Steps to Getting Your Home Ready to Sell

Selling a luxury home can be daunting, but it doesn't have to be. Any home can attract interest with the proper preparation. By following a few simple steps, you can get your home ready to sell and maximize your chances of getting top dollar. Denise Graves is here to guide you through the home-selling experience, recommending steps you can take and ways to leverage luxury real estate services. Read on to learn how to streamline your home sale for minimum stress and maximum profit.

Before an agent like Denise can market and sell your home, you’ll want to work as a team to depersonalize the property. Getting rid of everything is rarely necessary; depersonalization requires finesse.

Start by eliminating clutter. If you have the option, move entirely out of the house and remove all but the most essential furniture. If you are living in the home until it sells, simplify each room's decor and furniture. Start by carefully packing any personal decorations or signs of your family life — you are creating a blank canvas for buyers to envision their own lives.

In particular, aim to move or pack away clothes, furniture, personal items (like family photos, souvenirs, religious items), and even innocuous details like monogrammed towels or used bedding. If possible, empty your closets and cabinets so they appear more spacious.

When selling luxury real estate, it usually helps to remove your aesthetic footprint from the house. Bold colors, labyrinthine patterns, and personal items can discourage buyer interest. By contrast, many buyers prefer walls and ceilings painted white, beige, or gray. Natural materials like wood and stone can add warmth, texture, and a sense of permanence to a space. And in virtually any room, natural light is your best friend. Open the curtains and blinds to brighten your house for visitors.

In short, most buyers want a home that is move-in ready. They would rather not have to dust and scrub the place before moving in themselves. That’s why it’s vital to clean your house, whether by yourself or via a professional cleaning service. Even better, a clean home suggests to buyers that you have taken good care of the place over the years.

Once you’ve decluttered, neutralized, and cleaned your home, it’s time to make any necessary repairs and updates. Problem areas could involve anything anywhere on your property, from leaky faucets to unfinished decks to frowsy gutters. You can make cosmetic repairs to address paint chips, cracks, foggy windows, and any aspect of the home’s aesthetics.

Not all repairs and updates are immediately apparent. Even if your appliances work fine, you might replace them with more modern versions. Pay special attention to your home’s systems that aren’t necessarily visible to the naked eye — air conditioning, plumbing, HVAC, and fireplaces should all work perfectly.

Curb appeal refers to a home’s qualities that are apparent from the street outside. When potential buyers arrive at your home, they form judgments on the qualities they deem good or bad. First impressions are crucial, so you want your home’s exterior to look its best come time for the open house. Anything outside your home is in play; some of the most common steps are to refresh your mulch, plant flowers, paint the walls, and powerwash all surfaces.

When preparing your luxury home for sale, you can only get so far alone. That’s where well-connected agents like Denise Graves and The Graves Group can help. As a luxury realtor, Denise knows precisely what actions to take before putting your home on the market.

Once your home is in optimal condition, it’s time to stage it to appeal to buyers. Broadly speaking, staging means arranging your furniture and decor in a stylish and inviting way. You want to create a warm and welcoming space so buyers can imagine themselves living there.

Because every home is different, working with experienced luxury real estate agents who offer staging like Denise is essential. They know the fundamentals of staging and which techniques apply to your house. They will help to arrange each room for a sense of flow and openness. They might replace loud decor with light colors and airy fabrics, especially near natural light sources. Temporary measures like fresh flowers or baked goods can add charm to your home when visitors arrive.

Beautiful photography is one of the most critical steps in getting your home ready to sell. At a minimum, you want photographs showing your home's most attractive features. Each room should glow with natural light, beckoning anyone browsing your home listing to click on the next photo and then the next. High-quality real estate photography creates an immersive gallery in which buyers can get lost, delighting in each photograph. Your photographer might arrange your gallery sequentially from your front lawn, through the front door, and clockwise or counterclockwise through your rooms. The Graves Group takes charge of this department and is also there during the shoot to make sure the best features of your home are highlighted.

Every home has a few flattering architectural features; some houses are brimming with them. Lovely archways, open living areas, attractive light fixtures, or a scenic garden are worth spotlighting. The Graves Group knows how to emphasize your home’s most stunning features in your online listing. They might also upload a 360-degree virtual tour of your home. A photographer can bring buyers into your home by taking panoramic shots with a 360-degree camera in various locations around your home. Each area is one “step” in the tour. Just like your photographic walkthrough, it will likely start at the front door, and the camera will “walk” a few feet per position from one room to the next.

If you are preparing to sell your home in San Antonio or Texas Hill Country, you can get the most beneficial result working with an experienced real estate agent, such as Denise Graves. The Graves Group has been in the top 10 of the Top 25 Real Estate Teams since 2005 and provides clients with a full scope of services, from staging to photography. Contact Denise for a consultation on your home-selling plans.