50 Tips To Sell Your Home Fast in Northeast Ohio

50 Tips To Sell Your Home Fast By Realty Done

The Ultimate Home Selling Checklist For Cleveland Akron Homesellers

Attention Home Sellers: Get your home sold fast and for top dollar by properly preparing your home for sale with 50 tips to sell your home fast. If you’re planning to sell your home, this checklist will get your home ready for attracting buyers. The more potential homebuyers you attract, the more demand you create for your home, and the more offers you shall receive as long as your home is priced to sell. Right pricing your home to sell will be another topic for a later time. First, let’s get your home looking right to be listed for sale.

As a home seller, your main goal is to attract lots of buyers. In this hour-long video, I discuss the exact checklist, 50 Tips To Sell Your Home Fast, my seller clients use to get more attention on thier home online using excellent photography, video, and 3D tours. Remember, first impressions are lasting impressions. Everyone wants what others are would desire, and this is how you attract more showings. When you do this right, buyers will quickly set up a time to view your home.

Once your home starts to pile on the showings, the urgency to get the offers in becomes the number one importance for buyers and the selling agents representing them. This pent up demand for your home is how you sell for the most amount of money the market is willing to pay for your house.

I’m providing 50 Tips To Sell Your Home Fast to you with no strings attached for you to get the opportunity to understand one of the most important steps in selling your home. Yes, I’m also doing this so you can get to know me and show you have I can massively benefit you if you decide to see what else Realty Done is able to do to get your home sold at the price you want and with the terms that you want.

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Start Here: 50 Tips To Sell Your Home Fast

So, if you’re looking to sell your home, these 50 tips to sell your home fast, are definitely a home preparation checklist that you’re going to find extremely beneficial to sell your home fast and for top dollar. One of the biggest things that you want to keep in mind when selling is to remove the fact that you’re living in your home and you want to make your home look more like a model home.

One of the things that I did for a decade was, I worked in a builder’s model. I really understand the concept of taking the home you live in and making your house into more of a model-like setting. This 50 Tips To Sell Your Home Fast checklist is going to walk you through what you need to do. The nice thing is this 50 tips to sell your home fast checklist is going to be downloadable for you to use. It is checkable too if you don’t want to print it off.

I can tell you right now, sometimes as you look at these 50 tips to sell your home fast checklist, you’re going to be like, Oh my God, I have to do all these different things I need to do. Some tasks may apply to you some may not, but if you follow this checklist, I can guarantee that you will be able to sell your home faster and for more money.

The big idea to start off with is making sure that you understand you are not going to market your home, the way you live in your home.

Nobody really lives in the home the way you do, unless you are an extreme, OCD type person and your house already looks like a model, which there are certain cases where that is reality. If you are OCD, you’re going to get through these 50 tips to sell your home fast checklist much quicker than the typical home seller. So, keep in mind and make sure you understand you’re not marketing your home the way you live in your home. You also want to make sure after you do all this, that you have your home priced, right if you want to sell it fast and for top dollar.

If you overprice your home listed for sale, to an extent where all the buyers out there are looking at your home online, and yeah, it looks great, but it’s way overpriced, you’re not going to get the same results. So understanding that right pricing your home, as well as making it look like a model, is going to be something very important to you the home seller.

General: 50 Tips To Sell Your Home Fast

HVAC Maintenance

One of the big things, when we go through the general items is your HVAC and filters are one of the first things that always tends to pop up on a home inspection. This is why it shows at the top of our 50 tips to sell your home fast checklist. So to eliminate the HVAC problems, if your home has not had your furnace and air conditioning system serviced or cleaned in the last year, this is something that you want to take care of and handle NOW. Why let your HVAC show up on a home inspection report if you know an inspector will mark it looks dirty and a professional HVAC inspection is recommended. You can avoid this from happening by having it serviced and cleaned before listing. If the HVAC has not been serviced in the past 12 months, then an HVAC concern just gives the home buyer a reason to back out of the deal to purchase your home.

So what I always suggest is have the HVAC cleaned and make sure your air filter is new before listing.

You also want to take that receipt from the service and tape it right to your furnace inside your house. If that’s in your basement or on the first floor, wherever that furnace is, just leave the service receipt on the furnace. Not only for guests as they come into your home to see but also make it easy for the home inspector to know you maintain your HVAC wo there’s no issue for an inspector to note on a report.

One of the other big things to keep in mind is depending on how old your home is, there are home inspectors that will lift the vent covers. If you have a bunch of debris inside those vent covers, this is going to be something that they might bring up to have your vents serviced or cleaned that could run a thousand dollars or more. So stick a vacuum down all your vents and just suck up as much as you can. Clean ductwork presents a lot better and looks a lot better if someone decides to take a peak.

Once a home inspector points out all the debris that’s inside your vents, it can make a buyer feel like they’re breathing dirty air even if they are not. I’ve seen a lot of customers get turned off or disgusted by dirty homes and you don’t need to create extra problems for yourself.

Repair Broken Items

One of the things, I don’t understand is, there’s a lot of people out there that list their home, but they don’t want to do anything to make it stand out. They don’t want to get it ready for a new buyer to come in and be excited to purchase their home. They leave the future buyers with a lot of little items to fix and repair, yet want top dollar.

That would almost be like trying to sell your dirty car. Think about it, your the only dirty car on the car lot. And everybody else has these beautiful, clean, pristine cars inside and out. You want to make your house that way too, clean inside and out. So if there are little items that are broken or need to be replaced, spend a couple of bucks to fix what is needed.

If your home repairs get put on a home inspection report, it could cost you more in negotiations, time and stress.

Repaint/Touch-up Dirty Walls

You also want to make sure and take care of walls, which may mean painting. You’ll want to touch up dirty walls. You can do this with a dry eraser first to see if you fix it. If you can’t remove with a dry easer, make sure you do some paint touch-ups.

You want to repaint also if you have crazy colors in your house. You know, like a bright pukey green or a really, really strong red, etc. Not everybody’s going to like your bright and bold color choices. The easiest way to eliminate colors that may turn buyers off is if you’re going to be repainting whole rooms, go-to neutral colors… your brown tones or your gray tones. Gray tones are obviously more popular right now to a lot of buyers out there. There are still people out there like myself that like more of the brown tones.

