Love is in the air all month long! What better time to make prospective buyers fall head over heels for your home? With a little TLC—and maybe a well-timed visit from Cupid—your home could soon start attracting offers faster than a Brad Pitt lookalike on Tinder.
Here are 5 ways you can prepare your home for a love connection:
1. Entice them with curb appeal
Want it to be love at first sight? Make sure your home’s exterior turns heads. Ideally, you’ll dial up the curb appeal in time for listing photos, before showings even begin. That’s because many shoppers will get their first impression of your home while they’re browsing listings online. You don’t have to invest in a whole-house painting job or a landscaping overhaul (unless you really want to up the ante). Just a few small efforts can have a big impact:
Tidy up landscaping. If your grass isn’t growing much this time of year, focus on picking up leaves, sticks, and other debris. For an extra touch, add fresh mulch or pine straw to flower beds.
Pressure-wash surfaces like the driveway, walkways, or even the siding.
Spruce up the porch. Add a new welcome mat, clean or change out light fixtures, and arrange outdoor furniture for an inviting gathering spot.
2. Deep-clean to set the scene
Walking into a dirty or cluttered house can be an instant turnoff for prospective buyers. Make sure every room in your home is squeaky clean from top to bottom—windows, floors, baseboards, fan blades, mirrors, fixtures, the works. If you have room in your budget, consider hiring a professional cleaning service provider to buff, scrub, and polish till your whole house sparkles.
If you decide to do the work yourself, remember that a little elbow grease is a small price in exchange for a lovestruck buyer.
3. Give it a glow up
Chances are, you no longer notice some of your home’s imperfections. Potential buyers will. Take a look at each space through fresh eyes and consider ways you could put forth a little effort for a big payoff. Fresh paint goes a long way, as does fixing minor issues like a squeaky door, nail holes where old art used to hang, or scuff marks on a wall.
4. Let the light shine in
Never underestimate the power of natural light. Just by opening curtains and blinds and turning on lamps, you can lighten and brighten your home’s interior to give even dim spaces a friendly, spacious feel. (Make sure to clean between the blind slats, and check for burned-out lightbulbs and tired-looking lampshades that need to be replaced.)
5. Make them want to stay awhile
There are lots of simple ways to make your home more inviting. For example:
Make it comfortable. Set the thermostat to a temperature that’s suitable for the weather.
Make it pretty. You don’t need lots of decorative elements to enhance aesthetic appeal. Fill a few vases with bouquets of fresh flowers to place strategically throughout the house for a nice, thoughtful touch.
Make it feel like home. Even though decluttering and depersonalizing is part of the home staging process, resist the temptation to remove everything that makes your home feel like a home. Include a few friendly elements here and there like cozy throw and cute accent pillows arranged on the couch, a bowl of fruit on the kitchen island, or even a table neatly set for dinner.
Next step: finding a home for YOU to fall in love with
You won’t need Cupid to help you find your next new home—not if you’re using Nestfully for the search. In case you haven’t heard yet, we’ve just launched anew mobile app that makes it even easier to connect with your agent and collaborate to find a home you’ll adore. Download the free app now and follow your heart to the nest of your dreams.
