Getting Your Home Ready for Spring Selling Season

Making the decision to sell a home can be one of the most exciting times for a homeowner—new opportunities, a new house and the prospect of making big bucks on your old home are all on the horizon. But as they say, homes don't just sell themselves. A lot of hard work and planning must go into making your property a top-seller. These tips will shed some light on the preparation necessary before your home takes center stage on the market.

Tend to the Exterior of Your Home

First impressions are everything—this holds true even when selling a home. If your property has great curb appeal, that's the ultimate first impression. Buyers are much more likely to be interested and to continue looking at your property if they like what they see on the outside. Simple touch-ups such as mowing the lawn, trimming bushes, clearing sidewalks, freshly painting window trimmings and planting flowers can make a dramatic difference in the impression of your home.

Fix What You Can

Maintenance on the interior of your home is just as important as on the exterior. There are lots of little things you can make sure are in top shape, and though small they make a big difference in how buyers remember your home. Fix leaking faucets, change burned-out light bulbs, fixes doors our drawers that jam, patch any holes in walls and paint over any blemishes.

Remove Clutter and Re-Organize

Clutter and chaos inside of a home can be distracting to buyers—they have a hard time mentally cleaning up the space, and see only the mess rather than the house itself. Remove unnecessary items from counters, put away knickknacks or children's toys, and get rid of things you don't use anymore. The benefit to doing this now is eliminating the need to do it when you move – it's a bit of a head start.

In addition to making sure viewable areas are free of clutter, be sure to organize cabinets and closets. Packed to the brim, cabinets and closets will seem much smaller to homebuyers and there's a chance they'll be turned off to the rest of your home. You know they're going to check all of the storage space in the house, so be prepared ahead of time.

Spring Clean to Perfection

Let's face it, you were going to clean your house at this time of the year no matter what, now you have the added bonus of making your house seem much more valuable. Just a few examples of basic spring-cleaning tactics that actually go a long way in selling a home include:

• Waxing your floors
• Getting rid of cobwebs
• Wash windows
• Dust the whole house
• Get rid of odors of all kinds

Rent Storage Space

This follows along the lines of removing clutter from the home. At times lots of furniture can be excessive and crowd the home, making it feel smaller. When showing your property you only need just enough furniture to identify the function of each room—anything beyond can go into storage to free up walking space.

Remove Personalizing Items From Home

By taking family pictures off of the walls, and removing items such as family heirlooms, you can help potential buyers see themselves living in the house. Too many family specific items can end up being distracting to buyers, and they have a hard time removing your own family from the image of that home.

Take Down What You Don't Want to Sell

There may be things in your home you just don't want to part ways with; these may include upgraded appliances, window coverings or expensive chandeliers you own. If you don't want these to be included with the house, you should remove them and replace them with versions you aren't attached to. If buyers see these items they're likely to want to keep them with the house, and it could be a deal-breaker. Avoiding the situation all together is much easier.

Before any of this physical preparation to selling your home, there is one other thing that is essential to successfully making the sale—you need to be mentally ready to sell your home. It sounds simple, but it really is vital. If you're ready to move on from this home, and you can cope with the fact that soon it will no longer be yours, you'll have a much easier time getting the rest of this list done. Look toward the future, not the past, and get truly excited to sell your home.