Are you planning on selling your home this year? Selling a home can be overwhelming, whether it’s your first time or your fifth, and there’s a lot of things vying for your attention before you can even put it on the market. One thing that is important is how your home is presented to potential buyers: how it looks, smells, and is listed online. Here’s a few things that can help you to narrow down what’s urgently needed done in your house and what can wait for the new owner.
The first thing a buyer typically notices for a home is the online listing. A real estate agent is usually the one who makes the online listing for a home, but you’ll want to make sure a good photographer is taking the photos of your home and that your home is well lit, clean, and possibly staged in the photos. You can choose to either stage your home yourself with your own furniture, borrow or rent furniture from someone, or even hire a professional stager to do the work for you. The important things to focus on when you’re staging a room is a minimal look with neutral colors and bright lighting, natural is usually best.
Second thing a buyer will notice is what they see when they first pull up to your house. How do the front yard and entryway look? Maybe you need to sweep, pressure wash, or touch up paint in the front; or plant some colorful flowers in your front planter and mow your lawn. Whatever it takes to be a pleasant introduction to your home!
For the interior: declutter every surface, remove family photos from walls, touch up paint, fix broken handles or dead lightbulbs, and clean! Hide any valuables you have laying around and check for smells, a bad smelling home can put off potential buyers even if it’s just a full trashcan or dirty toilet making the smell and not something worse. Try and make it easy for a buyer to look at your home and see themselves living in it, everything should be open and well lit. Don’t over-stress about all imperfections however, fixes can always be negotiated in offers if something is very important to a potential buyer.
Lastly, know when you want to sell your home! Get all your paperwork lined up, check your warranties, budget, and get in touch with a real estate agent. You’ll want to enter this time of selling your home with all the information you’ll need to sell your home at a price that’s worth it to you but reasonable in the market we’re in in 2026. Please reach out to us at TV Idaho RE and PM and we can start the conversation about selling your home this year!