10 Things Real Estate Agents Wish Sellers Would Fix Before Listing
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If you are wondering about things to fix before selling your house, start with anything visibly broken, loose, dirty, or suspicious-smelling. Before I take a listing, I personally go through the place and say, okay, this needs to be fixed, this needs to be addressed. Let us get a handyman in here — maybe a couple hundred dollars. Honestly, it is probably going to be more than a couple hundred. It is worth it. You want to sell, and there are things here that are jumping out. As a realtor, you have to give your prospective client advice.
Most of it costs very little to fix. All of it gets written down first. These are the ten things that end up on my list over and over.
1. Loose handles
Look at handles that are loose on your cupboards, or a refrigerator. Just simple things that your eye catches. A buyer’s hand finds the loose handle every time, so tighten them before the photographs — not after the third showing.
2. The broken chair
If there is a broken chair, address it — repair it or take it out of the room. The furniture is not what is for sale, but it is what the eye lands on, and buyers are trying to picture their own things in the room. A broken piece gets in the way of the picture.
3. The shower and the bathtub
A shower that is disgustingly dirty, or a bathtub that is dirty, goes straight onto the list. This one might be a housekeeper rather than a handyman, but it gets written down all the same. A bathroom does not need a renovation to show well. It needs to look like it was cleaned that morning, and fresh caulk around the tub is about the cheapest upgrade in the house.
4. The crack in the wall
If there is a crack in the wall — maybe because you painted — make sure you take care of it before you put your place on the market. It is exactly the kind of thing that is jumping out at a buyer while you have stopped seeing it, and a patch job takes a handyman about an hour, and paint is easy to match while you still have the can.
The walk-through sort
What kind of help does it need?
Loose handle. Broken chair. Crack in the wall.
Dirty shower or bathtub. Grout. Garbage.
A persistent musty smell that needs to be checked.
Plain EnglishWhat do these selling terms mean?
Pre-listing inspection: An inspection the seller orders before the home goes on the market, so surprises can be found early.
Seller’s disclosure: The seller’s written account of known facts and problems that must be disclosed under the applicable rules.
As-is: The seller is not promising repairs, although the buyer may still have inspection and contract rights.
Comps: Recently sold comparable homes used to help judge a property’s likely market value.
5. The musty smell
Mold, mold, mold. A musty, moldy smell — that is the number one. If I walk into a place and smell something musty, I would tell the seller to get it checked, because the first thing in my mind is the seller’s disclosure.
You know what the ideal thing is for a seller? A lot of people will get an inspection before they list the property. It just eliminates so much. You could get an inspection report done for six to eight hundred dollars, depending on the size, and it is worth it. That way you show that clean inspection report, and that can be part of your package. And if there is a problem, you can fix it before you have to negotiate the price, or before you have somebody walk away during the inspection period.
You would be shocked, because people think their house is in perfect, A-one condition. No, no, everything is wonderful. Well, I smell mold. A musty smell does not prove there is mold — it is the reason to have somebody qualified look before the buyers do. Order the report early enough to fix what it finds.
6. The other smells you have stopped noticing
Animal urine, or any kind of urine. Garbage. Make sure everything is cleaned up and the garbage can is empty before anybody walks through. The owner lives with a smell and stops noticing it; the buyer notices it at the door. Take the garbage out the morning of the showing, not the night before. If a pet lives in the home, have somebody with a fresh nose walk through first.
And air fresheners are not the way, because somebody could be allergic to them. Clean up the cause first.
7. Grout and tired floors
If you have old flooring, if you have tiles or whatever, make sure the grout is clean. Invest the money, and make sure whatever you have there is clean and refinished — unless you are selling as is. A buyer wants to walk in, bring their things, and be able to sleep through the first night without feeling like it is gross. The floor is in every room they see, so this money works harder than almost any other.
8. Twenty-five years of nothing
When somebody owns a house and has been there twenty-five years, and they have done nothing in twenty-five years, you are selling as is. It is a gut job, unless somebody has the same exact taste that you had twenty-five years ago.
And to be clear, this is not an argument for living in a showroom. When you own a house, if you are buying something with the intent of not staying there forever, try to keep it in mind — but be happy. In your color choices, do what you want to do. In your kitchen or whatever, you can stick with the white cabinets, and you do your backsplash. Do what you want to do to be happy. The fixing comes when it is time to sell, and the price has to be honest about whichever road you took. Both roads are fine. Only one of them supports a top-of-market number.
9. The driveway and the front entrance
If I was representing somebody in a single-family home and the driveway is all cracked up, or the entrance looks neglected, we have got a problem. The front entrance — that is everything right there.
It is true even in an apartment. You are walking into that condo and it should be, oh, I am so happy to be here. That is your first impression. Make a strong entry. Pressure-wash the driveway, deal with the cracked pavers, repaint the door if it needs it — the outside is the cheapest part of the house to get right.
10. The gap between the price and the place
You have got your comps, and your comps are showing your place is worth eight hundred thousand dollars, and you want a million. You had better make sure you are doing something that makes me want to pay an extra two hundred thousand. Everything else on this list is in service of that one conversation. If the honest answer is a full renovation, that is a bigger decision. Most of the time, the honest answer is just this list.
The walk-through
So walk through every room. Write down everything that should be addressed, and either hire somebody to address it — a housekeeper or a handyman or whatever. I do not care if you are paying three to five hundred dollars. In the long run, you are going to get your price.
The whole pass takes an afternoon and a notepad. Then give the handyman and the housekeeper a head start before the photographer is booked. When the repair list is done, the showing itself has its own list — that one is in my home staging checklist.