Magic Erasers Save Time

If you’re just doing paint touch-ups, try with a dry eraser first and see if that removes the blemishes first. This way you’re not doing extra work.

Tighten Gaps With Caulk

The other big thing is when you look up your staircase, the trim around the doors, or the trim around the floors if there are gaps from caulk that shrunk you should get that filed before touching up. Buying a tube of caulk and putting a nice line of caulk down that covers up those gaps gives that new feel. Again, if you’re not good with caulk, which a lot of people aren’t, there are tips and tricks that you can do to make it a cleaner process. Just don’t put too much caulk down and you won’t have the problem, just make sure you have enough caulk to fill any gaps.

But I can tell you right now, when you’re walking up a staircase, most people are looking down, so they’re not tripping. And one thing they’re going to be looking at is if you have a staircase with a bunch of gaps from caulk that has dried out, this is an easy way to fix it and make your staircase look new, make your trim look tight. If you’ve ever heard the term do your best caulk the rest. I always joke about it with painters and builders, but the point being, it’s so true because a little bit of caulk can clean up a lot of gaps in trim. If needed, you can put a little paint over the caulk so it matches the rest of the trim. That’s another way to make your trim and your staircases look amazing.

Clean The Windows And Make It Bright

One of the things that I always stress, and I don’t know why people don’t do this, but we have our windows cleaned every year inside and out.

Clean windows make a huge difference, especially when you’re going to sell your home. So I was listing a home not that long ago. I gave my clients this checklist, and I don’t think they’ve ever cleaned their windows since about 2014. Point is, when I came in to see the house right before listing and pictures, I’m like, guys, you didn’t clean your windows. We quickly got the window company out and cleaned the windows. My clients stated, Oh my God, I cannot believe the difference.

And you know, sometimes you got to get out of your own way and listen to the advice from agents who do this often. When you’re selling your home, quit thinking about what you do or don’t need to do, think about what the buyer’s going to be looking at and what they want. If you make your house look better than everybody, else’s, it’s going to go a huge way in your favor.

The funniest thing is, I’ve walked into homes and I don’t know if the window’s dirty or a seal is broken because it just looks foggy. Do you want a buyer questioning that with your home? Sometimes the windows are so dirty that it just looks like it might be one or the other. Well, if you have clean windows, you’re going to notice this issue right away. And if you do have a broken seal, don’t wait until it’s on the market, fix any broken seals upfront. Once again, fixing obvious repairs upfront eliminates negotiations and makes a home seller’s life a lot easier during the selling process.

Switches and Plates

You want to repair and replace broken light switches, switch plates, electrical plates, and especially clean them if they’re dirty. Think about it, our hands aren’t always washed all the time and you keep touching light switches. Overtime they look a little gunky. Switches and plates are normally white or cream. If they’re starting to look a little discolored, clean them.

Light switches or plates are cheap. Plates cost, maybe a couple of bucks. If you have a broken one, why not replace it and make it look brand new. What this also does is you’re giving an impression to your future buyer, that your house isn’t going to nickel and dime them. That’s this home has been well-maintained.

Even if your house hasn’t been maintained over the years, that doesn’t mean that you can’t market it and make it look like it’s maintained because you actually took the necessary time to fix it all up. My only point is, right now, even if you’re not looking to sell your house today, getting all this stuff ready, at least, gives you a little time to enjoy a much nicer looking home until you do sell.

Remove Your Personality

You want to limit personal or family photos. When people walk through a home, the first thing that they’re going to do is try to look for at who you know, who they might know, who you might know that they know. When this occurs, potential buyers are not 100% looking at your house. They’re looking at photos. Some might make comments if you know somebody who’s really pretty or not. Somebody may comments if they don’t look that pretty or handsome, however, you want to look at it.

Point is, buyers focusing on your photos is not what you want any buyer to be doing while they’re in your home. You want them looking at the house, looking at the floor plan, and looking at the shape your home is in. You want potential buyers to be confident that your home is not going to nickel and dime them after they close.

So you know, I even had a client recently remove all personal photos. They went to an extreme, which I was like, Oh my God, I think they took this a little too far. But the weird thing was the first day and a half of showings, we had three showings and three full-price offers. So what do you think about that? Everyone that walked through that listing said it looked like a model home. The sellers did a lot of work to prep to make it look like a model home. And they had three showings and three full-priced offers.

What seller wouldn’t appreciate having showings and offers every time somebody comes through the door, it’s a huge benefit and stress relief knowing you have a hot home on the market.

So to make sure that you attract buyers, eliminate or remove your personality in the home when it comes to photos, and that could even be religious and political stuff too. Not everybody’s going to believe in or agree with the same things you do.

There was a time where I walked into a seller’s house and there were crosses in every bedroom. I asked them to remove all of the crosses. I don’t think they were that happy about my request but at the end of the day, numerous crosses might creep some people out that aren’t as religious or they might think that maybe the house is haunted and there’s some sort of protection going on or whatnot. If you think I’m full of $#*%, try walking through homes with buyers and you’ll be amazing in things that are said. Sometimes it’s easier to take the neutral ground and increase buyer demand.

Pets and Their Stuff

When it comes to pet bowls, toys, and crates during pictures and showings, you want to remove the signs of your beloved pets. Once again, some people might not like pets. Some people may be allergic to pets. So you want to remove all these different signs when possible. Now keep in mind if you have cats and somebody is highly allergic to cats, it might make sense to have your vents vacuumed out and clean. Once again, that’s probably around a thousand bucks or more, but the point is you’re eliminating a large group of people because there’s a lot of people that don’t like cats and don’t want that dander in the house. You do want to remove pet bowls, toys and crates.

I just had a client with huge dogs. During the listing of their home, even during the showings, and pictures of the home, we removed all the pets and their stuff out and it was not an objection from my sellers. By the way, they got full asking price and everyone commented on how great the home looked. No smell or sign of animals.

I can’t tell you how weird it is when walking into somebody’s house and their animals are in there while you’re showing. I feel bad because normally the animals are scared. Sometimes these pets are making noises. Barking or whining is a distraction. The goal when the buyer’s in your home for sale is to be focusing on putting themselves in your home to give them the impression of seeing themselves living there or not.

