[M05/S12] The Cost of Preparing your Home for Sale

So what’s all this prep work going to cost you? Unfortunately, every home and situation is so different that there is no simple formula you can use to figure the cost of preparing your home for sale. But what you can do is create a budget from the get-go and try to work within that budget.

If the home you own is a condominium, your preparation costs are likely to be significantly less than if you have say a sprawling older house on acreage with a well and a septic system. In general, the bigger the home, the more you should budget for preparation.

You’ll also want to budget for moving and storage. Almost all homes will benefit from having a portion of the furnishings, personal effects, housewares and the like moved into a storage facility so that buyers will better be able to see their house, and envision it with their own furnishings and dŽecor, not your own.

After your inspections are completed, you’ll want to look at getting repair bids to address any outstanding maintenance your home needs. Before you look at landscaping clean-up, and any cosmetic improvements, you’ll want to talk to a staging company or two and get some ideas of where you’ll want to make specific investments in your home’s appearance to maximize marketability and resale price.

If you give your stager a budget to work with, they can craft a plan which will meet your budget while providing the maximum return for your money. If you don’t have a big budget to devote to staging, landscaping, and cosmetic appearance, don’t fret. If your short of money, you can trade it for your own time and do a lot of the work yourself, in the months preceding the sale. Regardless, it is money well spent to at least have a consultation with a staging expert to give you guidance on where best to focus your efforts.

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