There comes a time in every real estate investor’s life where the need to prepare a real estate investment property for sale arises.No matter what, presentation leads to the best outcomes, whether you’re selling or buying. At the time of selling, a real estate investor must prepare his/her investment property for the best possible selling price and a fast-selling period. After all, you don’t want your property to sit on the market for months on end.
Related: 5 Ways to Make Bank When Selling an Investment Property.
What to do with an investment property for sale?
Make a checklist
The favorite tool of every organized investor. When you make a checklist, you turn thoughts into an actual physical matter. Your list should include everything that needs to be done throughout your preparing process. Keep in mind that these preparations should take costs and returns into consideration. Most importantly, you don’t want to end up spending $20,000 on a property. The entire point is to unload the property, not add more expenses on your behalf.
Note: Make sure to encompass all aspects of the investment property.
Look at the exterior of the investment property for sale
It’s the first thing that potential buyers will look at. Look at your lawn, your exterior paint job, clean your gutters and even trim the hedges.
These few tasks won’t take more than a day or an afternoon to accomplish. But, they sure do make the difference when selling an investment property.
Declutter
Whether you’re putting an investment property for sale or keeping it, you must declutter. After all, a property buyer is going to imagine the possibilities of building a life in this potential property, give him/her the space to do so.
What most real estate agents or investors do, is they depersonalize a space. When a potential buyer comes to view your place, you shouldn’t have 30 photos lined up on a wall, it should be clean. Therefore, allowing the investor to imagine his/her own memories with the said property.
Additionally, keep any surfaces empty. What this does is give the illusion of more space in any investment property for sale. It’s a smart tactic many professional stagers employ to their advantage. This includes having empty kitchen counters, coffee tables, bathroom counters, or any furniture with a surface.
Maintenance
Do you have a leaky faucet that you’ve been intending to fix for the past few months? Does your property have any plumbing issues? Do you need to paint your windows? Do you have any holes in your drywall? Well, wait no more.
If you’ve answered yes to any of these, you must finish them before listing an investment property for sale.
You might say “why should I bother? I’m selling it anyway.” Big mistake. By fixing these simple things, you are ensuring the potential buyer that he/she is not buying a fixer-upper. You definitely don’t want to give the impression that your property hasn’t been taken care of.
Clean
Must you really google it? Just clean as if your life depends on it. Make sure to hit the house from all angles. Clean the outside as well as the inside.
Get a real estate market analysis
This is just as important as any other step to take. A real estate market analysis can help you know the market value before putting your investment property for sale. Accordingly, with Mashvisor’s real estate market analysis, you don’t have to guess anything. You can know what your property’s worth in a few simple steps. Click here to make use of your 14-day free trial with Mashvisor.
Related: The Real Estate Market Analysis Tools that Every Investor Needs.
Stage your property
After all the cleaning and decluttering, you must stage your property. Staging basically helps you present your property in the best possible frame. In any case, clean floors and tidy rooms with plenty of natural light will get you where you want to be with any investment property for sale.
Marketing
Marketing any investment property for sale is a must. This will be more of a job on its own if you choose to sell without a real estate agency. Even though, you must ensure that your investment property for sale is getting the right exposure. Therefore, you must:
- Take plenty of photos of your space, leave no corner out.
- Take clear professional looking photos.
- It doesn’t hurt to add a flower vase here or there.
- Show the exterior of the investment property.
- Take photos during the day with maximum sun exposure.
That being said, taking great photos without having the right real estate market tools, has no use. List your property on multiple listing channels like Zillow.com or realtor.com.
Not to mention the importance of having full details in your listing. This includes the number of rooms, bathrooms, and living rooms. Leave nothing good unmentioned.
Related: Selling a Real Estate Property: How to Market Your Home for Sale
Recheck that checklist
After doing all the chores and finishing all the projects, you must check if you’ve accomplished all you set out to do. Therefore, the best method to do so is to look at your checklist and make sure you’ve completed all the tasks on it.
These tips are important for any real estate investor who’s thinking of putting an investment property for sale. Make sure to study any renovations you wish to do with a professional and don’t try to save money by doing something yourself. Many do so and end up paying more to fix the damages they’ve made. Lastly, don’t be too sad about selling an investment property; it’s your gate into buying more investment properties in the future.
If you have any more insights about putting an investment property for sale, please share them with us in the comments section.