By Deborah Ann Spence
Table of contents
Introduction
How to sell home but still live in it or planning to buy a new home can be challenging. However, you can make your home appealing to potential buyers with the proper preparations. Here are 13 steps to refresh your home:
After a long, dreary winter, putting a new home on the market in the Spring is always exciting. Here are some tips to help improve the home for maximum value.
How To Sell Home But Still Live In It
- Fresh paint the entire interior ($5,000)
- Powerwash the exterior ($200)
- Landscape the backyard and lawn ($500)
- Paint the front door bright red or baby blue ($100)
- Have the roof recoated ($1500)
- Tighten up any loose siding($500)
- Seal any cracked cement($500-$2500)
- Paint the garage floor and basement floor if unfinished ($300)
- Remove clutter
- Professional Clean the home ($500)
- Interior Staging (decorating)
- Hire a Professional Photographer for a home photoshoot with aerial footage. ($350-$500)
- Have a sellers inspection to confirm the house is well maintained ($500)
and then brace yourself for multiple offers and competitive bids in what I believe will continue to be a seller’s market.
Home Improvement Products
Sell Home Still Live In It Ideas
The Cost of Refreshing the Home for a Spring Sale
Refreshing the home for a Spring Sale can cost between $100 to $15,000. It all depends on what you can do and what has already been done over the years. For example, there is no cost if the house’s cement is not cracked because of proper maintenance. Another example is if you repaint your home every two or three years, you may only need to touch up some spots. If you have your PowerWasher, that’s great, and you can spend a few hours on the weekends cleaning trouble areas. Also, you can sell home and still live in it. As well as sell home to buy a new one.
Home Improvement Ideas For LessGive a way, Donate, Trash it!
In addition to the exterior, don’t forget to tackle inside. Any clutter should go in three piles. One to giveaway, the other to donate, and then last it to the trash. Going through your clutter is challenging. You are acknowledging the items you own as chaos is challenging. But when preparing your home for sale, that is precisely what your things are-clutter. They are in the middle of you getting top dollar for your home or next to nothing. I am very sorry that I have to tell you this. Buyers do not care about your collections, antiques, furniture (well, some buyers love modern furniture, and some buyers love antiques), or your plants. The reason is that they have their stuff. They want to envision the house with their items and not yours. Of course, there are exceptions; some homes are interior decorated, and buyers may want to buy the home and furniture. However, not all sellers are familiar with interior decorating, and they have excess stuff. The bottom line is that the clutter has to go into the piles. You should rip the bandaid off and do it quickly before you change your mind.
Here are some companies to reach out to for donations
Local Thrift Store
Interior Cleaning
With the clutter removed, work on painting the interior. Remember you can take your time and work on this towards the end of the Winter months. Then, a little at a time, you can repaint every room. Unfortunately, because of inflation, paint and supplies have increased. However, it is still an excellent idea to paint every room freshly. It gives it a nice, clean feel.
Moving along, excellent cleaning and scrubbing of baseboards, ceiling fans, exhaust, washer, dryer, heater, pipes, flooring, tubs, windows, and more are ideal. Some of these things were probably not touched in years. However, buyers notice everything, and I always remember the embarrassment of a seller with dust shooting off the fan when a buyer turned it on. His face turned bright red, and I felt the pain with him. But he never used the fan, so it was an honest mistake.
Sometimes it is better to hire a professional cleaner. The company will scrub and polish areas of the house that a typical homeowner may miss. The professional cleaner may also have better equipment to clean floors, shampoo carpets, and polish the furnace. I estimated the cost to be $500. However, the price may be double or triple if it includes windows and carpet cleaning.
Storage
Other considerations are storage options. While preparing your home for sale in a spring market, putting the items you want to keep in storage is an excellent idea. Pods is a company that will park a storage bin in your driveway for you to move your items quickly, a little at a time. Once done, the company will come and pick it up and drop it off at your new home. Also, some companies can pack your household goods, store them, and then deliver them to your new home or apartment. Keep in mind there are terms and conditions for every company. It is best to read the fine print and interview as many companies as possible until you feel comfortable moving forward.
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Lastly, the market price of your home is essential when considering sprucing up the place for sale. If you are selling a million-dollar-plus home, you would want to do everything on the list and beyond to generate top dollar. On the other hand, if your home is worth less than $100,000, you may want to give the house a good cleaning and sell it “As is.”
However, a small investment of $10k in specific markets can yield several competitive offers over $50k of the asking price. To spend $10k to earn $50k over the asking price is well worth it. Also, the asking price can increase by $50k based on the maintenance and cleanliness of the home. So, in conclusion, you can potentially earn $100k more on selling your home while still living in it by spending $9-$15k on preparation for sale. I say, “Go for it”!
Wrapping Up
Following these steps, you can refresh your home to sell quickly while still living in it or preparing to buy a new one.
When refreshing your home to prepare it to sell quickly in the Spring Market, think about what you like when home shopping. If you have a buyer’s mindset, getting the home ready for sale is easy. I love to walk into clean homes with bright windows, red-painted doors, a maintained exterior, a lovely patio, a little garden, and the smell of fresh flowers. Most of my buyers love that as well. However, buyers do not like strange odors, dirty carpets, stains, dust, peeling paint, or roof leaks unless it is a fixer-upper or investment property purchase. So, with the buyer mindset in place, walk your home and begin slowly and methodically repairing and cleaning the house. I am excited for you. If you need professional advice, you can contact one of my agents for a listing consultation or me.