Common Areas Should Be Neat

You want to remove or organize toys and common areas. This is a big thing with a lot of the clients I work with. Typically almost every client I have already has a house and we’re looking at moving up. And obviously in those situations, a lot of times, most people have children. Most sellers have toys and these toys can sometimes be nicely organized in one room or they can kind of just be all over the house.

The big thing here is you want to make sure that everything has its own place. Everything is organized. And if you need to remove some of those toys, so it’s not such a cluttered mess.

Have Furniture In Appropriate Places

You want to remove any furniture that’s out of place. You know, the common thing is a treadmill in the family room, an exercise bike in the office. Those might work for you, but that’s not painting the picture of what those rooms are actually used for to potential buyers. So if you’re going to have a workout room, that’s one thing. But if you’re going to have a workout room with extra furniture, that’s stored in there, pull out that furniture or pull out that treadmill that’s in the family room or the bike in the office. Your goal is to give a very defined meaning to every room or space that you have.

Access Carpets

When it comes to carpets, if your carpets are completely trashed, nasty, extremely colorful, or dated consider updating to neutral and new. Walking into a room with pink carpet or walking into a room with a really old-fashioned orange carpet from the 70s or 80s, which sometimes you see not necessarily in the homes that I deal with, but point is, might make sense to refresh. Consider putting down the same neutral carpets throughout the house.

I always tell clients to try steam cleaning first. Steam cleaning might be an opportunity for you to not spend all that money, but if the steam cleaning doesn’t work, then go replace the carpets. If the carpets need to be stretched have it done. I can’t tell you how annoying it is when you’re walking through a home and you’re stepping on lumps because the carpet is now bunching up and it doesn’t cost that much to send a carpet guy out to restretch the carpets. It also reduces a trip hazard.

Cleaning carpets and having them stretched is a little bit of time and work, but it goes a long way, especially if you don’t have to spend thousands putting new carpet in your home. The goal is to make your carpet look like it’s in great shape so the buyer doesn’t have that expense to take on as they move in.

Clean and Vacuum Floors

You definitely want to clean the floors and vacuum the floors before pictures. And ideally before showings, once again, this goes down to a super clean, home, with a more model home feel. And also not a home they’re moving into that will nickel and dime them over time.

Lighting Works

When it comes to light bulbs, I don’t know why people do this, but why have lamps when you’re listing a home that are without light bulbs?

Why do you have bathroom lights that you turn on that one or two lights are out?

Why do you have a bright colored light with a bunch of cool lights in the same room?

Consistent light colors and all bulbs working makes a huge difference in pictures. And it also is very noticeable when somebody is walking through the house. And once again, it kind of looks like everything’s just cobbled together when lights are missed matched or partially working. Having the same wattage is another thing you want to pay attention to.

When you’re showing your home, don’t make people go into a dark home, have all the lights turned on. One of the things that most people notice when they’re used to touring my homes that are listed for sale, all the lights are on. When people come to visit, a bright lit home makes a huge difference.

With the pandemic that we’re dealing with, you don’t want a bunch of people having to touch your light switches anyway. So the easiest way to eliminate that is to have your home for sale lit, have it bright. Have you ever walked into a builder’s model and all the lights are off? If you have experienced a dark model that salesperson is probably lazy.

All the lights should be turned on, have the same color and also have the same wattage. That way, the lighting is very consistent. Good lighting provides a very good feel as you walk through the home.

Clean Light Globes

The other thing is, and this is probably one of my wife’s biggest pet peeves is actually having dust or bugs inside the light bowl. If it’s under the ceiling fan, or if it’s in a bedroom nipple light check to make sure they are clean.

We have a big two-story family room in our house. And the big thing that she always makes me clean the light cover at least once a year. I have to climb up on this big ladder, scares the crap out of me, cause I don’t want to fall, but I’m either taking the light dome off and cleaning it or sticking a vacuum hose up in there and sucking it out. I would highly suggest if you are going to list your home, look up at all the lights. You may be surprised by what’s up there.

Sometimes the dusty buggy stuff might be up there and you don’t even notice because you’re not thinking about it. Other people will, as they walk through your home. So make sure you do some light dome inspecting and cleaning as well.

Living Room, Family Room, Den: 50 Tips To Sell Your Home Fast

Clear Clutter

When it comes to a living room or family room, you want to clear the clutter from the coffee tables, the end tables, and keep decorative items to a minimum. There are certain people that have accumulated so many different things over time. There’s a lot of personal memories and they’ve got a lot of tchotchkes and it’s completely fine for the way you live in your home. It’s not good when you sell your home, it looks cluttered and very distracting. You’re not there to market or show off all your possessions, You’re there to market the home.

Minimalizing what’s on tabletops and shelves and keeping things depersonalized is the goal. Again, think about what a model home looks like. Comparing your decor to a model home is one of the best things to do when you’re trying to figure how your house should look.

If you walk through a builder’s model, there’s plenty of builders’ models to walk into throughout the city. You can kind of see how everything’s very minimal yet very appealing and striking to the eye. And that’s what you want to do with your home.

Hide Remotes, Coasters

When it comes to remotes and coasters put them away. Unless you want somebody maybe messing with channels or turning on your TV make sure remotes are put away and hidden.

You don’t see this a lot anymore and if you do, you definitely want to rid your house of ashtrays and mask any smells. This may mean painting ceilings and floors. People used to smoke in homes frequently. Some people still do. The biggest thing is a lot of people are turned off by cigarettes.

There’s no reason for remotes, coasters, or stinky ashtrays to be out for potential buyers.

Clean Up The Fireplace

When it comes to cleaning out fireplaces, clean the glass doors on fireplaces. I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed this, but if you have a gas fireplace with that glass solid piece over time, it gets dirty on the inside. Clean the glass with white vinegar and water, or use Windex, whatever you need to use, clean it, make it look new.

When it comes to the wood-burning fireplaces. One of the biggest things that a lot of people don’t do is have the chimney swept and serviced before you actually put it on the market, make sure the creosote build-up is removed from the chimney and the fireplace is clean. And you can once again, show that receipt to a home inspector during the inspection.

