How To Get Your Home Ready To Sell in 30 Days

A Day-by-Day Guide

So, you’re ready to sell your home. Did you get a promotion? Have a new baby? Need to downsize? There are a million reasons why you’d need to sell. Whatever the reason, you need to get your home ready for the market.

You only have one chance at a first impression, so it’s important to put most of the work in early so your house is at its best. This guide will help you get ready from day one, to listing day! Without further adieu, let’s get started:

Day 1: Call Three Real Estate agents to schedule interviews

Every agent works in different ways. Make sure you take the time to interview several for the job. You’ll want to ask lots of questions and decide who will work the best for and with you. It’ll be a team effort to get your home ready to sell. Will that agent work hard too?

Day 2: Start Packing/Rent a Storage Unit

Decide if you are going to continue living in the home while it’s on the market. If you will, consider renting a storage unit to start the moving process sooner rather than later. This will help get some of your personal belongings out of your home.

Start thinking of the home as not yours anymore and start seeing it through a buyer’s eyes. They don’t want to walk through a potential home to buy and see someone else’s family photos.

Day 3: Contact A Lender or Two

Where are you moving? What if your home sold right away? Would you have somewhere to go? Once you’ve interviewed a few agents to sell your home, you should have an idea of how much money you’re going to walk away with from the home sale.

You may need to finance part of your next home purchase. Until then, time to apply with a trusted lender to find out how much you can afford on your next home. Need recommendations? Email me and I’ll connect you with a list of lenders I work with.

Day 4: Pack up your Kitchen

Clear off your counters, empty your drawers of the non-essentials. Put the boxes in the garage or your storage unit. You want this space to be very bare.

Day 5: Start House Hunting

Time to start looking online for a new home. Gather up a list to give to your agents when you interview them.

Day 6: Pack up your Entry Room

Put away the extra shoes and pack away all those coats in the entry closet. If you find that you never wear them anyways, consider donating to a local charity or thrift store.

Day 7: Decide on your Realtor

By now you’ve probably met with and interviewed a few agents. Time to decide who you want to work with. Call them and tell them the good news. Schedule a time for them to come over and help you prepare. They should give you a to-do list specific to your home. They want your home to sell for top-dollar just like you do!

If you’re buying your next home out of the area, still communicate with your Realtor. They can connect you with an excellent agent to help you find your next home.

Day 8: Front Porch Clean up

Does your front door need a fresh coat of paint? How’s the front garden looking? Do you have a pretty wreath you can hang on the door? You want potential buyers to walk up to your house and be wowed before they even walk in.

If gardening is not your strength, consider hiring a landscaping crew to freshen up the yard. Driveway looking dingy? Consider pressure washing or hiring a handyman to do it!

Day 9: Connect your Lender and your Agent

They need to communicate with each other to help you get the most out of this home to help you get the most out of the next one. Your agent will tell your lender how much they expect to receive out of your net proceeds so you can figure out how much you want to borrow from the bank.

Day 10: Go To Some Open Houses

If this doesn’t fall on a Saturday or Sunday, at least add “Open House Hunting” to your calendar. This isn’t for you to find a home, it’s for you too look at your competition. You want to see what those potential buyers will compare your home to. Use this to help motivate you to get to work on your house and get it looking its best.

Day 11: Pack up Your Dining Room

Take out that hutch with all the dishes and make your dining room simple. Table, chairs, and a nice centerpiece on the table. That’s it! Pack everything else away. You can keep art hung on the wall, but take down those family photos.

Day 12: Pack up Your Living Room, Part 1

This will be a big chore! Talk with your agent about what furniture they want and don’t want to keep in there, but the less the better. Pack away any personal belongings and arrange your furniture to create a good flow in the room. Not sure how to do that? Ask your agent!

Day 13: Pack up Your Living Room, Part 2

Keep going! Couch looking bare? Make sure you leave a few cute decorative pillows on them, or head to the store and pick some up. TJ Maxx, Marshalls or Ross have great prices.

Remember, anything screwed into the walls is considered part of real estate

so if you are in love with your curtain rods, or that cute shelf, take it down and pack it away!

Day 14: Schedule Some Work To Be Done/Rest Day

Do you have a dog? Are the carpet’s looking old? Time to schedule a carpet cleaning.

Roof looking mossy? Gutters gross? Time to make some calls. Today is a “break” from more physical labor and time to make sure some of those bigger projects get done.

