houses on Zillow or Realtor.com and noticed that the photos of the house were horrible? This is often a result of the listing agents not being professional and spending the money to marke the home appropriatley and just using their phone to take picturs. Sure they might get lucky and sell the house at some point, but there is a very high likely hood that they missed out on the opportunity to attract multiple buyers simply because the listing photos weren’t done by a professional.
In our digital age when most buyers begin their home search online, top-notch listing photos are an absolute must. That’s why we suggest using a professional. “A professional photographer, with a strong portfolio, knows how to make rooms appear bigger, brighter and more attractive. The same goes for your lawn and outdoor areas.”
Again, this is where you should defer to your agent and her professional network. In fact, “[s]ome real estate agents build professional photography and virtual online tours into their suite of services.”
5. Find a Good Kansas City Agent
This brings us to what is probably the most important thing you should do right now if you want to sell your house this spring in Kansas City. And that is to locate an experienced Kansas City agent as soon as possible.
You can, of course, sell your house on your own, but you’ll miss out on the many benefits of working with an agent and you’ll likely wind up selling for less. “The advantage of hiring an agent . . . is getting help with the process from start to finish. A real estate agent can help you market your home to command a better offer, land on the best sale price, and navigate paperwork and contracts.”
For most home sellers, it pays (literally) to work with an experienced agent. So if you want to sell your house this spring in Kansas City, contact us today at (913) 708-1185.