A home inspector is not going to go in and look to far inside the fireplace, but the home inspector is often going to say before using it, have the chimney serviced and checked out. The one thing you don’t want to do is give somebody another reason to delay signing off in the removal of contingency, ROC, so your home can go from continegent to pending.

As a home seller, you want to eliminate as many reasons as possible for a buyer to have the opportunity to back out of your buying your home. So by doing things like preventative maintenance, you’re one giving future home buyers peace of mind. But two, you’re also getting a higher quality home on the market because you’ve done certain things that most people would not have to go out and do on their own. Think of steps like these as certifying your house and with a wood-burning fireplace, I can tell you too, there’s a lot of concerns.

I’ve had a lot of issues in home inspections with fireplaces, especially on older homes where you hope the inside of the fireplace is still intact. Are there any issues with the brick around the outside of the fireplace chimney? Is tuckpointing needed, the mortar that needs to be repacked between the bricks? I’m trying to make it simple, stupid so everyone can understand.

I literally just had a house that a seller had to spend about $1,500 putting new mortar on the outside of the chimney. When you looked up at the chimney, my buyer and I could see a lot of gaps where the mortar used to be. That’s a very bad thing for a fireplace chimney. If the inner lining is bad, it can also be very expensive to repair as well. Fireplace issues can definitely kill any sort of deal if it’s brought up in a home inspection or it’s noticed. So having your fireplace checked out is not a bad thing, especially on older homes.

You want to make sure it’s clean from the inside. So when somebody is in your family room or wherever that fireplace may be, it looks great to the human eye. I always suggest turning on fireplaces during pictures during showings. Now, if it’s going to make the house too hot, or there’s a concern of a fire hazard, obviously you have to take that into consideration with your home.

A burning fireplace definitely looks great during pictures and showings. If you have showings all day long and it’s going to make your house a hundred degrees, don’t do it. it’ll be way too uncomfortable for people to walk through your home. You don’t want to make potential buyers sweat as they’re touring your house.

Turn on the TVs

Looking around, one thing that I always suggest is turning on TVs and computer screens when possible. If you have something that can play on the screens, just keep in mind, what you’re playing needs to be attractive to the ideal buyer viewing your home. So if it’s a very kid-friendly area neighborhood, you might not have all types of families just like myself. I live in those types of communities, but I don’t have any kids, but having cartoons or something, playing on the TVs as you walk around, isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

You could also put the news on screens, but often news is doom and gloom. So just keep in mind, you want the neutral at worst positive at best mindset for people to be walking through your home. Avoid political and religious stuff at all cost.

Dining Room: 50 Tips To Sell Your Home Fast

Table Leaves

When it comes to your dining room, a lot of dining rooms are sometimes tight and hard to walk around. One thing to keep in mind, if you have all the leafs in the table, remove some, make the talbe a little smaller. That way, when people are walking around, they can get around easily.

Chairs

If you have to, remove some extra dining room chairs. If you need to put them down in your basement, or if you have to put them in storage, that might be something to keep in mind.

Declutter Rant

And now that I brought that up, I’m going to talk about this real quick. When it comes to your home, many times owners have more stuff than space to put it. The one thing you don’t want to do is jam-pack your home with storage stuff. I’ve seen homes for sale where I couldn’t walk into somebody’s garage cause it’s full of stuff for moving. Or I couldn’t walk into the storage room in the basement because it’s full of stuff. Well, situations like these fill buyer’s minds the sellers are moving because they have no room. And if you are a seller busting at the seams, that doesn’t mean you need to project to the future buyers coming in to buy your home. So go out and rent a storage unit for a short amount of time and put all that extra excess stuff in there, out side of your home and property. Make your house look half empty. By making your home half empty, you’re not going to create any sort of objection in a buyer’s mind that, there’s no room in this house.

If your closets are jam-packed, if your storage room is jam-packed, if your garage is jam-packed, you have the likelihood of making buyers feel there is not enough room and they will have the same issue. And you know what? The potential buyers might not have all that stuff that you do, but you’re painting the picture that there is no room. So keep that in mind, but remove extra leaves, remove extra chairs, make sure the dining room is walkable.

Kitchen: 50 Tips To Sell Your Home Fast

Clear the Countertops

When it comes to the kitchen, this is the area a lot of people make mistakes when selling. And if I can help you today, this is going to be beneficial if you want to make your kitchen look more appealing. Clean and declutter the kitchen countertops. If you have a Keurig machine, if you have a mixer, if you have a blender and all these different things sitting on top of the countertop or even a toaster, not everybody else is going to have those same things, nor are we trying to sell those things. You’re selling the home, the kitchen, maybe it’s the countertops if they are nice.

You don’t want to have your kitchen countertops full of clutter and appliances. You want a nice clean slate. Something that a future home buyer can envision, how they would use the kitchen, how they would have their appliances there or not. Not your appliances in the way, making buyers think more about you and your home. You as a seller making it more about them and their opportunity to have their kitchen in that home.

Kitchen Floors

When it comes to tile, sometimes people’s grout looks a little atrocious. Try cleaning the tile grout, just make sure you’re using a cleaning material that’s not creating extra work for you. I just had this happen to a client, but they ended up using a certain type of cleaning material, which then made it look white and chalky. The sellers spent hours trying to clean the cleaner that turned the grout chalky. So they were extremely frustrated, and understandably so, but at the end, the tile and the grout looked great.

There is a point to be made here. You should try to deal with every task especially if you have no clue what you are doing. Make sure you’re using the appropriate products or you’re calling a service professional that can do it right and get it done quickly and efficiently, if you’re happy to pay for it.

Appliances

When it comes to the kitchen appliances, you want to make sure that these are cleaned or have replaced burner pans, etc. If they’re badly stained, clean exhaust fans. I cannot tell you how to disgusting it is when somebody looks at your exhaust fan and that little metal filter underneath is cluttered full of gunk. There are easy ways to clean the filter. Sometimes I use starting fluid, I’m not saying that’s the best way to do it, but believe it or not, there certain products that you can use to really clean, grease and grime off a filter in minimal time.

And I would highly suggest making sure once again, you think builder model, think new.

