Home Maintenance Tips for Minnesota Home Sellers
As soon as you begin thinking about selling your home, you should take a close look at the home. For most homeowners, some home maintenance chores tend to get put off, neglected, or go unnoticed. When it’s time to sell, though, you can be sure that potential buyers will notice these conditions.
Lindsey Kooy – Lindsey has a personal commitment to provide her clients superior customer service. She always go above and beyond to provide her clients with the highest level of skill and expertise. You will benefit from her exceptional knowledge of the Twin Cities area real estate market and her focus on finding buyers the perfect property or negotiating sellers the best price and in the shortest amount of time. She hopes to have the opportunity to help you sell or purchase your next property. You can count on her to be by your side throughout the entire transaction. She approaches each person with the goal in mind that she will have them as a client for life. No question is too small, and no request is too large to receive her full attention! Phone 952-688-8630
Many sellers hire a home inspector to conduct a thorough inspection, and then correct any deficiencies before showing the home. This step can ward off frustrating complications later in the sale. Some of the common home maintenance projects that can improve your home’s marketability include:
- Landscaping Maintenance – Lawns often need sprucing up, with fertilization, reseeding, neat edging, and other efforts to improve curb appeal. Plantings around the home, trees, fences and retaining walls may need painting, repair, or cleaning up. All weeds, litter, and unruly growth should be removed, too. Unsightly tree branches should be pruned back. Most of these tasks can be done by the homeowner or by a landscaping, lawn, or tree service.
- Home Exterior Maintenance – The outside of your home is an important part of its appeal to potential buyers. Siding, the roof, windows, porches, gutters, and all other exterior features should be cleaned up, fixed up, painted, or replaced and made to look their very best. For many homes, washing exterior siding and other finishes can make a huge improvement. All windows should be spotlessly clean, inside and out. Touch up paint on trim and woodwork. Pay special attention to entrances, making them look inviting and flawless. The same applies to separate garages and other outbuildings. Any exterior flaws will be noticed by buyers looking at your home.
- Home Interior Maintenance – After de-cluttering your home, as recommended in our guide to preparing your home for sale, you’re sure to find issues with the home’s interior. In rooms where paint doesn’t look its best, patching and repainting, usually in neutral colors, can make a huge difference. Freshly cleaned or new carpeting, and clean, polished hard-surface floors help make homes sparkle. In kitchens, move and clean under appliances. Look at plumbing fixtures and replace any dingy, outdated, or dirty fixtures in kitchens and baths. Replace anything that is ugly, oddly-colored, or damaged in the home. Consider replacing old switch and outlet covers, cabinet hardware, and door hardware, to update and freshen the look of your home, prior to listing the home for sale on MN MLS.
- Spruce up Neglected Areas – Garage interiors, basements, decks, patios, and outbuildings are often neglected by homeowners. Potential buyers, however, won’t neglect these areas when looking at your home. Get rid of clutter everywhere, and clean up, fix up, and paint up wherever you see issues. Basement utility rooms need special attention. Clean furnaces, laundry appliances, floors and walls, and clear away all clutter. If your basement is finished, treat it like you would any other living area in the home. Empty garages and outbuildings of all unnecessary items and make them inviting to buyers. Remove cobwebs everywhere in these neglected areas. In other words, make these areas an asset to your home, rather than an afterthought.
The More You Do to Make Your Home Appealing, the Better
Our experienced REMAX agents have helped thousands of Twin Cities residents buy and sell all types of listings. Our experience has shown us that the more effort that is put into preparing a home to look its very best and to eliminate visible flaws, the faster the home sells and the higher the actual selling price it achieves. Taking care of maintenance issues that may have been neglected is a crucial part of presenting any home. Potential buyers have keen eyes, and will spot flaws that owners never notice. Finding and eliminating those flaws lets your home make a great impression. Making your home move-in ready helps assure a quick sale at an advantageous price.
Helping Twin Cities Home Sellers Sell Home
The property you’re planning to sell is probably the most valuable property you own. For potential buyers, it is probably the most costly thing they will purchase. Our REMAX agents and Realtors know that presentation of a home is an enormous part of its marketability. Our multi-faceted marketing strategy is very successful in attracting potential buyers. It’s all part of our commitment to helping both sellers and buyers achieve their goals.
