You want to sell your Baton Rouge house, and you want to get top dollar.
Excellent!
But “What do I need to do to sell my house in Baton Rouge“?
I am sharing a few of my top tips for getting the most cash for your property. The amount that you will get varies depending on market, floor plan, and location, but these tips will unlock value that you do have control over.
*NOTE: These instructions are if you’re looking to get full retail value for your house sale. However, if you don’t want to do the things below, or don’t have the time or money, you can still sell your Baton Rouge house fast for a fair value in a win-win sale that’ll save you time and expense.
1) Clean, clean and clean. Even vacant houses get dusty and dirty, so make sure you keep maintaining it. Nothing short of gleaming perfection will impress buyers. If you’re not a total clean freak, hire someone who is to help you out until you sell.
If your house looks like a cross between something from the Hoarders TV show and a frat house, you may want to consider finding somewhere else to live while you show your house. Keeping everything immaculate really helps buyers feel comfortable in your space and focusing on the house itself, instead of the distracting clutter. Nothing stops people from buying faster than feeling grossed out.
2) Cultivate a cohesive, neutral style. You don’t have to paint everything off-white. In fact, some subtle colors can really help change the perception of spaces – for example, a soft yellow will help brighten up a dark kitchen, while a deep dark blue or green will help a bright bedroom to feel like a calm place to sleep (but be careful, dark colors will also make rooms feel small).
Spend the money to get high-quality paint and professional help. Subconsciously people will pay more money for a property with the right colors and very neat lines – it makes the home feel better built, even though it’s just paint.
Psychology plays a huge role in people buying houses, and if you check all of their boxes, they will buy. However, if one room is painted a color they feel strongly about, it could turn them off of the entire house (even though they could just repaint it).
Make sure you don’t neglect the outside too, chipping paint on the fascia or siding is a huge turn off for potential buyers. The outside is where first impressions are made.
3) Fix or replace anything that’s broken. You might think that it is a waste of money to fix something that the next owner might replace, but some loan programs actually require everything to be functional. Many homeowners will hire a home inspector and use his findings to negotiate the price down. From your point of view, taking care of all those items ahead of time usually will save you money in the long run, and hiding issues could be considered fraud.
Make sure you stay in compliance with all the laws.
I know people in Baton Rouge who hire a home inspector before they put the property on the market, just to get an idea of the repairs that they may have overlooked. If you ask in advance, many inspectors will charge you a tiny rate to come back after you’ve made your repairs and give you a clean bill of health. Prospective buyers love seeing an independent report on the condition of the house, and it builds instant trust. People do business with those they know, like, and trust, so the power of that report cannot be overlooked.
4) Make only necessary improvements. The biggest mistake people make when getting their house ready to sell is over-improving. For example, they put expensive custom granite counters in a neighborhood where every other house has laminate.
Paint is about the only safe investment – it’s easy to overspend on almost everything else, and it’s easy to get ripped off by unscrupulous contractors.
It’s important to know what improvements will produce a return on investment to avoid wasting money.
5) Get expert opinions. There are a lot of resources online to help you figure out what your house is worth, but we always recommend talking to the experts. Finding a few decent real estate brokers who will help you price your property, but be honest with them. If you’re going to market the property on your own, don’t make enemies by lying about your intentions. Great brokers are rare, but they make more money for their clients than they earn (and we can refer you to a couple of Baton Rouge’s best if you are interested).
6) Have a really great marketing plan. Again, great brokers earn their value by doing this work and spreading the advertising expenses across many clients. It’s pretty expensive and time-consuming to start from scratch on your own, but if you’re already a marketing expert you’re ahead of the pack.
Great brokers get paid so much because they are great marketers and spread the advertising expense across many clients. It is expensive and time consuming to do it on your own for one house, but if you are a marketing expert already, you can handle it!
If you’re not, spend the time listening to what the best brokers do to sell houses in Baton Rouge – just to educate yourself on the options.
7) Get a cash offer (the easiest and fastest option). If the six things we mentioned above don’t sound like something you want to do, and you are still wondering “What do I need to do to sell my house in Baton Rouge?”. We buy houses all over the Baton Rouge area, and we do all the work so you don’t have to deal with any of this stuff.
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Don’t Want To Do The Things Above Yourself? But Still Want To Sell Your Baton Rouge Louisiana House Fast?
While everyone wants to get as much as they possibly can from their house sale… not everyone can do the things or wants to do the things required to sell it at full retail value to an end buyer.
Doing the repairs, cleaning the property up, upgrading the property, marketing the property – those all take money and can take lots of time.
If you have the funds to do these things, AND you can wait the 3-9 months it takes to sell houses in this market, then you’ll be better off financially to do those things then list it on the MLS (the main property listing service that real estate agents use).
If you don’t have the funds to do these things, AND can’t wait months to sell your house, then you may be a perfect fit for our local Baton Rouge house buying service. You’ll submit basic info about your house over here on our website, we’ll evaluate your house, we’ll make you a fair all-cash offer on your house, and you can decide if it’s a fit for you.
Then we can close FAST (often within 7 days) if you need us to.
Take a look at what we’ll pay you not to do anything versus the time, expense and hassle involved with doing it on your own.
So if you’re still asking “what do I need to do to sell my house in Baton Rouge“… now you have two solid options.
Either…
- Fix the property up and get it all nice and ready with the steps above to sell it at top dollar
- Let us do all of the work and we’ll make you a cash offer on your house in AS-IS condition. This saves you time, money, and gets the hassle off of your hands.
If you need to sell a property near Baton Rouge, we can help you.
We buy properties like yours from people who need to sell fast.