Photos Are A Great Way To Prepare Your Property to Sell
Throughout our experience in capturing real estate properties, we’ve picked up on a few pointers that help prepare your property to sell.
These pointers are also important in preparing your home for potential buyers. Did you know that the way your home is presented in photos and in person helps boost the value of the asking price if presented in the best way possible? When the market is as demanding as this, why not cash out as much as possible?
We have some essential tips that will help you in prepare your property to sell!
Declutter, Reduce, Clean, then Stage
Declutter – Remove anything unnecessary from the counters, dressers, desk tables, and floors. This includes mail, personal items, tools, etc. You don’t want everyone to see your clutter.
Reduce – Trim down the number of personal photos, religious items, and sports memorabilia. You want to show the potential buyers a space they can see themselves in and not get distracted by things that they can’t relate to or may not appreciate. If you must keep décor up, keep it neutral.
Clean Clean Clean! – Deep clean to remove spider webs, dust, and dirt everywhere. Clean the windows, baseboards, mirrors, appliances… everything. This will take a lot of time and endurance.
Do what you can then hire the rest out!
Hiring a Cleaning Crew
We recommend hiring a professional cleaning service for this task if it’s something you dislike doing, don’t have the time, or are not the best at. Of course, anyone can clean themselves. However, the real question is, do you want to clean the way you NEED to clean for the situation at hand? The property must be close to spotless if you want to make the right impression.
Unless you have the bandwidth and know-how to have it looking really good, may we recommend Gwen’s Gleam to take care of it? Gwen’s Gleam is a local family-owned company with 22+ years in the environmental cleaning industry. We know the owner and can vouch that her team does a great job! Contact them here.
Hire a Flooring Expert
Prepare your home to sell with an amazing carpet cleaning job! After all the cleaning of the surfaces has concluded, the floors will then need to be attended to. Beyond general cleaning, you’ll want to get all floors deep cleaned. This means a mounted steam cleaning for carpets and deep cleaning and buffing for hard floors. Beyond looking amazing, you’ll gain your potential buyer’s trust that the space is clean.
We recommend Olmec Reflections for the job. The owner, Don Boling, has been restoring floors for 15+ years in the greater Cincinnati area.
We have personally hired him and referred him to several realtors over the years. The work never disappoints! They also offer marble top cleaning as well as tile & grout cleaning and sealing. Contact them here.
Let’s Focus on the Outside
When you prepare your home to sell – don’t forget about the exterior! The outside of your property may even be more important than the inside, as it will make the very first impression. If the outside is unappealing, you might never get a chance to show off the inside!
Make sure all of the toys are out of the yard, cut the grass, apply fresh mulch, and landscape to make it look it’s best. Remove worn-out trampolines or play sets. Clean leaves of the driveway. Again, we understand that this is time-consuming and you may not have the proper equipment, time or willpower to do it. We have a recommendation for you as well!
Hire a Landscaper
We recommend Elite Professional Lawn Care. The team at Elite can not only make your lawn look amazing, but they can landscape the whole yard and create a transformation that will impress any passerby! Contact them here.
Let’s Stage the Property!
Now that everything is clean, it’s time to stage. This task might not seem like a big deal, but it is more important than you may realize. Being able to look at a room and visualize how it should look takes talent and experience.
You might have heard of the term “Feng Shui”. It is the practice of arranging the pieces of a space to create balance. Whether or not we realize it, our brains demand this balance. It might not hit us immediately, but it will eventually.
Our last and final professional we recommend is Christy Randall with PIQ Creative Living. We have had the pleasure of photographing spaces that Christy has worked in and the results are amazing. Her services include home décor rental and retail, décor, staging, and organizing. She does consults to if you just want a little guidance and want to try to stage yourself. Contact her here.
For the Empty Spaces
Virtual staging can be used to show of a unique layout or main rooms of a vacant home on a budget. Your realtor may even cover the cost of an image or two. However, nothing beats real life staging that a person can experience when they walk into your home!
Bottom Line To Prepare Your Property to Sell
It’s important to do as much as you can to stage your property if you want top dollar. We really hope these tips have helped get you ready with the task that is preparing your property. The stress can be overwhelming, but when you hire out some of the work, you’ll get back some of that time and sanity you’ll need for all the other stuff that goes along with the real estate market.
Now that all these stages have been met, it’s time to show it off! Looking for a real estate photographer who can make it look amazing? Cincy Photo Pro is at your service! We offer MLS photography, aerial, 3D Tours, and virtual staging. Contact us today to get started!
