Getting your home ready to sell can feel overwhelming. Between paperwork, coordinating with your real estate agent, and planning your next move, it’s easy for things to slip through the cracks.
To keep everything on track, we’ve put together expert tips to help you prepare your house for sale and attract potential buyers. One of the first steps? Declutter your space to make it feel clean, open, and move-in ready.
How to Prepare To Sell Your House
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Start with the paperwork
Before diving into cleaning or staging, it’s important to handle the selling paperwork first. One of the biggest decisions you’ll face is whether to list your home on your own or work with a real estate agent.
If you’re already juggling the decluttering and prep work, selling solo may add more stress than it’s worth. Partnering with a trusted real estate agent can save you time and keep you focused on getting your home market-ready.
With the right support, you’ll have more bandwidth to take care of everything from house cleanouts to deep cleaning projects, all of which are essential for a smooth home sale.
Documents you’ll need to sell your house
When selling your home, having the right paperwork ready can help you avoid delays and make the process much smoother. From legal forms to utility records, here are the essential documents needed to sell a house:
- Utility bills – Helps buyers estimate monthly living costs.
- Tax bills – Shows the current property tax amount and history.
- Mortgage loan documents – Required if you still owe on the home.
- Disclosure documents – Disclose known issues with the home.
- Personal identification – Required to legally transfer property.
- Final purchase and sale agreement – Outlines the terms of the sale.
How to improve your home’s curb appeal
The number one thing to prioritize when preparing your home for sale is curb appeal.
So, what is curb appeal? It’s how visually attractive your property looks from the street and it plays a major role in drawing in potential buyers. First impressions matter, so when you begin the process of prepping your home for sale, be sure curb appeal is at the top of your checklist.
So, the question remains: how do you add curb appeal to a home? The process isn’t as confusing as you might think. Most home decluttering projects focus on creating a healthier living space, but when preparing to sell, your goal shifts.
It depends on the property, but sometimes simply clearing yard debris and tidying the driveway can get you most of the way there. However, with a home sale you’ll want to go all out. After all, you’re not decluttering for yourself, you’re decluttering to make some money 🤑.
Related article: Check out these tips to boost curb appeal and increase your home’s value.
Start with exterior home maintenance
The first thing a prospective buyer will see is the outside of your home. You don’t necessarily need to begin the home prep for sale with this, but you definitely want to make sure this is the focal point, and that you spend the most time and energy on improving your home’s exterior.
With exterior maintenance, the focus at first should be on the front porch. Improving your front porch curb appeal is usually the first step. The front yard is essentially the first overall impression of the home. You’ll want to focus on your landscape choices, as planting the right greenery can help you spruce up your exterior.
Easy ways to improve curb appeal
- Power wash the driveway
- Re-paint your home’s exterior
- Replace or renovate garage doors
- Replace or renovate any windows or window boxes
After you’ve checked every corner of the outside of your home, you’re ready to dive inside. For everything inside your home, you’re going to need a plan.
Related Article: How to organize and declutter your garage like a professional.
We suggest, you guessed it, a checklist!
Make a checklist to declutter your home
You may be sensing a bit of a theme with the checklists, but, they are important! Starting room by room helps you stick to a schedule, which is important if you’re on a time constraint.
Which room you choose to start organizing and decluttering first is totally up to you. However, since you are decluttering for a sale, you may want to focus on areas of the house that a prospective buyer may spend the most time in.
You’ll want to consider how you show the house. We suggest you start and spend the most time in the living room. After all, a living room should be inviting, right? Here’s a quick rundown of a few things you can do to help you get started.
11 tips to declutter your home and organize to prep for a sale
- Clear the hallways.
- Clear out your kitchen junk drawer.
- Toss out, sell or donate excess furniture.
- Clear kitchen counters of any appliances.
- Keep the living room table decor to a minimum.
- Update lighting fixtures that are old or outdated.
- Organize any storage rooms in the basement or attic.
- Declutter any kids toys and games that may be left out
- Check bathroom drawers and cabinets and get rid of personal items.
- Go through wardrobes and throw out old clothing you aren’t taking with you.
- Make minor home repairs as needed like leaks, or even replace old water heaters.
The ultimate goal is to make your home look clean, inviting and free of the everyday clutter that comes with a busy household.
Decluttering for a sale should make your space look almost too good to be true like it belongs in a listing magazine.
De-Personalize your Home! When selling, remove personal touches. You may love your wall decor, but buyers need to picture themselves living there — so keep it neutral and inviting.
Hire help to prepare your house for a sale
Between everything that goes into preparing to sell your home from paperwork and choosing an agent to organizing and deep cleaning the process can quickly feel overwhelming.
Having trouble tackling decluttering on your own? LoadUp is a trusted, on-demand junk removal service that makes it easy to get rid of everything from a bulky mattress to an old refrigerator even bagged or boxed junk.
Need your entire property cleaned out? LoadUp can handle that, too with a guaranteed, upfront price that’s often up to 30% less than the market average.
At the end of the day, decluttering to sell is all about maximizing your home’s value. If you’re short on time or energy, let the pros at LoadUp step in and help get your space market-ready.
Looking for a property cleanout? LEARN MORE ❯
Frequently Asked Questions
For starters, don’t overprice or underprice your home. You’re essentially setting yourself up for failure if you do that. Don’t forget to de-personalize your home, don’t show up during showings (unless you are your own realtor). Lastly, please, don’t ignore issues that need repairs in your home.
On average, homeowners spend around $15,000 to get a home ready to sell, with the bulk of costs coming from home improvement. When you factor in other costs such as preparation for listings and more, it can add up.
While it is technically possible to sell a messy home, you probably won’t have much luck. The biggest thing to focus is on curb appeal, starting with the exterior of your home. After that, some simple decluttering and organizing in every room of your home should do the job, but don’t forget, you’ll need to “de-personalize” and take all the personal belongings out of your home in order to make your home as attractive as it can be to potential buyers.
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