Getting Your Home Ready to Show

If you're planning an open house, or are expecting buyers to be looking at your home, the key to successfully selling your home is to make a good first impression on potential buyers. Here are few hints for making your house look great:

Exterior

• House in good repair
• House number easy to read
• Eavestroughs, down spouts and soffits in good repair
• Garage/car port clean and tidy
• Litter picked up
• Cracked or broken window panes replaced
• Lawns and hedges cut and trimmed, garden weeded and edged
• Walks shovelled and salted
• Boot tray inside front door
• Doorbell and door hardware in good repair
• Porch and foyer clean and tidy

Interior

• Chipped plaster and paint touched up or replaced
• Doors and cupboards properly closed
• Leaky taps and toilets repaired
• Burned out light bulbs replaced
• Squeaky doors oiled
• Mirrors, fixtures and taps cleaned and polished
• Seals around tubs and basins in good repair
• Floors cleaned, garbage containers empty
• Inside of closets and cupboards neat and tidy
• Appliances cleaned
• Countertops neat and polished
• All lights turned on
• Air conditioner turned on in warm weather
• Fresh air in house
• Fireplace lit in cooler weather
• Halls and stairs cleaned
• Drapes opened during daylight
• Carpets freshly vacuumed
• Fresh flowers in various rooms
• Jewelry and valuables locked safely away or taken with you
• Valuable property, such as art, vases and figurines out of reach, out of sight or locked away
• Pets absent, where possible, or contained during the showing, and litter boxes clean