Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Utah remains a seller’s market—a hot one, in fact. According to Zillow, home prices in the Beehive State just climbed by an amazing 16 percent over the last year. The typical home value of property here has already breached $415,000.
If you’re thinking of moving away from the state or have an extra property sitting idle, NOW is the right time to make money out of it. But you need to do it right, and the process of selling your home fast involves excellent home staging.
When prepping your house for potential homebuyers wanting to take a look, consider these tips:
1. Clean Your Space
During the early phases of your home staging, you need to channel your inner Marie Kondo and get your house clutter-free ASAP.
While some studies suggest that clutter can be a sign of creativity as it pushes someone to think outside the box, more often than not, they are an eyesore. And eyesores can lead to headaches, anxiety, and stress. You don’t want your guests to feel that way.
Although cleaning can take up a good amount of time—and it’s not the only concern you’ll have for the home staging—you don’t need to do this alone. Today, you can already find a house cleaning service in major cities in the state.
They usually perform deep cleaning, which means they cover every nook and cranny. They can wash your carpets and help remove the stains on the walls and sofas. They can even disinfect your place, which still matters now as the virus is still very much around.
2. Get Rid of the Furniture
When you are doing home staging, you’re not just selling the space—you’re also offering possibilities. When your potential homebuyers walk in, they should be able to see a home they’ve always desired or envisioned, not your style.
Thus, get rid of as much furniture as you can unless you want these fixtures to be part of the deal. You can retain shelving, probably a sofa as you want the guests to be comfortable during the tour, and some nice trendy pieces.
If you’re likely to stay at home while waiting for an offer, you can rent storage and keep the other furniture pieces you don’t need for home staging. Otherwise, if you’re so ready to leave, you can earn more income by selling the good ones.
3. Fix What’s Broken
Often, selling a house isn’t a straightforward business. It can involve a lot of processes, such as making an offer or escrowing money. Then some clauses might give a buyer an out. One of these is contingencies.
Contingencies are a set of conditions that either the buyer or the seller can or needs to fulfill before the contract becomes binding. Any of the responsible parties might also have only a specific period to do it.
Once the time lapses and not all the conditions have been completed, the buyer or the seller may have the option to cancel the contract or reject the offer.
One of the possible contingencies is a home inspection. This means that the buyer will have the option to conduct an inspection before they push through with the offer. If problems need fixing, then the potential buyer may compel the owner to repair them.
However, you don’t want to wait until you are asked to fulfill a contingency clause. Fix what’s broken even before you begin staging. Else, you might be pressured to deal with it ASAP. And because time is of the essence, you may have no other choice but to spend more money.
When inspecting your home, take note of the following:
- Check the roofing. Call a roof specialist to see if there are any leaks, missing shingles, or signs of rusting and roosting of animals. This person can also inspect gutters, making sure that no water is seeping into the walls and foundations of the house.
- Know the status of the plumbing system. If the house is already old, some of the pipes might be already showing wear and tear. That makes them prone to leaking and flooding. If you have trees on your property, an inspection can determine if the roots are digging their way into the pipes. That may result in clogging later.
- Examine the HVAC system. This is especially necessary if you have an attic, which can trap heat, and a basement, which can retain a lot of moisture, making it smell musty and feel damp. If you live in an old home, a professional can investigate if the insulation is actually asbestos and if the ducts are still working well.
The goal of staging a home isn’t just to showcase the property—you want to sell it. To do that, make sure you can cover the basics potential buyers often look for in a home, such as cleanliness, healthy home state, and possibilities of the space.
