Preparing Your Fixer Upper For An Open House

You’ve been contacted by a buyer interested in your fixer upper. Your house probably needs repair you couldn’t actually fund and that’s one reason why you’re selling it. That doesn’t mean though that you can’t do anything to improve the overall appeal of your property and somehow raise its value a bit. You can follow easy steps that will surely make your house more presentable when inspected by rehabbers, or those who are in the business of flipping houses.

1. Clear the way. Cleaning outdoors before an expected open house might give you some body ache but it surely won’t hurt your chances of selling your property. Trim your lawn and sweep the pathway to your door. The buyer must be enticed to enter your home by literally clearing the way for him. Towering grass, meanwhile, is a sign of poor maintenance and this could lessen your property’s value. Think of this step as making a good impression.

2. Clean the area closest to your front door. Some studies suggest that buyers decide on getting the property they are checking 30 seconds within entering a house. This means that the area adjacent to your front door, or at least where your feet can take you in 30 seconds, must be neat and tidy. This doesn’t mean you can leave the rest of your fixer upper in total disarray. The buyer is buying the whole house, not just your living room.

3. Strip the bathroom naked. The bathroom is where toiletries and personal stuff of owners are located. Remove all of these during the inspection. Make sure your buyer will be able to imagine himself living in the house. Do that by leaving the bathroom empty. In fact, you can “depersonalize” other rooms in your house. What you can pack in boxes, you should store. Hide family photos, pictures frames, and albums. You wouldn’t want to make your buyer feel that he is taking away your property.

Follow these steps and your fixer upper will be bound for some appreciation. Make sure buyers and rehabbers find your find your property by listing it online. RehabList.com is a good avenue to advertise your house as it is visited by scores of wholesalers and people involved with flipping houses. RehabList also offers this service for FREE. Owners must create a RehabList.com log in account to access this service and more. Check out how RehabList can help you sell that undervalued property at a higher value by visiting RehabList.com today.