You should make a trip to Lowes or Home Depot to gather supplies for the next few days of patching and painting. Pick up a bunch of light bulbs too!

Day 15: Take Down All Personal and Family Photos

Remember, you want potential buyers to see themselves living there, not you. Pull out all those nails and fill the holes.

Day 16: Touch Up Paint on Walls and Baseboards

Time to touch up paint any dings, scratches, patches, holes, etc you’ve made in the walls. Grab a brush, some rags, and some white paint and make those baseboards shine. Pay close attention to those corners that stick out. They often get the most dings in them.

Day 17: Clean Bathrooms

Clear off those counters, empty the drawers of the non-essentials, scrub that toilet, and replace any bulbs that are out. Consider buying a new white shower curtain to brighten up the space.

Day 18: Backyard clean up

Does your deck need pressure washing or any repair work done? Time to add mulch to the gardens, mow the lawn, plant some flowers, clean up any trash or broken items.

Day 19: Dump Run Day

By now you’ve probably gotten a large pile of trash accumulated. Hop in your truck and take a load or two to the dump. Don’t own a truck? Hire a handyman to do it for you. I’ve got recommendations if you don’t know anyone.

Day 20: Clean Master Bedroom

This room is important. Potential buyers will want to see this room really looking its best. Clear off the nightstands and leave only a lamp, empty out under your bed, clear off your dresser, and clear off the counters of your bathroom.

Day 21: Closet Clean Out

When a closet is filled to the max, it tells potential buyers that there is NOT enough storage in this house. Empty out those shelves and sort through any out of season clothes. Do this in every closet in the house.

Day 22: Clean Guest Rooms/Kid Rooms

If you have the ability to empty these rooms of everything but a bed and a night stand, do it. Again, you can keep art on the wall, but remove all personal items.

Day 23: Clean The Windows

I reserve a whole day for this because it’s more involved than you might think. When I say, clean the windows, I really mean CLEAN those windows. You’ll want to clean the inside and outside of the windows if you can, or hire a company to do this. They usually book way in advance, so if you know you can’t do this yourself, call on Day 1.

You’ll also want to clean the window tracks. My trick: an old toothbrush! If it can get gunk out of your teeth, it can get gunk out of the tracks. Grab a cup of soapy water and start scrubbing.

Day 24: Dust the House and Clean The Floors

And yes, do it in that order. Dust all the fan blades, window sills, baseboards, etc. Wipe down all the walls with a wet rag.

You’ve already had the carpets cleaned (Day 14) or at least scheduled for it to be done, but it’s time to vacuum the house and use all those attachments they come with. If you have hard floors, make sure you mop and take the time to really get up any icky parts.

Day 25: Clean Garage - Sign Paperwork

Use this day to finalize and paperwork you haven’t finished filling out and to clean up the garage as best you can. This isn’t a huge deal if it doesn’t get done, but at least make sure there’s enough space to access the furnace, attic access, hot water heater, and electrical panel.

Day 26: Last Trip to The Dump & Storage Unit

Last chance to throw away and pack away any extra belongings.

Day 27: Mow The Grass - Buy Potted Plants For Porch

Now we’re in the last few days and the house should be looking amazing. You’ve done a ton of work so far! Time to do that final face lift in the yard and mow and edge the grass.

Take a trip to the store to grab 2 pre-made potted plants to go on each side of your front door on your porch.

Double check all your light bulbs are working. If not, replace bulbs that are out.

Day 28: Last Day For The Small Details - Staging - Pricing

Deep clean bathrooms again, scrub the kitchen, and do a quick vacuum the house. Today your Realtor should come by to help you do some final staging and you two will discuss your final pricing for your listing. This might be a good night to go out to dinner so you don’t mess up your beautifully clean kitchen!

*Make an extra copy of your house keys for your Realtor.

Day 29: Photographer Takes Pictures of Your Home - Talk Expectations

This is the big day! Most of the hard work is now done. To get your house ready for photos:

• Open all the blinds: coil and rest the cords on the sill

• Open all curtains as wide as they go

• Close all the windows

• Turn on all the lights

• Open all the doors except closets

• Hide your trashcans

Talk with your agent about how you want showings to go once the home is listed and when they plan to schedule open houses.

Day 30: Listing Day!

You did it! The house looks beautiful and all those potential buyers will see the care you put into it. This will tell them that you are the type of person to take excellent care of things and it will help them have the confidence they need to make an offer.

Would you like a 30 day guide tailored specifically to your home?

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