Small Fixes Before You Sell Your Home

Even the littlest details count, especially when buyers are looking at purchasing a home. Lots of everyday wear and tear that you don’t even notice can ding your home in the eyes of potential buyers. Here’s my list of simple improvements you can do to help your home sell faster:

• Spruce Up Your Baseboards: Pets, kids, and stumbling husbands in the dark can make a mess of your baseboards. Repainting the baseboards after repairing scratches with putty can make the border of any room look new. Click here to view an article by Abby Lawson that gives simple steps to freshen up your baseboards.
• Fill in Nail Holes: Part of interior repainting should be careful attention to nail holes from pictures, shelves, and other wall-mounted objects. Click here to learn about multiple DIY ways to fill in nail holes.
• Review the roof: Do you have missing shingles or broken tiles? Missing shingles could cause mold and moss to grow. Do some cleaning and spot replacement.
• Reinforce your gutters: To reduce staining, damage, and keep water off of the siding of the home, reinforcing your gutters is vital. Clean them out, dry them out, then caulk them to prevent leaks.
• Update Light Switch & Outlet Covers: Light switches, in most rooms, are used every day. Excessive use can cause wear and tear on the light switch covers. Although it is a small detail, replacing the covers will bring a fresh, clean look.
• Remove Smoke Odor: Filter replacement is a must if there has been smoking in your home. Wash down walls, prime them to seal in any cooked-in nicotine, and repaint. Along with this, be sure to check entryways and lawns for cigarette butts. Click here for an article that offers additional tips to eliminate smoke odor.
• Replace Bad Vinyl Floors: Vinyl flooring is durable and stands up to heaving foot traffic. However, when cracked or cut, it can look dingy. Along with this, a cracked vinyl floor may cause the buyer to believe that there is water damage.
• Carpets Cleaning: Unless your carpets are in total despair, cleaning your carpets can bring new life into your home rather than replacing them. While you can hire a professional for a reasonable fee, another option for carpeting cleaning is stopping by your local grocery store or hardware store and renting a machine.
• Repair Dripping Faucets: Buyers will turn faucets on and off. Therefore, before listing, you do the same. Turn on and off your faucets in the kitchen, bathroom, tubs, showers, and even outside hose bibs. What do you find? Buyers will view dripping faucets as future headaches. Call a plumber, or even consult YouTube for repair instructions.
• Patch Cabinet Scratches: Re-staining or repainting can make cabinets seem new. For scratches on natural wood cabinets of furniture, click here for tips on fixing those pesky scratches.
• Reseal Wobbly Toilets: If the toilet bowl moves when you sit on it, there are rusted, or the bathroom floor is damp and discolored around the commode, replace the toilet or at the very least reseal it.

After finishing these minor improvements, contact me to list your home to sell. These repairs are a significant step to a quick sale. 928-830-6976