Did you know it can take up to 4 months to get your home ready to go on the market? This often surprises my clients, so I created this video so you won’t be surprised!

Below is a transcript of the entire video, and be sure to download my Tips for a Great Photo Shoot.

Hi, this is Michelle Hatch with Beacham & Company, REALTORS® in Atlanta, Georgia. And today we’re going to talk about what it takes, and how long it takes, to get your house ready to get on the market.

STEP 1: HIRE A REALTOR®

As soon as you decide that you’re going to sell your property, the first thing you should do is hire your REALTOR® . This person is going to save you a lot of time, money, and energy, and provide guidance for the steps it takes and help you make smart decisions about where to spend your money before you get on the market.

STEP 2: START PACKING

This is also a great time just to start de-cluttering. Just get rid of the things that you know you’re not going to need for the next six months or so, you know, whittle it down to that one pan for cooking. You’re going to be moving anyway, so you might as well start packing.

STEP 3: GET A HOME INSPECTION

About two to three months before you list your property, I always suggest hiring a home inspector to do a pre-listing home inspection. So this is the same home inspection you’re going to get if you were to purchase a property. The purpose, though, is to help you understand what it is you need to do and you can set up a timeline and prioritize where your money is spent. If you have water in your crawl space, go ahead and get that sealed up because buyers are going to want you to do that anyway. If you haven’t serviced your HVAC system in a while, go ahead and get that serviced just to save you time later when the buyer requests to have that done.

STEP 4: MAKE A STAGING PLAN

It’s also a good time to work with your REALTOR® to make your staging plan and decide whether or not you’re going to use your own furniture to stage the property. And if so, what pieces need to be edited out, what things need to be brought in. If you need help with space planning or things like that, a good REALTOR® will have a relationship with somebody who can help rearrange things and help you edit things down, to set your property up for success.

STEP 5: DEEP CLEAN

One to two months before you go on the market, deep clean your counters, your sinks the fronts of your cabinets, inside the refrigerator, inside your drawers. It takes a lot of work. Hire somebody to do it, it’s a great investment. It will save you three to four hours and it’s going to make your property look its best for not only photography, which is of the utmost importance, but showings too because your buyers are going to be opening your drawers since they want to see what kind of storage that you have.

Have your rugs cleaned so that everything smells nice and fresh. If you have pets, figure out what you need to do to maybe get rid of some of those stubborn pet odors.

STEP 6: GET READY FOR PHOTOS

Then two weeks before you go on the market, this is when your photography is shot. It generally takes about four business days from the time we shoot your photos to the time that our graphic designer is done processing those photos. Then after that it takes another four business days to get the print materials ready to go into your property.

So I generally say let’s be photo-ready two weeks before we want to go live in the listing service. So by the time that happens, your house is staged, you’re de-cluttered, your property is clean, your repairs are already made and you’re ready to put your best foot forward. I have a great checklist that I put together called Tips for a Great Photo Shoot that you can use when you’re preparing your home ready for that really important photography shoot. You can head on over to my website to download that at https://mailchi.mp/michellehatchrealtor/tips_photo_shoot.

STEP 7: SHOWING INSTRUCTIONS

Just a few days before going live in the listing service, discuss with your REALTOR® your showing instructions. Is there any point in the day when the property can’t be shown? Like maybe you work from home and you know that you have a standing call every Monday through Wednesday at 10:00 AM and so you’d like to avoid showings at that time, you’ll want to let your REALTOR® know that so it can be put in the showing instructions for other agents to see.

Side note though, you do want to be as flexible as possible and get buyers in when they want to get in because that’s going to help you sell your property faster.

It’s also a good time to make arrangements for your fur-babies. If you need to get a dog or a cat out of the property for it to show, you might want to request a two-hour or 24-hour notice so that you can make those arrangements, so have those conversations with your REALTOR® .

Then once you’re ready to go live, it’s just getting mentally prepared for people coming through your house and maybe saying things that you don’t like to hear, maybe saying great things and it goes gangbusters and you get multiple offers and you’re a happy camper at the end of the day. But either way, you’re going to be a happy camper if you start with one of the most important steps, and that is hiring your REALTOR® before you even start making decisions about upgrades or updates and things like that. Again, it’ll save you a lot of time and energy and stress and money to get that crucial step done first.

I hope this information was helpful for you! Don’t forget to download that handy checklist I have for you. And I’ll see you in the next video. Thanks!