For buyers looking to escape the frigid winters of the Northeast and relocate to the Carolina’s, selling their current home is often the largest obstacle they face. As a top home builder in NC and SC, we want to help turn those relocation dreams into a reality. We’ve created a checklist to help you prepare your home to go on the market. This checklist can help you identify repairs that are necessary and could affect the sale of your home. The list covers just about everything, including major systems such as HVAC and plumbing, exterior and interior fixes, and utility repairs and replacements. Click here to download the checklist. 

Common Home Repairs That Need to Happen

Ensuring that your home is in good repair can help you maintain its value and increase its selling potential. The type and extent of repairs you should make are specific to your home and market, but in general, any issues involving the safety, structure or functionality of your home should be addressed. This checklist can help you identify repairs that are necessary and could affect the sale of your home. The list covers just about everything, including major systems such as HVAC and plumbing, exterior and interior fixes, and utility repairs and replacements.

• Ensure HVAC is working properly. 
• Repair existing plumbing issues, including leaky faucets, loose toilets and slow and leaky drains.
• Touch up paint in rooms with chipped paint or permanent marks on the walls, 
• Have kitchen appliances serviced to fix any problems (ex: broken ice maker or worn out oven heating coils), 
• Replace burned out lightbulbs. 
• Repair any electrical issues, including dead outlets, non-working lights or ceiling fans. 
• Repair any broken siding on you home’s exterior. 
• Repair any broken deck boards or fence pickets. 
• Remove any moss on the home’s exterior. 
• Repair any broken locks or door handles on interior and exterior doors.
• Repair any functional issues with windows, including seals, panes and locks. 
• Repair any issues with the garage door and its operation. 

Ideas for Improving Home Value

Improvements are different from repairs. They are exterior and interior upgrades that can help increase the value of your home and help you sell it faster. But not all improvements pay off. Our checklist can help you determine which upgrades can help you maximize your home’s value.    

• Make exterior improvements such as adding new vinyl siding, applying a fresh coat of paint, removing outdated awnings, and switching out a dated front door for a more modern one. 
• Set out decorative planters on the front porch, patio and decks with bright flowers.
• Enhance curb appeal with colorful annuals, perennials, and shrubs. Remove weeds and add fresh mulch.
• Add a pressure-treated wood deck at the back of the house or replace an outdated damaged one.
• Paint interior rooms with a fresh coat of neutral paint suh as a gray or beige.
• Add energy efficient upgrades such as a new HVAC system and windows.
• Update you home’s kitchen by painting cabinets or replacing cabinet doors, installing new appliances, upgrading countertops, or changing cabinet hardware.
• Upgrade lighting with modern fixtures and bright bulbs to brighten up the room. 
• Revive outdated bathrooms with new grout and caulk; replace inefficient toilets and install new mirrors and fixtures. Consider replacing plastic bathtubs with tiled showers.
• Refinish floors and replace old carpet.
  

Marketing Strategies Your Agent Should Employ

The real estate market is competitive and requires agents to do more than hold open houses and post listings online. Today’s marketing strategies are varied and include digital marketing tools, social media and live streaming, in addition to the tried-and-true. Here is a list of strategies your agent should take advantage of to help you sell your home:

• Use digital marketing tools such as websites and landing pages.
• Optimize websites and listings to be mobile-friendly.
• Have a presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Nextdoor.
• Use live streaming apps.
• Take professional quality photographs after the house has been staged.
• Create a virtual tour to give potential buyers a preview of the property.
• Write inspirational, emotion-evoking room-by-room copy for web, social media and property listing services.
• Host open houses.
• Use professional staging to help buyers envision themselves in your home.
• Send print advertising and postcards to send to qualified leads.
• Email flyers full of great photos and property descriptions via email to qualified leads.
• Get listed in the Multiple Listing Service.

Tips for Staging the Home for Showing

Staging can help you maximize every room and space in your home and help buyers visualize the possibilities by not focusing on the imperfections. Here’s a list of some of favorite staging tips that will impress potential buyers.

• Clean and declutter every room and space in your home.
• Remove all personal items, including family photos, so prospective buyers can see themselves in the space, not your family.
• Make sure that every space and room has a defined purpose.
• Remove unused or unnecessary furniture so rooms feels larger and less cluttered.
• Consider renting or borrowing strategic pieces of furniture that can help define a space.
• Add artwork to empty walls.
• Include decorative touches such as colorful throw pillows and area rugs. 
• Open blinds and curtains before a showing to let in natural light.
• Power-wash the exterior of your house, decks, porches and walkways.
• Add vases with fresh flowers in the living areas and/or bedrooms.
• Place a bowl of fresh fruit on the kitchen counter.
• Add new, decorative folded towels and fresh bars of milled soap in the bathrooms. 

Top Home Builder in NC and SC

As a top home builder in NC and SC, we’re dedicated to helping families relocate to our beautiful coastal areas. We can’t wait to partner with you to build your dream home! We’re happy to share all the advice and tips we have to help you sell your current home. For a printable copy of the checklist, or to learn more about our custom quality homes, please contact us today at 910.256.8284!