From prep to profit: How to get your house in Parsippany, NJ ready to sell

Deciding to your home is a major milestone and decision. But before you take your listing online and put those “For Sale” signs up on your lawn, there are several key steps you have to follow to prepare your home for the market.

Whether you’re selling your home due to a career change, a desire to live in a different neighborhood, or as a way to downsize, continue reading as we guide you on how to get your house ready to sell.

The Importance of House Prep Before Selling

In a nutshell, preparing your home, from cleaning and making repairs to staging, enables you to present the property in the best possible light. When you’re done with prep, the house will be tour-, photo-, and in some cases, move-in ready. Moreover, prepping your house can also lead you to enjoy the following benefits:

1. Your listing can attract more buyers: With so many properties being sold on the market – online and offline – at any one time, it is very easy for listings to fade into the background. You can avoid this by decluttering, cleaning, and making minor repairs in your home.

2. You may be able to sell your listing faster: One of the most important benefits of preparing your house for sale is that it allows for quicker turnaround times during showings.

   Staging, in particular, can speed up the sale. According to a 2020 survey by the International Association of Home Staging Professionals (IAHSP), staged homes sell up to 30 times faster than non-staged ones. This leads to savings, as a shorter time spent on the market can mean less home-selling costs to shoulder.

3. Your listing may be able to sell for a higher price: One of the biggest benefits of staging is its ability to help increase a home’s selling price. In NAR’s 2023 Profile of Home Staging, 20% of sellers’ agents reported a 1% to 5% increase in the dollar value offered by buyers after staging a home, in contrast to comparable properties that were sold as-is.

4. It can help minimize negotiations: When buyers find glaring issues or cluttered spaces, they’re more likely to make lower offers or request repairs. Preparing your house beforehand reduces the chances of such negotiations and gets you closer to your desired selling price.

5. It helps highlight the home’s best features and selling points: What makes your house stand out? Staging helps accentuate these features, drawing the buyer’s eye to the architectural details, spacious rooms, or abundant natural light. For instance, strategically placed furniture can show that the home has great traffic flow, while tasteful accent pieces can highlight architectural details like a fireplace or built-in bookshelves.

   Conversely, staging can help downplay minor flaws that might otherwise deter buyers. For example, awkward furniture arrangements can be adjusted to create a more open and inviting feel. By focusing on the home’s strengths, staging helps buyers overlook minor imperfections.

How to Get Your House in Parsippany, NJ Ready to Sell

The best way to avoid a complicated and challenging home prep is to set a timeline and divide your tasks into manageable chunks. Devote one week* (or more, depending on your schedule) for each category to keep yourself focused and organized.

*For the purpose of this demonstration, we’ll be allocating a week for each group of tasks. You’re welcome to customize this checklist as needed.

Week 1: Lay the groundwork

The first set of tasks involves planning, strategizing, and hiring somebody who can streamline the rest of the home-selling process for you.

• Find a reputable and experienced Realtor: While selling your house yourself is a perfectly valid option, a Realtor brings expertise in pricing, marketing, and negotiation into the picture. They can also handle paperwork, guide you through legalities, connect you with reliable contractors, as well as give you more tips on how to get your house ready to sell.

• Decide on a listing price strategy: Once you have a Realtor, take the time to come up with a competitive and reasonable listing price for your property. Many sellers start by asking their Realtor for a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA). This report includes information about the recent sales of properties in your area within a specific time frame. These properties should be comparable to yours in terms of size, age, and other features. With a CMA, you’ll be given a ballpark figure to base your listing price on.

• Gather required documentation: Get copies of your property deed, title insurance, tax records, and any homeowners association (HOA) documentation in order. Having these documents with you helps to streamline the selling process and prevent you from getting stressed during this endeavor.

• Consider a pre-listing inspection: Having a professional inspection beforehand can identify any major issues that could potentially affect your sale. Find a licensed inspector with relevant certifications as well as contacts. Some of the findings may require the second opinion of a specialist inspector, just to be sure. From there, you can identify major repairs or upgrades needed and fine-tune your budget.

Week 2: Repair and improve

Now that you know which repairs and upgrades to prioritize, it’s time to concentrate on making your home look pretty and inviting. Here are some of the important steps that you should take:

• Clean your home: Cleaning every square inch of your house is one of the first things you should do when getting ready to sell. By doing this, you’ll be able to remove all the dirt that has accumulated in your house over time and have a blank canvas that you or your home stager can work with.

• Declutter your space: Clutter can make your house appear smaller than it is and divert potential buyers’ attention from its unique features. So, put unnecessary items into storage. These may include old books, seasonal clothes, and collectibles. Decluttering is also another way to depersonalize the home.

• Refresh your walls: Before you put your home up for sale, don’t forget to give its walls and any built-in furniture a fresh coat of paint. While it may be tempting to splash your walls with bold, unexpected colors, your best bet is to stick with a neutral palette. Doing so will make your home appear as a blank canvas onto which buyers can project their own style and aesthetic.

• Clean and refresh the floors: Make sure to give every square inch of the floors a good cleaning. If your home has tiled floors, check for chipped or cracked pieces and replace them as soon as possible. In addition, you should try soaking your grout in baking soda and white vinegar to lighten it and remove any mildew.

