Selling This Fall? Fix These Five Things Before the Listing Photos Are Taken

Once listing photos are online, they become the first showing.

Buyers may scroll through them before they ever read the description, schedule an appointment or drive past the house.

That is why the best time to deal with the small unfinished items around a property is before the photographer arrives, not after the listing has been sitting online for three weeks.

You do not necessarily need a major renovation. In many homes, a focused preparation list can make a much bigger difference.

1. Wall damage

Nail holes, scuffs, dents and poorly patched drywall are easy to stop noticing when you live with them.

A camera does not stop noticing.

Repairing damaged drywall and touching up tired walls can make rooms look cleaner and better maintained without changing the entire house.

2. Peeling, chipped or mismatched paint

Fresh paint is useful when it solves a visible problem.

That does not mean every room needs a new designer color.

Sometimes the right job is simply correcting an obviously damaged area, covering an old patch or bringing one badly worn room back into line with the rest of the house.

3. Loose trim and small finish problems

A piece of loose baseboard, damaged door casing, missing transition strip or unfinished trim may seem minor.

Buyers often see several of those little items together and reach a larger conclusion: What else has not been maintained?

That is why the punch-list work matters.

4. Doors and hardware that do not work correctly

Doors should open, close and latch.

Cabinet hardware should be attached.

Handles should not wobble.

Again, these are not glamorous improvements. They are the things that make a home feel finished rather than neglected.

5. The project somebody started but never completed

Most houses have one.

The partially finished patch. The trim that never went back up. The repair supplies still sitting next to the repair.

Finish it.

Buyers should be imagining what they will do with the home - not estimating how many Saturdays they will spend finishing your project.

Preparation is different from renovation

Getting a house ready to sell does not mean replacing everything.

It means looking at the property through a buyer's eyes, identifying the unfinished or distracting items and deciding which ones are worth correcting before the home hits the market.

The goal is straightforward: Let buyers concentrate on the house instead of the punch list.

And if you are planning to sell this fall, that work is much easier to accomplish before the photographer, the sign and the first showing are already on the calendar.