Preparing your home to sell.

The showing starts before the buyer gets inside

Start at the curb and follow the path a buyer takes to the front door. Look at the approach to the property, the lawn and landscaping for the season, the driveway and walkway, the porch and front door, and the visible exterior: trim, caulking, windows, and any clutter, debris or obvious damage.

In Jonathan's experience, when the approach to the house looks clean and maintained, a buyer can start the showing focused on the home and what it has to offer. When the walk to the front door reveals several obvious maintenance issues, such as a cracked window, missing caulking, damaged trim or a collection of unfinished jobs, it can change the tone of the showing. A buyer may begin wondering what else hasn't been maintained.

That doesn't mean the exterior has to be new or perfect. The aim is simply not to let small, avoidable issues create unnecessary questions about larger ones.

Walk through your home like a buyer

After living in a home, you get used to it. Preparing to sell means deliberately walking through the property as someone seeing it for the first time.

Start with flow and layout. Can a buyer understand each room and how the spaces connect, or do furniture, clutter or the way a room is currently used make it hard to read? Then look at the kinds of things buyers take in as they move through:

• Kitchen: the condition and age of the cabinets, how things work where it matters, the countertops, the flooring and the overall presentation.
• Bathrooms: the vanity and countertop, fixtures, the tub or shower, caulking and grout, and any visible sign that something may deserve attention.
• Flooring: overall condition, wear, visible gaps or damage, and transitions between rooms, and whether something looks cosmetic or may deserve a closer look.
• Bedrooms: room size and layout, closet space, windows and presentation.
• Windows: visible condition, basic operation, their age if you already know it, and any obvious issues.

This isn't a list of defects to find. The question in every room is the same: what will a buyer see, what questions might it raise, and is there anything sensible to do about it before listing?

The Seller Readiness Score takes the same room-by-room approach.

Paint is a “$65 mistake”

Jonathan sometimes jokingly describes paint as a “$65 mistake”. The figure isn't a price quote; it's his shorthand for the idea that if a buyer dislikes the colour of a bedroom, that's usually a relatively simple thing to change, compared with a kitchen, a bathroom, a roof, a mechanical system or anything else that could involve thousands of dollars.

If you have the time, ability and inclination to repaint a particularly difficult colour, that may make sense. If you don't, that's okay too. Some buyers may have trouble looking past a colour; others won't care.

Look past the easy-to-change items

Paint colour and some presentation issues may be relatively easy to change. Other parts of the home can involve considerably more money. As we walk through the property, we're also looking for information that may help us understand where the larger costs or questions could be.

When Jonathan is seriously evaluating a property, the visible things he may look at include the furnace and water heater (and their approximate age where that can reasonably be found), the basement's condition, visible indications of moisture, unusual odours, windows, the type of foundation (particularly in older homes), visible plumbing and other systems, the electrical panel, and visible evidence of past leaks or repairs.

Fix it, improve it, investigate it, or leave it alone?

Each thing you notice usually leads to one of a few kinds of conversation. These aren't a test to score yourself on; they're the questions worth discussing.

Fix it

Something relatively straightforward may be worth correcting before listing.

Improve it

Something may not be defective, but a reasonable improvement could help the property present better.

Investigate it

There isn't enough information yet. Depending on the issue, a home inspector, contractor, electrician, plumber, heating and cooling professional, lawyer or another qualified professional may be needed.

Leave it alone

Something can be older, dated or imperfect without automatically being worth replacing before you sell.

Once you've identified the things you're wondering about, this is where involving your REALTOR® becomes particularly useful. A website can help identify the questions. It can't look at the actual property, the current market, likely buyer expectations, your circumstances, the cost, the timing and your competing priorities, and mechanically determine the right answer. Jonathan can help interpret those factors, explain the choices and make recommendations. You decide.

How do we decide what deserves priority?

