How to Sell your Georgetown house and get top dollar for it. There’s no getting around that selling your house is a lot of work, so if you’re going to do the work why not do it in a way that doesn’t cost you a ton of money and helps you get your home sold fast and get you the offer price you’re looking for.
If you only have a few hundred to a few thousand dollars budgeted to spruce up your Georgetown house before selling / listing it, what should you focus on in this article, I’m going to outline some inexpensive things that you can do to increase your house’s market mojo which will make your house more desirable to buyers in Georgetown and Halton Hills and get you a higher selling price and shorten your days on market.
A key in the process is shifting your mindset your home is now a house note the change in my word your house is a product a commodity that you’re selling in Georgetown and you need to make your product as appealing as you can to the customer which is your future buyer. Read this entire post for a bonus tip on really putting your house over the top and helping it stand out from the competition.
Let’s start at the front with first impressions your curb appeal matters cut the grass trim the bushes and pulling the weeds or if it’s wintertime shovel the snow and sand the walkway add a pop of colour to your entryway in the warm weather months this could mean planters with bright flowers. In the winter we’re going to have to settle for something like a cheery welcome mat a wreath or maybe a winter planter with some sticks and berries in it or something.
Sweep out your entryway so there’s no leaves dirt cobwebs and wasp nests, if the weather allows consider painting your front door the paint on your door really tends to fade over time and it can look tired this is where your potential buyer is going to be standing while their agent is unlocking the door so make it nice. Don’t stop there once your potential buyer enters through the door you want to create a gracious landing are, remove that old shoe wrap or bed of shoes and your sorry old-looking floor mat. Those are useful and fine for regular life I mean I have them too but they don’t create a curated look in the entryway place a nice rook down so they have someplace to stand while they’re taking off their shoes or waiting for everybody to get inside. How about a bench for them to sit on while taking shoes on and off. What about a small side table where they can set down their things it would be lovely for a vase of flowers and your property flyers this tip gets talked about all the time and it doesn’t cost anything.
Experience shows me that not all sellers have gotten the memo deep clean and declutter!! Buyers will devalue your home if it’s dirty and cluttered!!! What you’re thinking is it’s just real life what’s the big deal, no buyers will judge it on their grossness scale don’t give them any reason to think you’re gross period. First, remove your personal religious and political items and pack it all away. Do not be afraid of empty space, think of it as breathing room for your house you’re in the process of neutralizing your house and part of that is removing you from the space so that the buyer can visualize himself or herself living there, you want your potential buyers to feel like there’s extra space and room for everything. Another time to make you Georgetown House/Condo or Townhome is to remove half of everything from your closets, pack up all your seasonal clothes. Closets that with less, provide the illusion of lots of space.
If you’ve got young children, pack up half of their toys trust me you’ll thank me later when you’re trying to clean up quickly with a showing that gave you 30 minutes’ Selling a house with children is stressful so this will help clear clutter, knick-knacks, and piles off of all surfaces once you’ve eliminated.
It’s time to clean and I don’t mean just dusting and vacuuming, I mean getting down to the nitty-gritty clean out the corners of the rooms where the dust and the cobwebs accumulate. Clean your hand railings, your switch plates, your ceiling fans, your vents, and your baseboards. Gently scrub the walls and the door frames where people touch.
Figure out how to re-caulk or hire someone to do it for you your old moldy shower and bathtub caulking is high on the grossness meter. And yes buyers will notice the cleanliness of your kitchen and your bathrooms. Be the barometer in the buyer’s eyes for the rest of your house so really focus your cleaning energy on these rooms don’t forget to clean inside your appliances! Yes, people will open your fridge and oven, yes people will open your cabinets and your drawers so you have to clean them.
