Selling a home is sometimes easy if you have a desirable property and a hot market. If you're selling at a time of year when you can't find many buyers, you have a cold real estate market, or your house has some issues, selling may not go so smoothly.
You can always take steps to make a home more attractive if you'd like to sell it, though. We'll talk about a few ways to make your house look better to a potential buyer right now.
Emphasize Unique Features
Emphasizing unique features that a home has can generate some buyer interest. Perhaps you have architectural features like ornate columns or arches. Maybe you're selling Lake of the Ozarks property, and your home is water-adjacent, with a dock for boats.
Whatever unique features your home has, you should show those in pictures when you create an ad for Zillow or Redfin. Any time that you can show off something that makes your house special, you should do that. Some people like quirky home features, and you should try to make those some of the first things that a potential buyer sees.
Plant Some Flowers
You can always do something major to your home to try and sell it, like replace the roof or the windows. However, those projects can cost a lot of money, and you should only do that if you feel like a particular house feature prevents you from selling it.
If your home doesn't have much wrong with it, but it seems a little drab or uninteresting, you might attract some buyers by accentuating what's already there. Planting some flowers is one way to do that.
You can add some flower boxes to the windows and plant colorful flowers there. You can't take this action if you're attempting to sell during the winter, but if you put your home on the market in the spring, summer, or early fall, flowers can attract a certain buyer contingent.
If you can't add flower boxes to the windows, you can plant flowers in front of the house if you have room for them. If you don't, you can plant them on the side of the house or behind it. Flowers in the front or side yards give the house curb appeal, though, which can make a real difference if you're trying to get potential buyers to notice your property.
Add Window Shutters
Making a home's appearance pop isn't always easy. The house might have a neutral tone like gray or brown. That's not necessarily a bad thing since selling a home that's an unusual color is sometimes challenging.
However, color accents draw the eye, so you'll need to come up with some ways to add color when you do an open house. Window shutters are one way you might do that.
You can add functional window shutters that open and close. Some people might like that, and if you
live somewhere with major storms, you can use those shutters yourself until you find an interested buyer.
You don't necessarily need functional shutters, though. You can add ornamental ones that you fix in place. Maybe you can't actually close and open them, but they add some flair to a house that needs it.
Make sure to select a color that compliments the existing ones. For instance, if you have a gray or off-white house, dark blue shutters might serve you well. You can add them directly to vinyl siding very easily, and it won't cost you much at all.
Add Window Treatments
You can also add window treatments inside the house if you need some color and style, but you don't want to spend very much money. Window treatments can include things like drapes. You can find them in many kinds of styles and textures.
You might also get a little more elaborate with your window treatments. You can add what designers call hard treatments. You can create them with materials like aluminum, vinyl, or wood.
With hard window treatments, remember that they should not seem incongruous with the rest of the house. For instance, if you choose to add some wood or vinyl, it will not make much sense if that material does not appear anywhere else in the home.
Window treatments can serve both a practical and decorative function, much like shutters outside the house. If you need some window treatment ideas, you can browse popular homes on Pinterest and other social media platforms to see what appeals to you.
Stage the Home
You know that your home needs curb appeal, but you also want to impress a potential buyer when they walk inside for the first time. Your current setup might not do that. You can declutter and clean, but that will only take you so far.
You might also decide to have a professional stage your home. Staging means you move your furniture and other possessions out of the house, and you have someone bring in furniture, art, and other objects to show off the home's potential.
If you buy another home and move out of your current one, that's the best time to stage the house. Many buyers like to see staged homes because they can easily picture what it would be like to live there that way. Nobody wants to see an empty house with no warmth or charm.
Professional staging costs money, but many sellers who try to find a buyer in a stagnant real estate market can get some offers if they go this route. You might find the staging cost negligible if you can attract a buyer by doing it, especially if you have waited for months and can't seem to generate any real interest.
You can also talk to a realtor about any repairs they feel it makes sense for you to make. If some minor repairs can attract a buyer, you might find that they are worth it.