Even if your home is used, you can make it look very clean. You can update it in a way that’s not going to break the bank. One thing that I would always keep in mind, don’t be penny wise and pound foolish. Sometimes people with that mindset cost themselves a lot more money. And next thing you know, being penny wise and pound foolish costs them more dollars because when it comes to negotiation, the buyer is saying this wasn’t maintained. The buyer is fearful, buying your home is going to nickel and dime them. And unless you do this or fix that, then I’m not moving forward. As a seller, you don’t want to give any buyer that sort of reason or thought.

Kitchen Sink

When it comes to your kitchen sink, once again, keep it clean, remove all the extra stuff that’s not needed. This means the soaps, the sponges, the cleaning supplies, put them out of sight underneath your sink, keep it clean. Keep the kitchen sink clean and empty. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve walked into somebody’s home and there’s dirty dishes in the sink. Why are you selling your home and letting potential buyers look at your dirty dishes, it’s disgusting. It also just kind of sets the example of once again, are you a clean or dirty person. Let’s face it people love to judge. You don’t want people even having those thoughts when you can eliminate them upfront by just being prepared.

Pantry

When it comes to your pantry, you want to make sure it’s organized. Make sure that you don’t have too much in your pantry to where it looks like everything’s going to fall down. Make sure it looks nice and presentable. To be clear I’m not telling you to take your food out of your home and put that in storage. Just make the pantry look nice and presentable. Many times people’s pantries are just a cluttered mess and I’m sure if yours is, you know what I’m talking about. We don’t live in our homes the way they need to look when we are selling.

Inside the Fridge

When it comes to the refrigerator, even if your taking your refrigerator with you, which most people do not. Many sellers leave the fridge with the home because it matches the other appliances. Either way, you want to clean the inside of the refrigerator. Once again, it’s a perception of you, people are always curious to see what’s in there. People will likey look in your fridge if you’re leaving it or not because they still might put taking the fridge in their offer. They want it at the price they’re willing to pay. Have your fridge ready, get it cleaned on the inside.

Make sure the refrigerator magnets, the kid pictures, the messages, and all that sort of stuff stuck to the outside is removed. There’s no reason for potential buyers to read stuff that’s personal to you or look at stuff that’s personal to you.

Once again, we want potential home buyers envisioning themselves in the home that they’re going to live in, not the one that you currently live in.

Kitchen Rugs

When it comes to area rugs, there’s really no reason to have area rugs inside your kitchen unless last they’re underneath the table. I always suggest allowing potential buyers to see your floors. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked through houses with my buyers and they’re peeking under the floor to see how damaged the wood might be from the sun, or if there are certain stains an owner is trying to cover up. Let’s face it people are not very trusting. The more trust that you can give by just having things out in the open, clean looking great your selling experience will be more enjoyable. You’re going to eliminate the need of people being curious or questioning you as a homeowner that they might buy from.

Office/Study: 50 Tips To Sell Your Home Fast

When it comes to your office, you want to also organize and declutter your office, make it look nice. Don’t leave your desk or cabinet full of papers and full of junk.

When it comes to computers and TV screens, if those are in there, once again, turn them on if possible. If not, you know, computers, you don’t always want to leave on. You don’t want to give people access. But if there’s a nice screensaver that can play, that’s an opportunity to enhance the setting.

Bedrooms

Beds

When it comes to bedrooms, make the beds. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked into a house where the bed’s not made, or it looks like a kindergartner made the bed, yet there was no kindergarten in the house. So just make it look nice. Make sure, you invest in a good bedspread if necessary, it’s not going to sell your house, but it’s going to make it look more builder model-like, and that’s what you want to keep in mind. I would even suggest cleaning under the beds and removing the dust bunnies.

Furniture

You want to clear bedside tables, dressers, shelves and desks of any sort of clutter. I am horrible at this inside my office. My bookshelf has books stacked on top of books, other books hanging out. It’s a problem, I need more bookshelves because I have too many books. If I ever went to sell my home, I’d be pulling a lot of books off the bookshelf, not making it look so packed and cluttered.

Believe it or not. It’s a perception thing. Again, you might think at some points that I’m a little crazy here, but I’m telling you if you listen to this stuff and then you don’t question what I say, it works. You won’t ever walk nto a builder’s model and look at a bookshelf that looks like the one I have in my office.

Closets

You want to keep decluttering in mind when it comes to closets. Try to make your closets look half empty. What I mean by that is, if you’re selling in the winter, you want to have your spring and your winter clothes in there. Place your summer and your fall clothes in storage, get them out as you don’t need them.

If you’re listing your home and you’re doing it properly, the house should sell pretty quickly. Unless you didn’t prepare properly and have it priced wrong, you shouldn’t have to worry about your summer or your fall clothes. If your home is overpriced and you just threw it on the market, you might need all those clothes. Just to make sure they’re accessible and they’re not hard to get to.

But really, if you don’t sell your house in 60 days, unless it’s in a price range though, where there are very few buyers, it’s pretty surprising using that you wouldn’t have it sold by then. Plus every extended day your home sits on the market you’re also losing some really great marketing time. So just keep that mind, keep a season or two in your closet, get rid of the rest and just make it look half full.

Screens

When it comes to TVs and computers, once again, screensavers or some sort of channel that would be appropriate. Let something play that’s going to create anything but a positive or a happy feeling.

Bathrooms: 50 Tips To Sell Your Home Fast

Surfaces

When it comes to bathrooms, please make them spotless. A lot of people’s bathrooms are disgusting and I don’t get it. When selling, you’ll want to clear off all surfaces, put away the tissues, toilet brushes, toothbrushes, lotions, all that stuff. I don’t know why more attention isn’t placed here by sellers. The other day I was showing a house and there is a plunger sitting on top of the toilet. All me and my buyer talked about was how the sellers must have to poop a lot. And it sounds like, by the location of their plunger, the sellers have big poops and plugged the toilet often because why else would they have that on top of the toilet. It was more comical, but we spent five minutes talking about poop. And when touring someone’s home, there was no reason to do that.

Robes and Towels

You’ll also want to put away used robes use bath towels. if you have decorative towels, that’s one thing, but definitely remove all the personal stuff, especially if it’s dirty or used because quite frankly, nobody wants to see it. Clear out shower stalls and tubs, except for the necessities.

