During your divorce, you and your Toronto divorce lawyer may conclude that you’ll need to sell your home. In many cases, selling it quickly can make the divorce process go more smoothly – and it’s one less thing to worry about. Your Toronto divorce lawyer can help you determine the best point in your case to put your home on the market, but how quickly it sells depends on its location, price and how desirable it is to potential buyers.
Your Home Sale, Your Toronto Divorce Lawyer, and You
There are many reasons you and your spouse may agree to sell your house. As long as you’ve consulted with your Toronto divorce lawyer, and he or she agrees, you’ll need to prep your home to minimize the time it sits on the market and fetch a higher price.
Why Stage Your Home?
Staging your home for sale simply means preparing it so that it’s more attractive to buyers. Homes that are staged properly sell faster, and they often sell for more than those that are not. Ask your Toronto divorce lawyer if he or she knows an interior decorator or a realtor who also do home stagings in your area. Often, it’s better to invest time and money into staging your home properly than it is to let it sit on the market for months.
Staging Your Home
Whether your Toronto divorce lawyer has provided you with a referral to a professional or not, there are things you can do to make your home more attractive to potential buyers, including:
- Declutter. According to HGTV, removing excess furniture makes a house look bigger and more inviting. Additionally, removing stray papers, unnecessary toys and other items can clear the way for potential buyers to see the real beauty of your home.
- Clean. Nobody wants to spend time in – let alone buy – a dirty house. Spend extra time scrubbing baseboards, dusting corners and cleaning out light fixtures.
- Repurpose. Extra rooms in your house (you know, those that collect “extra” stuff) can be transformed into rooms that look more useful. For example, adding a desk, lamp and chair to an unused room equals an instant home office.
- Brighten. Increase the wattage in your light fixtures to brighten your space. (Make sure you have ample lighting fixtures, for that matter. Your goal is to shed 100 watts of light on every 50 square feet of house.)
- Paint. Paint adjacent rooms the same colour to create a more spacious look – and while you’re at it, paint your living areas in a neutral, muted tone. Bold accent walls may negatively affect what buyers think of your house.
If you work with an interior decorator or real estate agent referred by your Toronto divorce lawyer, he or she will have dozens more tips and tricks to help you stage your home properly – but with a little common sense, hard work and creativity, you can increase your home’s appeal to potential buyers, too.