There's no scoring formula. These are the questions that guide the conversation for each item:

• How noticeable is it? Is a buyer likely to encounter it, or do you notice it mainly because you've known about it for years?
• Could it create concern? Is it purely cosmetic, or could it reasonably lead to questions about maintenance or condition?
• What will it take to deal with? Money, time, physical effort and disruption.
• What do you have the capacity or desire to do? Your time, energy, inclination, finances and ability all matter.
• Could dealing with it delay getting the home to market?
• What happens if we do nothing? Sometimes the answer is simply that some buyers may not like it. That doesn't automatically mean it has to change.

You see things a buyer may never notice

After living in a home for years, you know every little imperfection.

You remember the repair you made years ago and wish you'd finished differently. You notice the tiny mark on the trim because you've walked past it hundreds of times. You know which cabinet handle isn't perfectly straight.

A buyer is walking through the home for the first time. They're taking in the layout, room sizes, kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, windows, basement, yard and everything else at once.

That doesn't mean small details never matter. It means they need to be kept in perspective.

Preparing isn't the same as renovating

Repainting a dark room to brighten it up, replacing flooring, changing counters, renovating a bathroom, or replacing or substantially changing a functional but dated kitchen are very different sizes of decision. The larger the project, the more important the decision becomes.

A homeowner renovating for themselves knows what they want. A seller renovating just before a sale may be making expensive design choices for a buyer they haven't met.

New doesn't automatically mean worthwhile. Dated doesn't automatically mean replace it.

Cleaning, decluttering and presentation

Conventional preparation advice is useful here, as long as you know why you're doing it:

• Cleaning helps buyers see the property, rather than housekeeping.
• Decluttering can make rooms, counters, closets and the flow between spaces easier to understand.
• Furniture placement can help show a room's size, flow and function.
• Personal belongings don't all need to go, and the home doesn't need to lose its personality. The question is whether belongings overwhelm or distract from the property.
• Lighting: make sure the existing lighting works, so rooms can be presented properly.
• The exterior and yard: remove unnecessary distractions, and make access and presentation straightforward.
• Pets: plan where pets and their belongings will be during showings, so buyers can move through the home easily.

Does every home need professional staging?

No.

Professional staging can help in some situations, for example by helping buyers understand a space, its layout or its intended use, including in some vacant homes. It can also be a significant expense, and that cost is part of the decision.

Sometimes rearranging or removing some existing furniture, decluttering, improving the lighting or changing how a room is presented accomplishes what the home needs. Other homes may benefit from professional staging. The question is what this particular home needs in order to present well.

Don't hide problems

Preparing a home for sale should never mean trying to cosmetically conceal something you know may be a problem. If something potentially significant is identified, the next step is to understand it better and decide how to approach it, not to cover it up.

Depending on the issue, the right guidance may come from your REALTOR®, your lawyer, a home inspector, a contractor or another qualified professional. RECO's guidance on facts a seller has a legal obligation to disclose, written mainly for agents, explains that sellers must disclose certain serious defects that aren't readily apparent, and that a seller with concerns about whether something must be disclosed should get a legal opinion. If you're unsure, ask your lawyer.

Read RECO's guidance on what a seller must disclose↗ (opens in a new tab)

Source: Real Estate Council of Ontario↗ (opens in a new tab), RECO Bulletin 7.4: Facts a seller has a legal obligation to disclose

When are we ready to list?

We've dealt with the things we decided were worth addressing. We've considered the things we're leaving alone. We've gathered the relevant property information, studied the market, considered the pricing strategy and put together a marketing plan appropriate for the property.

Not sure where your home stands yet? You can check how ready your home is to sell with the free Seller Readiness Score app.

Now we're ready to bring the home to market.

Photography and presenting the property

Photography comes once the home is ready to list. Listing photography, an iGUIDE and, where it helps, aerial photography are presentation tools: they show the property clearly and accurately. They're one part of the marketing plan, not the plan itself.

Good marketing can't replace preparation. Its job is to communicate the property clearly once the home is ready to be presented. The selling process, step by step explains what happens once the home is on the market.