The Smart Seller's Guide: The Ultimate Pre-Listing Checklist

Discover the simple, high-impact steps every homeowner should take before listing—from decluttering and curb appeal to lighting, deep cleaning, and easy fixes that buyers notice most.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to the Idaho Life Show. Garrett and Shelby here with you with Idaho Life Real Estate, segment three, the easy prep list, the things that you can start today, this weekend, or this month that move the needle on every single sale that don't require permits, contractors, or a second mortgage to pull out. So Shelby, let's run with that list.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

You got it. Number one. And it's number one for a reason. Declutter aggressively. Every flat surface in your home should have 30% less stuff on it than it does in this very moment. Countertops, bookshelves, mantles, dressers, nightstands, the fridge front, the bathroom counter, buyers do not see clean and minimal as cold. They see it as spacious. They cannot picture themselves living in a house that is full of somebody else's life. The single biggest cheap improvement in real estate is the trip to the storage unit.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Right to the storage unit. And not just the visible surfaces. I mean, even closets and pantries and the garage too, right? That's kind of the last priority, but that's it, it does benefit a lot. And buyers, they do open up closets, right? They do open up cabinets. And they want to see storage in the house because they're just trying to figure out does our stuff fit? And a full jam closet says the storage isn't enough, and a half empty closet says the storage is great. Same closet, different story, different perspective. So pack up those closets into boxes, the stuff that you don't use, label them, put them in a storage unit, and your house just got bigger to every buyer who walks through. And frankly, for you too. That is great.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

That is true. Number two, deep clean. Pay for a professional clean before the photos, before every showing, if you can, baseboards, blinds, light fixtures, the inside of the oven, the windows. Buyers smell, see, and feel cleanliness the moment they walk through the door. And they make a snap judgment about how the house has been maintained based on what they see in the first 90 seconds. Can you believe that?

SPEAKER_01 1:57

It's wild.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

It is wild. 200 to two, I'm sorry, 200 to 400 for a professional clean is one of the highest returns in the whole list.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

You're the one that always says it. It's always about the senses when they walk through. They're using all their senses to see is this the right house for us or not.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

And number three, the paint touch-ups. Not a full repaint in most cases, touch-ups, you know, scuffs on the baseboards, marks on the door frames, the kid height fingerprints on the walls and the hallway, patch the nail holes from the pictures you took down, a gallon of touch-up paint, and an afternoon. Right? So the the house presents brand new to the buyers walking through. And if a full repaint is on the table, don't pick the color yourself. That's the call that we talked about in segment two.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

That's right. Number four, light bulbs. This sounds small, but it's really not. Walk through every room in your house with the lights on. Are any of them out? That makes a big difference. It does. Are some of them white warm white and some of them daylight blue? Mismatch bulbs make a house look uneven and dingy often in photos and in person. Spend $40 at the hardware store. Match every bulb in the house to the same warm color temperature. And your photos look twice as good. It really does make a huge difference. Soft white, 2700 Kelvin, if you want to write it down. Same bulbs in every fixture.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

That is a good advice. That soft white, 2700 Kelvin. It's a great, uh, great one to go for. Photographs well and just sets the mood in person. And number five, the deferred maintenance. And this is one that buyers and inspectors, excuse me, they really fixate on. And most sellers underestimate that because they've just lifted that. They're used to it. Clean the gutters, service the HVAC, have the water heater looked at. You know, if it's getting up there in years, if it's, you know, six, seven, eight years old, it's it's getting there. Check the roof, especially around you know, those vents and the chimney flashing, trim the trees off the roof line. And these are not glamorous improvements. They don't necessarily move the listing price, but they prevent the deal from falling apart in the inspection period, or start reducing the price during that inspection period, which is where the biggest losses happen on the sale that's gone wrong.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

It's so true. And number six, curb appeal. And this one ties back to the summer photos conversation. Fresh mulch in the beds, edge the lawn, pressure wash the driveway, the front walk, the front porch, right? Paint the front door if it needs it. Replace the address numbers if they're faded, replace the mailbox if it's tired, new welcome mat, pot of flowers by the door. Three or four hours and $300 on a Saturday, the cover photo of your listing just got dramatically better.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