Mirrors

When it comes to mirrors, make sure they’re cleaned. I am the king of messing up a mirror with my toothbrush because it’s electric. It vibrates like crazy and crap goes everywhere. Sometimes making sure that when somebody comes to your house, you don’t have a mess on your mirror or it’s smeared from kind of cleaning it because you were in a hurry and you didn’t do it right. Just make it look nice.

Sinks, Showers and Tubs

Make sure the sinks are nice. The tubs are nice. Dirty bathrooms are my big pet peeve. And I can tell you right now, you can eliminate a lot of problems before they are created. Go look at your shower if it has caulk in it. Go look at your bathtub if has caulk in it. If there’s any caulking that has mold, remove the old caulk and replace with new caulking. If you aren’t good at doing something like that, hire somebody to come in and do it.

Buyers like clean showers and there’s nothing absolutely more disgusting than moldy caulk inside somebody’s bath or shower. It’s something that you can take an older looking bath or shower and make it look like it’s extremely clean and maintained. And quite frankly, while you’re still living in your house, you’re going to enjoy taking a shower or bath and a nicer tub or shower. So just get it done. Trust me on that. You will be happy you did.

There are certain homeowners that have an abundance of soaps, shampoos, conditioners, body soaps, poof balls, and all the different stuff that goes in somebody’s shower. Just using necessities while you have the home listed or sale is not convenient, it’s not fun but you also want to declutter this area. Buyers want to see the condition of tubs and showers, don’t consume them with all your products.

Toilets

When it comes to the toilet, you want to make sure that all lids are closed and remove any sort of, and I don’t see this that much anymore, except on older homes or people that have lived in a home a long time, but the whole carpet cover on top of the toilet lid. Typically if there is a cover there is a matching one around the floor, remove those. If any guys live in the house, we all know we pee drop on the floor. Our wives get mad.

Don’t leave all the extra toilet accessories there. It’s typically in my opinion, kind of gross and dirty. And it’s just one of those things that nobody needs to look at. I can put money on the fact that the new owners will not ask to keep them.

Bath Rugs

If they’re buying your home, when it comes to shower rugs, just like in the kitchen, remove all bathtub or bathroom rugs. There’s no need to keep those in there. If it’s around the toilet in front of the sink, let people see your floors. That’s really what they’re buying. You’re going to be throwing out or taking your rugs with you. If you left them, somebody is going to throw them away.

Garage Cans And Cleaning Supplies

When it comes to garbage cans and cleaning supplies, i.e. the plunger on top of the toilet, you want to remove and hide these as well. If you do have a trash can in your bath empty it out before showings.

Laundry Room: 50 Tips To Sell Your Home Fast

Clean & Declutter

It’s not that hard to keep your laundry room clean if you notice I’m going into all the different areas of your home here, and it’s funny because sometimes people will do some rooms and not the others. If you do all this, you’re creating the right perception and scene for a potential buyer that’s coming into your home that can afford to buy it to want it. You’re setting your home apart from a lot of other homes on the market, which are quite frankly your competition.

So when it comes to the laundry room, you want to clean and declutter that as well as the laundry tub. If you have to use a magic eraser use, whatever you have to use to clean that laundry tub up. Some laundry tubs look atrocious. You want it to look as new as possible without having to replace it. Also, you want to hide any laundry.

It is comical, sometimes how much stuff people leave in their laundry room. And once again, if it’s a cluttered mess, you don’t want somebody being like, Oh yeah, I really liked the house that had the nasty laundry room. No, eliminate the problem before one is created.

Make your buyer tours so pleasant buyers are saying, “Oh my God, I love the house on 123 Way St, because it was so beautiful, it was so clean, and I don’t have to do anything to it. It’s move-in ready, except maybe I have to paint one wall that I would like to have this color. You know what, I can do that.”

Garage: 50 Tips To Sell Your Home Fast

So that’s the same kind of perception you want buyers to have when it comes to your garage. Make sure it’s clean and organized. I always suggest organizing and sweeping out your garage. If you can take it to the next level and you should, hose down the garage floor and get rid of all that extra dust.

Why? Well the one thing that you got to keep in mind, every seller wants people to take their shoes off when they come in your front door. Now buyers have their shoes off and want to walk out to the garage. Guess what, they’re going to walk into the garage. If they are in their socks then they’re going to track all that dirt back into your home.

I actually get sellers that are upset when buyers bring dirt into their home. The question is, whose fault is it?

Basement: 50 Tips To Sell Your Home Fast

The same thing can happen if you have a walkout basement. If a buyer is walking out of your basement, and walk onto your patio then walk back into the house a mess will usually follow.

I had a client not long ago say, you know, there was some debris in the basement after several showings. When you want people to take off their shoes, they’re not going to go all the way back upstairs to the front door, put the shoes in their hands, carry him all the way back down downstairs, and then walk outside. If a buyer already has their shoes off, they are going in their socks. They’re going to walk right outside your door and if your patio is dirty, they will track dirt into your home, same with your garage. So making sure that those areas are clean, not only is going to keep you happy when you come back from a showing, but it’s also going to keep a buyer happy because they’re not getting their feet all dirty.

I’ll never forget. I’m sidetracking here for a sec, but this is an important point. A customer that literally had signs everywhere. Remove Your Shoes! Remove Your Shoes! No Shoes In The House. And it’s like, okay, we get the point. We took off our shoes. The problem was by the time we were done viewing the home we were disgusted. I had black socks on because a lot of times I’m in a suit and I had so much cat stuck to my socks. Sorry if you’re a cat lover, but I don’t like cats that much because they make me itch. So the point is now I have all this cat fur on my socks, and now I got to put that cat fur in my shoes. So what do you think I did? The first thing I did when I got home, had to pull off my socks in the garage. I thought about just throwing them away. I had to vacuum out my shoes. I was so turned off about the experiences in that home as an agent, the potential buyer was disgusted because the homeowner was so adamant about us taking off our shoes, but they couldn’t even vacuum their floors to get up all the cat fur. So these dumb sellers didn’t leave a good impression on potential buyers.