  If your home has hardwood floors, polish them after cleaning to bring out the grain and natural patterns. Don’t forget to deep clean your carpets and area rugs to remove any stains and odors. If there are stubborn stains and odors, simply throw them out and replace the carpets during staging to avoid embarrassing moments.

• Let the light in: Adding natural light is an easy way to improve the appearance of your space. You can accomplish this by opening your windows and blinds as well as expertly placing mirrors throughout the room. Allowing sunlight in will make your space appear airy and fresh, which appeals to buyers.

  If your home doesn’t receive much natural light, lamps with warm-colored bulbs can be used instead. When strategically placed, they can be effective at making a space appear cozy and inviting. Lastly, don’t forget to check and replace old light bulbs in your home, especially in places like the kitchen and the bathroom.

• Rearrange or change the furniture: When setting up your home for a shoot or an open house, you must use furniture that is the appropriate size for the space: too large and the room will feel cramped; too small and the room will feel clinical and cold.

  Positioning is also important. Avoid placing your furniture against the walls as this can make your space appear smaller than it is. Instead, try to keep a 30-centimeter distance between large pieces of furniture and your walls to make the room feel more spacious.

  Furthermore, as you select furniture, choose ones that have light colors to help create an inviting atmosphere. If you wish for pops of color, reserve them for accent pillows and other decorative elements.

• Check and fix cracks in your home: If your home has masonry cracks, it’s a good idea to have them checked out by a professional. It can be a sign of problems with the house’s foundation and can lead to bigger problems. In such cases, the best course of action is to inform buyers even if you’ve made the necessary repairs to address the issue. For cosmetic cracks, simply fill them with epoxy crack sealer, smooth it out, and then paint over.

• Maximize your home’s curb appeal: In real estate, curb appeal refers to how appealing a house and its immediate surroundings are from the street. This can influence a buyer’s first impression of a property and may even increase their interest in purchasing it.

  To improve the curb appeal of your property, begin by mowing, weeding, and trimming your lawn as well as pruning any hedges and trees. You should also clean your windows to remove any unsightly films and scum from the glass, and scrub and repaint their frames to make them look brand new. Clean pavements, sidewalks, and driveways also give potential buyers the impression that the house is well cared for.

• Clean and tidy your attic, basement, or garage: Homeowners should make it a point to clean and organize spaces such as the attic, basement, or garage, especially if their presence is a major selling point for the property.

Week 3: List your home

Once you’re done preparing your home, all that’s left for you to do is to have the property listed and opened to interested buyers. Here are some of the most important tasks you should do during this phase:

• Hire a professional photographer: Unless you have a talent for photography, it is best to leave listing pictures to the professionals. A real estate photographer is an added expense, but they will do their best to showcase your property through well-composed and well-lit photographs. You can use these marketing collaterals not only for your online listing but other forms of advertising as well, including pamphlets and social media posts.

  

• Prepare your home for visiting buyers: If you decide to hold open houses, ensure the house is spotless and staged to perfection. For example, you should incorporate greenery throughout the space to make it feel fresh and inviting. Hardy potted plants like sansevierias and pothos are great for this task as they thrive indoors with little care. Freshly cut flowers can also be placed in glass vases during shoots and open houses to add bright pops of color without overwhelming the space.

  Aside from looking fresh, your home should also smell fresh. You can achieve this by placing lemon slices or essential oils in your humidifiers: the citrus oils in the vapor will instantly neutralize bad odors, leaving your home smelling clean and inviting. You can also change up the scents depending on the season: bake cinnamon muffins and brew coffee when showing your home in the fall to make it feel homey, light green tea-scented candles in the spring to make it feel bright, and spritz coconut and grapefruit room scents in the summer to give it a refreshing, oceanic feel.

• Be flexible with home showings: When conducting open houses and showings, try to accommodate potential buyers’ schedules as much as possible. This can help you win over buyers, not to mention attract more eyes to your listing.

• Have a checklist of tasks for each home showing: Showing your home to prospective buyers can be quite challenging and stressful—especially if it’s your first time. To make things easier, here is a checklist of tasks you have to do before showing your home to buyers:

  • Check rooms and other living areas for clutter or dirt
  • Sweep or vacuum the floor
  • Clean the sinks and faucets
  • Wipe down your kitchen countertops
  • Empty trash and recycling bins
  • Safeguard your valuables
  • Store pet dishes
  • Sweep your front porch
  • Open curtains and shades
  • Turn the lights on
  • Place room scents or essential oils in humidifiers
  • Play soothing music

Achieve Home Selling Success with Jackie

Hello, I’m Jackie Scura. For the past 38+ years, I’ve helped thousands of home sellers sell their homes in and around Parsippany, NJ. What powers me in delivering stellar customer service is genuine love for what I do. After all, “if you do what you love and love what you do, success will follow.”

Do you need expert advice on how to get your house ready to sell, as well as assistance with the rest of the home-selling process? With me, you’re in excellent hands. Let’s chat about your real estate needs and goals at 973.214.9488. You can also send me an email so we can arrange a private consultation at your convenience.