A sexy kitchen will sell a home, so what can you do if your kitchen is more frumpy than sexy. First, change out your kitchen cabinet hardware with something more modern, you don’t have to spend a ton of money on high-end hardware to get an updated look. I found that sites like Amazon have better prices for buying pules and knobs in bulk rather than trying to buy them individually from lowe’s home depot or the big box stores. Satin nickel is generally very neutral and easy to live with chances are you already have that metal finish in your house to play off of like maybe your kitchen faucet or some of your light fixtures some other popular and more trendy metal options that I think look pretty sharp are matte black and satin brass it’s okay to mix metals but try to keep it to no more than two or three in a room. Let’s talk about your appliances if they’re old and beat up looking or mismatched they are holding your kitchen back from looking sexy and are just giving an objection to the buyers the problem with buyer objections is that buyers tend to make these problems and do bigger deals than they actually are and buyers tend to overestimate the cost to replace whatever the objection is. They use that inflated number as justification for coming at you low with their purchase price so remove the objection if you’re still washing dishes with that old white dishwasher that you never bothered to replace because it hasn’t been broken yet just replace it so the color and the finish matches the rest of your kitchen appliances. Have a look at Kijiji for used appliances, spending some money here will pay dividends when you sell.
These next two suggestions do cost a bit of money so talk to a realtor (like me) first to see if they make sense for your house in your price bracket. Two surefire ways to make your kitchen sexier are to have granite or quartz countertops installed or a tile backsplash installed. Here are two very similar properties one with a dated counter job and the other with an updated countertop, which appeals to you more. If you’re considering a backsplash, please don’t use products like this they just look busy and dated. Choose something classic! Like these this suggestion will also cost a bit of money but it makes a big impact update the light fixtures in your main rooms, shiny brass needs to go, 1980s wood accents need to go, coloured shades, frilly shades, floral shades they all need to go. You can spend a fortune on lighting if you want to but that’s not the goal. Right now your goal is to spend a little money sell it and make a lot of money! Look at designer websites for style inspiration but then shop for modestly priced alternatives. Again, online stores & Kijiji for this, you’d be surprised what you can find.
While we’re talking about lights let me mention your light bulbs replace your burnout bulbs leaving them in looks sloppy. Try not to mix cool and warm light bulbs in the same room, it looks disjointed and it draws the eye not in a good way. Use the right bulbs for the right application for instance don’t put regular bulbs in can lights it looks lazy and tacky. Don’t use twisted fluorescent bulbs in applications where the bulb is visible it looks tacky. Don’t mix clear and frosted globe bulbs again it looks tacky.
The problem with stuff looking tacky is that it also looks cheap and when people think you’re cheap they’re going to feel like you’ve gone cheap on repairs and maintenance which is not the impression you want to make when you’re trying to increase the value of your property to get top dollar. Since we’re talking about lighting here’s another super easy and inexpensive tip replace all of your mismatched broken discolored light switches and outlet covers just make them all match if your toggles are white go white if your toggles are almond do that. I’ve been in houses where practically every single switch plate is different, don’t do that.
Okay this tip is the winner for the biggest bang for your buck on a whole house scale, PAINT – think light bright and neutral you need to get rid of your red dining room, your coffee brown accent wall, the kiddo’s purple bedroom the yellow kitchen it all needs to go. Remove the wallpaper borders, think light bright and neutral. If you’re going to paint your house yourself commit to doing a good job if you’re not a good painter just hire one. Go to a paint store and show the associate a couple of pictures of the room your painting that highlight the major components in there like the flooring the trim and the cabinetry ask for some popular neutral colors that will work with your existing components in your room.
This last tip is a step that a lot of sellers don’t want to tackle but it will make your home stand out from a crowd. Flooring, take a hard look at your floors. Your floors make a statement in every single room, you will remove a major buyer objection by making them look as nice and new as possible. If you’ve got hardwood underneath that old carpet rip it out and expose the wood. Refinish your wood floors if you need to. If you have carpet that’s still okay have it professionally cleaned, hire an actual cleaning professional and have it done. Many buyers are turned off by carpet, just about anywhere other than the bedrooms and maybe finished basements. if that living room carpet is tired stained, just replace it with wood or luxury vinyl plank.
And now for my tip in making your home stand out in the crowd of other similar homes on the market choose one small room and make some very fun and trendy design-forward choices think of it as a statement piece for your house, just like you might wear a pair of killer shoes a statement tied or a bold piece of jewelry to complete your outfit. By a small room, I mean small like a powder room, a laundry room, or a mudroom. This is the place where you can pop a dramatic color on the wall try a modern wallpaper or a bold tile floor. This small fashion-forward room is going to intrigue your buyers who are looking online at pictures and get them to schedule a showing, it’s going to help you justify your asking price and it will give your property personality. It will make your house desirable especially if your house is not that unique to start with
If you’re serious about selling the next two things you should do are download my home seller’s guide.