When it comes to the basement. I don’t care if your basement is unfinished or finished, make sure it’s organized and clean. Once again, especially if you have concrete floors, nobody wants a bunch of dirt or dust sticking to their socks. Also, keep in mind, there are a lot of people that don’t even wear socks. So if they’re walking on your floor and they’re feeling a bunch of dirt, it’s kind of gross. It’s important to make sure cleaning is taken care of. Even the storage areas in your basement, organize them, make them look nice.

And quite frankly, when you’re doing this sort of stuff, you should be organizing your storage rooms in your basement. When you’re moving from your house, there’s a couple of different things you’re going to do. Some you will keep, others might get gifted or donated and some things will end up in the garbage. Starting this process early will make a move so much more simple.

Exterior: 50 Tips To Sell Your Home Fast

When it comes to the exterior of your house. First impressions are lasting impressions. So keep in mind, your home is going to be seen online by most people first. You will want to make that first impression great, hence why we’re going through these 50 tips to sell your home fast checklist.

Welcome Matt

When somebody pulls up to your house, the first impression is hitting all over again. Sometimes things look better online than what they actually do in person. So you want to make sure that the front door of your home and the exterior of your home shows well enough for somebody to want to walk inside. Because somebody that sees an outside that looks dismantled and crappy, they’re probably going to be like, well, if the outside looks like that, the inside is probably going to be the same way. So you want to make sure, and you can laugh at me if you want, but why not go buy a new welcome mat. If your welcome mat looks great and it’s already there and you know, no problems, that’s fine, but most people’s welcome mats are worn and tattered. And if you’re going to have guests coming to your home, looking at your home to purchase, there’s no reason why a new welcome mat isn’t something to have at your front door.

Paint and Stain

You want to make sure that that entranceway is very inviting. Also if there’s caulking, staining or repainting, that needs to be done, definitely do it. Here’s another story. I had a client with a darker colored front door. Well, when I walked up to it, I noticed it needed a fresh look. Now I told my seller clients before we list their home, make sure their front door is repainted, you can stick with the same color. The color looks fine, it’s just very beaten up. And they looked at me like I had three heads. The funny thing was they repainted the door and they called me to say my front door was so bad. I had no idea. And I was like, no shit. But point is, they didn’t realize it till they repainted it.

Any buyer walking up to your door will notice stuff that worn or updated. You also want to freshen up around the door. Does it need repainted and maybe caulked? This is the time to refresh the entryway and make it look nice.

Windows

You want to check around all your windows. Here is another thing to think about. When you buy clothes, most people wash them quite frequently because they want them clean. When people buy a car, most people take care of and wash their cars. What most people do when it comes to homeownership, though, people just buy a house and think they don’t have to do anything. And that’s the wrong mindset. You do need to maintain your home and you do need to take care of it.

When you don’t do proper maintenance, especially exterior a $10 or $20 fix or repair turns into a $2,000 or $3,000 problem because you weren’t paying attention. You didn’t notice all the water coming into your home. i.e. not having caulk properly sealing around your windows. So point is, I always suggest every couple of years, walk around your house, make sure that the caulking around your windows is intact. Make sure that there are no holes or gaps. In Cleveland, we get some pretty hellacious storms at times and all that water beating on your house needs to stay outside. If there’s a hole around your window and that could be from deteriorated caulk water can get in. But then once it’s getting in, it’s rotting out and it’s maybe potentially creating mold. By checking around your windows and making sure the caulking is intact and in good condition, you’re eliminating rot and mold from happening. So the big thing here is you want to make sure that your home is properly caulked around windows.

Now, if there is an issue and repairs are needed, you obviously don’t want to caulk it, paint it, and act as nothing happened. Covering issues up can be a nightmare down the road. If it looks like you ever tried to cover something up you can be sued. If you do see the windows weren’t caulked properly and you do see damage, I would have it replaced upfront before selling. Don’t wait for a buyer to see the neglect and damage. Because if a home inspector points it out, you’re opening up a whole new can of worms because they’re not going to just sit they will dig into it further. The buyer is going to say, Hey, I need this done or I walk. Now they are wondering what other problems your home may have.

Issues with rot and mold can and do freak out many buyers. Now, this buyer may become turned off thinking, I’m not dealing with somebody else’s headache. I just want to buy a house that I can move into because that’s what most people want to do. New home buyers don’t want to buy your problem. They want to just conveniently move because moving stressful enough as it is. And unless somebody is an investor or sitting there trying to buy your home for 70 cents on the dollar or less, most buyers aren’t interested in fixing your crap. So check the windows, make sure they’re good.

Porches and Decks

Make any repairs necessary that needs to be done when it comes to your porches or your decks. If the deck or porch hasn’t been pressure washed, stained, painted or sealed, make sure all that stuff is done. I can’t tell you how many times I walk on somebody’s deck or patio and they look horrible because there has been zero maintenance for a long time and they are dirty.

How inviting is that? It’s just like having, mold around your shower or the toilet lid open making you look inside and you find something inside the bowl. If it’s a stain or maybe a poop streak or something like that, nobody wants to see it. So point is make sure once again, think builder model, think nice. You want to make sure that everything is well-maintained and looking great.

When it comes to like concrete, especially stamped concrete, you should seal that literally about every year. You want to make sure you don’t put too much sealant on stamped concrete because it makes it look cloudy and bad. There are ways to fix having too much sealer if you’re running into those issues, but you want to make sure your decks and your patios look great.

If there’s any rot on the wood planks or wood spindles they need to be replaced. Now’s the time to think about repairs that are obvious. I actually just had a customer that had a wood deck. That one step was somewhat starting to rot because the way that the snow was captured underneath the staircase. Do to the snow, that was step began to rot. So what did that customer do? They have this beautifully painted and stained and maintained deck, but there was one step that was replaced. You can’t paint treated lumber in the first year because they’re treated lumber. But point is not one person complained. Actually that house was sold $20,000 over asking price because the house was so well-maintained, it looked like a builder’s model. It was not brand new, but it was maintained. And the person buying that home knew that they were not going to be nickeled and dimed when they moved into that home. Buyers appreciate repairs being done before the home is listed.

Fencing and Gates

If you have a fence or gate, you want these looking great. If it’s painted or stained you may want to consider a new coat. Sometimes that beautiful white vinyl has got a bunch of green gunk and mold on it. Pressure wash it, have it cleaned, have it looking new again. Hopefully, you’re getting the point here, think builder model, think new, not nickel and diming. Fencing is not cheap to add so why not get a return on your it and make the future buyers happy.

