The ones a buyer's inspector will flag or a buyer will notice in the first minute:
More than feels natural. Clear counters, thin out closets, remove about a third of the furniture in busy rooms and take down most personal photos. Buyers need to imagine their own things in the space.
Trim the hedges, edge the lawn, sweep the walk, clean the front door and add a planter. In winter, keep the drive and steps clear. The front of the house is the first photo and the first impression.
Recent utility and property tax bills, receipts for roof, furnace, windows and other upgrades, building permits for past work, and survey if you have one. For a condo, your lawyer or the condo corporation provides the status certificate. For a home in a heritage conservation district, any heritage permits for past exterior work.
It can help with an older home: you find surprises first and can fix them or disclose them. We discuss it at the evaluation.
Not always. It pays most when a home is vacant or dated in its furnishings; here is when staging is worth it.
Ideally not. Buyers speak more freely and stay longer when the owners are out.
Where walls are marked or strongly coloured, yes: fresh, neutral paint is one of the repairs worth doing. Big renovations are different, because they rarely pay back at sale. When we walk your home, we tell you which rooms need it.
Rob or George will walk your home and tell you what is worth doing and what is not.