It is like magic.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Yes, it is like magic. And so did every showing where a buyer walks up to the front of the walk.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Yeah, and number seven, the garage. And you know, people they forget about the garage. And that is okay. It is the last one. It is where sellers are storing a lot of stuff that they cleared out of the house during that prep, right? Which is exactly unfortunately sometimes just the wrong place for it. Because buyers, they do open up the garage door, they look in, and if it looks like a storage unit, they're gonna automatically assume this is just their mind goes to it doesn't have enough storage. And if it looks clean and organized with spaces for two cars, the whole house just feels better. So just a good idea to just go ahead and rent that storage unit for a short period.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Absolutely. And number eight, odors. We talk about this carefully because it is uncomfortable. Pet smell, smoke smell, cooking smell, sellers cannot smell their own house. They have become nose blind to it after years of living there. Have a friend, a neighbor, your realtor, somebody with a fresh nose, walk through and tell you the truth. If there's an odor, air purifier, professional carpet clean, replace the furnace filter, find the source. Buyers walk out of houses for smell faster than any other single reason.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

We're not afraid to talk to that about with sellers. It is uncomfortable because they're so used to the smell and they may not realize, gosh, you know, the the house does smell like gust the dog, right? But it people don't realize it. They're so used to it. So um we will give that honest opinion on it. And now the do not do list, and this is the one that we cannot say loud enough. Do not without talking to your trusted realtor first, do not replace the kitchen, don't replace the bathrooms, you know, don't go put in new flooring throughout the entire thing. Don't build on an addition, don't finish that basement. These are you know five-figure, six-figure decisions, and the return is wildly inconsistent. It might be worth it, but a lot of times it's not. And sometimes they pay back, sometimes they just don't. And the only way to know which one your house is is through a walkthrough with a trusted realtor that we talked about in segment one. So call before you cut that check.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Absolutely. And when we get asked about a lot, pre-listing inspections, sometimes yes, sometimes no. In some neighborhoods and some price ranges, it removes a lot of friction from the deal. In others, it creates problems, right, Garrett? That I mean, the yeah, you would not you would not want to deal with. That's a conversation to have with your realtor, too. Don't order one on your own without that conversation first. There are right times to do it and wrong times to do it. And the wrong time costs you leverage.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Yeah. And and one more thing on the easy list, the welcome experience. The first 10 seconds, that's the rule, 10 seconds that a buyer's inside your front door determines a lot about the rest of the showing. So that front entryway, clean and uncluttered, you know, a console table with one or two items on it, not eight, a nice rug, good light. You know, if your entry opens straight into the living room, and the first kind of sight line that they should be seeing is a couch facing the focal point. No piles of mail, no coats over the back of a chair. That entry sequence is your first impression. And it's worth 15 minutes, I would say, you know, before every showing time to reset it.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Absolutely. And the kitchen counters specifically. This is the single most photographed space in your house, and the single most stared-at space at every showing. Off the counters, coffee maker stays, toaster goes in a cabinet, knife block goes into a drawer, mail and bills go in a basket in the office, kids' homework off the counter for sure. Two or three intentional items only: a bowl of fruit, a clean cutting board leaning against the backsplash, maybe a small herb plant. That is it. Keep it simple. The kitchen photographs three times bigger when the counters are clear, and buyers cannot stop looking at clean counters in person either.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

That's right. And you know, if you're kind of listening and you're quietly nodding through this list, declutter, clean, touch up the paint, fix the bulbs, the gutters, the curb appeal, the garage, you can just start this weekend. You know, you don't need permissions. You don't need a realtor in the room to tell you to do these easy fixes. You're not going to overspend on any of these. We promise you that. And by the time we sit down with you, your house is already most of the way ready. And that changes the entire timeline of your sale.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

It most certainly does. Coming up after the break, the equity conversation, knowing your real number early so you can actually plan where you're moving to and how you're getting there. The piece, sellers skip until it's way too late.