After a loved one passes preparing your estate home to put up on the market or for an appraisal is stressful. You are already dealing with a lot of additional stress with grieving and loved ones. Trying to prepare a house for sale is probably the last thing that you want to do.
Try to remember this can be a time of healing. Using the process of cleaning and preparing the home can provide you with a sense of grieving and then releasing your grief to better help you move past this difficult time.
RE Appraisals is here to help you through this process with whatever you need. We want your sale to succeed all while remaining a smooth and stress-free (as possible) process for you. We will help you with finding an estate attorney, service providers for lawn care, pool maintenance, handyman services, or anything else you might need.
There are many tasks that you can do all by yourself to help prepare your home for the market.
DIY Tips and Tricks
Curb Appeal
Remember how we mentioned curb appeal in our last article? The outside of your home is crucial to enticing buyers to come in and look around. So what are some things you can do to spruce up your yard without hiring a team of professionals?
If there are some old planters or if some of the old lawn furniture is starting to look a little run down, you could simply paint them. Sometimes paying to replace outside furniture isn’t something that you can afford on top of all the other maintenance and fees. However, if you can pull it off a simple paint job on some old pieces it can be a game-changer.
Choose from some currently popular colors that will accent the house color well but will still add a little pop of color and you should be good to get that old furniture looking like new again!
Planting some simple plants that will add a little vibrancy to the yard is always a great idea. Blanket flowers are beautiful in color and are easy to maintain in Florida’s climate. Just make sure whatever you choose that it will be able to survive in the climate with very little maintenance needed.
Making sure that all the weeds in your garden are picked and that they stay that way is a great look for buyers. Also laying down some new mulch in the flowerbeds will keep the garden looking fresh. If you are either too busy or not able to do the work yourself, we would be more than happy to recommend lawn care professionals that will do the work for you for a fair price!
Clearing Out the Home
After holding the estate sale the home is probably starting to look pretty bare. However, the tidying up is not over with yet. Even after cleaning and all of the different maintenance tasks that need handling next you need to think about how to handle the personal stuff.
Hopefully, family members have already claimed old family photos. Anything that is left hanging on the walls, such as pictures or old memorabilia should be taken down. It can either be placed in storage or can be donated.
Buyers don’t want to see the previous family or anybody else living in that home. Seeing the previous owner’s personal belongings makes it harder for the buyer to see themselves living in that home.
You should get rid of things that theme rooms too much. Plain is the best possible way to go. It might look super cute to you to have a room set up with a sort of nautical theme with boats and other decorations. However, what if a potential buyer has a crippling fear of the ocean or if they simply don’t like boats. Themed rooms are never a good idea.
Simply go with a neutral themed color palette and try to stick to simple patterns for accents such as pillows and other decor. Next, you will need to look at getting rid of at least a third of the items in the home. Hopefully, you were able to sell through a decent amount of the items but if there is still a lot of clutter left-over you will need to donate the rest.
You have no idea how important it is to have uncluttered space in the home. Not only does it make the space look bigger but it also gives off the appearance that there is more storage space in the property.
Clearing out about half of the closets, drawers, garage, tool shed, or any other storage areas is key. This will make potential buyers feel like there is ample storage space for their stuff once they move in, which is important if you want to sell your estate property.
Sprucing Up Your Kitchen
Sprucing Up Your KitchenWhen you are trying to sell an estate home on a tight budget, one important thing to remember is not to over-upgrade around the house. Going to the lengths of renovating everything around the house is not the best way to sell an estate home or any home for that matter.
Simple fixes around the house are honestly the best way to get the most out of your estate home with one exception to that rule, the kitchen.
When they say that a kitchen is the heart of every home they aren’t lying. Out of every room in the house and sometimes the entire house altogether, the kitchen is truly what you are selling. Buyers might be able to overlook the house not having as many bathrooms as they would like or possibly having bedrooms that are a little smaller than what they would like but the kitchen is a different story.
Most homeowners nowadays want large open kitchens with plenty of countertop space to cook or converse at. Even just being able to update old countertops or even refinish the cabinets could mean thousands of extra dollars in your pocket.
So when it comes to updating the kitchen, it is one of the best ways to get the most out of a house. Even when you have the home appraised, the kitchen is a major component in evaluating the current market price for a home.
Here at RE Appraisals Associates, we want to help you with your estate home. Give us a call at 941-743-3700 to learn more about the process and what we can do to help you sell your estate home for more.
