4 easy updates to get your Sterling Ranch home ready for the open market
Here at Focus Real Estate our 8 brokers watch Sterling Ranch real estate like hawks.
We're fortunate to have helped many clients build homes with Parkwood, Lennar, Taylor Morrison, and other builders in the neighborhood, using our budgeting guidance, design center expertise, free 3rd party home inspectors, and more.
We've listed builder model and spec homes for sale. We've also listed client homes for resale.
What have we learned from all our real estate efforts? The market is as seller-favorable as it's ever been.
On average single family homes in the Denver area appreciated about 14% in 2020 according to the 2020 DMAR Annual Report. Market projections suggest that growth will continue into 2021.
Simply put, it’s a great time to be a seller.
While we're obviously huge fans of Sterling Ranch, if you are considering moving, or perhaps selling and building another home in Sterling Ranch (upsizing or downsizing, for example), we've come up with 5 easy DIY items to tackle that will help you sell your home for top dollar!
1. The 3 D’s! DECLUTTER, DEPERSONALIZE AND DISASSOCIATE!
Declutter – To declutter is a smart, easy way to get a home ready for sale. Go through your closets! A good rule of thumb is to purge any items you haven’t worn in 1 year. Sell or donate the old toys your children don't use. Try to "shrink" your life and keep only the items you actually use. How many fruit baskets do you have on your countertop? And how many water bottles or Tupperware containers are missing lids?
Throw it all away!
Depersonalize –As buyers tour your home they should be able to visualize themselves living there … not your Christmas party last year or your family portraits at Red Rocks. You should also consider removing any items with personal information, such as a birth announcement hanging in your baby’s room.
Disassociate – Once you make the decision to list your home for sale start looking at your home as a “house” – it’s the walls around you, your shelter, a necessity. Your “home” is your belongings and memories that will accompany you into a new loving house. Start thinking critically about your "house," and be sure to ask your broker for the unvarnished truth about your paint colors, floor plan, and other aspects of your house.
2. PAINT
Paint is amazing. You can utilize it many different ways, from painting the exterior of your home, the interior of your home or just the front door. Paint is the cheapest improvement you can make to your home with one of the highest ROIs. A fresh coat of neutral paint can do wonders for a home’s appeal. Light greys have been trending for a while now and some of my personal favorites have been Benjamin Moore’s classic grey and collingwood grey.
Touch up baseboards – Buyers always notice baseboards, either dirty or clean. They really do help buyers decide if they want to offer top dollar for your home. So paint your baseboards! You can do this yourself in a few hours.
Paint the front door – This is a fun and easy update if your home seems to lack some "pop." Fun door colors are in style right now as well. Turquoise, red, bright orange, lime green or chartreuse are all fun front door color choices!
Consider painting the whole home or one level – if you want to spend the money, you can consider painting the whole home or just one level. Grab a 5 gallon bucket of paint and a paintbrush or better yet a roller and do it yourself each night.
Paint the kitchen cabinets – This idea has been gaining a lot of steam lately. A great way to lighten your home up and generate a lot of appeal is to paint the cabinets white or a light neutral color. The price to paint kitchen cabinets is similar to painting the walls - so typically not cost prohibitive. Your painters will remove the cabinet faces, then spray the frames of your cabinets as well as the faces and then put the faces back on. Voila, a brand new bright kitchen!
3. LIGHTING
An easy update that won’t take long is to change out lighting fixtures – especially if you still have the original builder lights. If that’s not in your budget you can just change out all the existing light bulbs to LED efficient bulbs that match.
How many of us have mismatched light bulbs in our bathroom vanity right now – guilty! Soft white lighting is often preferable in a home to bright white bulbs.
4. DEEP CLEAN
Doing a deep clean is a given if your home is going on the market. Just be sure it is clean and neat before people come into your home and often times. Also, it's not atypical for buyers in Sterling Ranch to ask sellers to get their homes professionally cleaned prior to closing.
5. CHOOSE THE RIGHT BROKER
Who you work with matters. At Focus Real Estate we're a full service brokerage with ample Sterling Ranch expertise that lists and professionally markets homes for a 1.5% listing commission.
I'd love to tell you what we're seeing in Sterling Ranch right now and provide you with a free home valuation.
-Mariel
Mariel@Focus-Realtors.com
Mariel Ross is a real estate broker who specializes in helping clients budget for, design, and build their dream homes. We also list and sell homes in Denver for a 1.5% listing commission and love helping resale buyers as well.
At Focus Real Estate we've helped clients build hundreds of new homes around Denver with Lennar, Parkwood, Richmond, Wonderland, Shea, and many other builders. Our 8 brokers have also listed many beautiful homes and represented buyers throughout Denver on resales.
Learn more about what I do here, as well as the cost. In short, if you build in Sterling Ranch or just about every other new neighborhood in Denver your builder pays your realtor, not you, so our services are at no additional cost to you - which is how we're able to offer our free New Home Package.
If you'd like to chat, shoot me a note at mariel@focus-realtors.com and be sure to "Like" the Roundup on Facebook.
The Sterling Ranch Roundup is powered by Focus Real Estate.