Revamp Your Home: Simple, Affordable Tips for Show-Stopping Style

With a bit of elbow grease in just the right places, you’ll get your home looking its best when you list it. Here is a quick and easy guide to getting your home ready for buyers so that it shines both inside and out.

Curb Appeal: A Big Deal

People often underestimate the value of good curb appeal. 

Most buyers drive by homes and decide whether it’s worth visiting. You want to speak to a potential buyer before they even get out of their car! You can upgrade your home’s first impression in a day or two.

• Make sure the front entrance shines—literally! Look at your front entrance’s elements: the door, the hardware, the fixtures, and the walkway.
• Your front door is a buyer’s first impression of your home. New paint color is a cost-effective and smart way to welcome them to your home, whether they view it online or go through the front door. Add a burst of color and repaint the front door, so it stands out and photographs well.
• Take care of aging hardware around your entrance. Update or polish the locks and mailbox and install modern street numbers that match the rest of your home’s hardware.
• Get rid of debris around your yard, like tools or toys, and do high-impact yard work, such as pruning shrubs and weeding beds. Remember to add fresh mulch!
• Reset, replace, paint or clean any walkway stones leading up to your home.
• Think about adding window boxes for an extra splash of color. 
• If you have a deck, porch, or fence, spend an afternoon power washing, staining, or painting it to make it look fresh and new.
• Throw out your old welcome mat—buyers want a clean entryway.

Time to Go Inside: Sweep Buyers Off Their Feet

Ok, now that your home looks fantastic on the outside, it needs to look equally as good on the inside.

• Since you are moving anyway, now’s a GREAT time to eliminate everything you don’t plan on moving. A good rule of thumb–whether clothes or decorations—is that if you haven’t touched it in a year, toss it.
• Go through your home and find ways to make it look clean and organized — Declutter countertops. Box any extraneous items and keep them out of site. Keep toys to a minimum (for a few days while your home is on the market). File your paperwork. Organize your now roomy closets since you’ve donated everything you haven’t worn in a year.   
• Look at each room floor to ceiling with a critical eye. You’d be amazed at what just painting the trim and ceiling will do to a room, costing about half as much as a complete paint job! Patch and paint, so everything looks fresh.
• Replace all outdated light fixtures. Replacing dated fixtures doesn’t have to be expensive at all. Or, at least replace the light bulbs with the highest wattage fit for your fixture, which will lighten up the rooms. No fluorescent lighting, though—nothing looks good in that lighting.
• Take off window treatments and screens. Let as much light in as possible and make your home bright and sparkly.
• Invest in an inexpensive set of white towels, bath mats, and shower curtains for each bathroom. Pack up the old stuff—people want the bathrooms to feel like a spa. New, clean white accessories will do the trick.
• Become a cleaning fanatic — Clean the windows, floors, counters, bathrooms, appliances, and everything (twice).

Just remember— we sell our homes differently than how you live in your home. We want to create the perfect version of living in your home. That way, buyers picture THEMSELVES, NOT YOU, living there. And these tips will help you do exactly that!

Lastly, don’t feel like you have to figure this out alone. I’m here to help. I’ll tell you what you need to focus on and what you can skip and make this whole prepping your home for the market as straightforward as possible!