When selling you want to remove all your personal flair and emotion to the home and just make it look very nice and presentable. That’s really what we’re doing here. Selling real estate is not hard. People just tend to make it difficult for themselves. They wine, bitch, and moan when something doesn’t go the way they want. But the question is, did you do what you needed to do to get what you want?

Landscaping

So when it comes to landscaping, this is something that, makes me laugh. I paid my way through college because the average human doesn’t take care of their landscaping. It’s kind of like buying the house. I don’t need to maintain it. Think if you went two or three years without cutting your hair, how big of a mess you’d look like. And you know, for somebody like me, I have to get my hair cut every four weeks. When it comes to my landscaping, I trim my bushes in the spring and in the fall. The reason I time twice a year is it keeps my bushes at the same size. They don’t get overgrown and they look great. The problem is, if you don’t trim your bushes, even once a year, you’re going to have a big problem in a couple of years.

You do not want any sort of landscaping touching your, your house. You don’t want any sort of tree limbs extending over onto your roof. What happens? This is another problem the inspector points out. If a raccoon or a squirrel can climb up a tree, go out on a branch and jump on your roof, that’s a problem. If bushes or any sort of landscaping material is growing and touching your house, if it’s siding or brick, that’s a problem. Inspectors point the overgrowth out. Nothing should be touching your home. So keep in mind and have your bushes trimmed before any pictures or potential buyers start to arrive.

You also want to put down new mulch, if possible, because it makes a huge difference. When somebody walks up to a home with new mulch it makes a difference. Just make sure you don’t buy the maneuver mulch that makes your front yard and your backyard potentially smell like poop because nobody wants to smell it.

Yard

When it comes to mowing edging and fertilizing want to do this before and during the listing. You can literally go to any garden store and buy Scott’s four-step application fertilizer, and on a half-acre lot, it’s going to cost you about $180 for a whole season of fertilizer. The fertilizer spreader is going to cost you about $50, and it will make your yard look amazing. Easy way to have an easy fix if you plan ahead. If you have o have someone like a TruGreen ChemLawn come out, you might spend double that. So it’s just up to you and your pocketbook and what you want to do, but definitely make sure your yard is mowed, edged, and fertilized. And remember, the fertilizing has got to start in advance. So, come March or April, you can go out and buy a fertilizer package. And let’s say, you’re mid-season and you want to start fertilizing, go out and get the fertilizer.

Once again, you’re typically going to do about four applications, one in the spring, one in the early summer, one in the late summer, and one in the fall. And they’re super easy to do. It takes barely any time to do it. I’ve done it on my house for years and quite frankly, it makes your yard look great. For a buyer showing up, if your yard looks amazing, once again, one less thing that they’re going to have to pay for after they move in to fix.

Seasonal Flowers

When it comes to flowers, this is completely up to you, but there are seasonal flowers you can add that make a pop in the presentation of your home. You don’t have to necessarily put them in your landscaping. Maybe you can put them in some planters and that’s something you can take with you, but it definitely adds a little something extra and makes things look a little nicer.

I actually had a client recently put a vase of roses in their kitchen, and I’ll tell you what, from the pictures and the showings, the roses looked awesome. They sold over asking price, not because of the flowers, but because they did everything right from the start from prepping the home and pricing the home.

If you mark up to mark down in terms of pricing, you’re kind of shooting yourself in the foot more cases than not. That’s where you see some agents doing what I call buying a listing. Your home will sit on the market and have massive price drops. During this time you just lost all that valuable marketing time because it’s like dating. When something first comes on the market, it’s first available. Think back in high school, if somebody was dating someone and all of a sudden they become single, Ooh, there’s a hot new topic. You want your house to be that hot new topic.

Snow

When it comes to snow and depending on the time of the year, do not make buyers walk through big piles of snow to get into your home. One it’s going to make your house a mess. Two, it’s going to just kind of be annoying to anybody trying to see your house. Now, if we’re having a winter storm and it just happened and you’re at work, not much we can do.

I don’t suggest putting down salt on drives or sidewalks. The problem with that, it’s going to track in your house and it’s going to diteriorate your concrete. So keep that in mind, if you have concrete, you don’t want salt in your house.

Fall Leaves

When it comes to leaves, obviously you want to try to keep these up during the listing if you are selling in the fall.

Once again, leaf season is a pain in the butt, but once again, we just went through a fall listing recently, as the time I’m recording this video. Work on getting the leaves taken up if you can’t do it yourself. Sometimes you need to have a landscaper on call to come out and do it to keep your yard looking great.

Exterior Lighting

When it comes to lights talked about this already from the inside, you want to do the same effect on the outside, make sure all porch lights work, make sure all lights are the same watt and color. Don’t have two lights at your front door where one is a bright white, and one is a warm light. It looks sloppy. Miss matched lights don’t set the right presentation.

Conclusion: 50 Tips To Sell Your Home Fast

I can go into more detail on all these 50 tips to sell your home fast checklist items, but if you follow my checklist, it’ll ensure your home shows like a model. Make sure your home isn’t giving the impression that buying your home is going to nickel and dime a customer after a buyer closes on the purchase of your home.

This 50 tips to sell your home fast checklist is also going to help set your home apart from all the competition, which is other homes listed within your area and price range. By checking the boxes you’re doing all the right things to kind of get the mindset right for that buyer to not picture you living in the home, but picture themselves living in the home. Hopefully, you found 50 tips to sell your home fast in northeast Ohio helpful.

If you do have any questions, you can go to RealtyDone.com or ClevelandRealEstateTopAgent.com. You can reach out to me and I’m more than happy to dig deeper into all this stuff. Even if it comes to getting you connected with the right trades that can help you complete some of these items, I’m more than happy to do so.

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If you are looking for a home in northeast Ohio, there are many options available to you. You can find suburban homes with large yards and easy access to highways, or homes in downtown Cleveland or Akron areas with close proximity to amazing restaurants and nightlife. No matter if you are looking to sell, build new construction, or buy resale, there is a reason to reach out to Realty Done to guide you through to your new destination with less stress and overwhelm.