Thinking of selling your house in Atlanta?
Is your house ready for the Atlanta, Ga Real estate Market?
Some Tips and Suggestions to stand above the competition
and get top Dollar for your property

EXTERIOR
When we think of our house, we have lived in for many years, we don’t always see what our potential buyers might see. Where we need to start is with ourselves and look and I mean really look at your House, try changing places with the potential buyer. You need to be very objective about this. You might want to consider having a friend or relative work with you, as the inspection moves forward, and make sure this person tells you what is and not what you want to hear.
One more side note on looking and inspecting your house. When we look at things, there is a tendency to look at a lot of area at one time and miss a lot that your prospective buyer probably will not miss. The best way to inspect is to pretend you have side blinders on, so you narrow your vision. Also as you start looking at your most valuable possession, move sideways as much as possible, you will be surprised by how much you see. This includes both outside and inside.
Lets start with the outside, and you are driving up to your house, how is the curb appeal? Is your front yard cut, trimmed and edged? Look at your paint of the house and trim. Does it need to be repainted or just touched up? Be honest with yourself. Look at your front exterior lights, are they straight, a bit tarnished or outdated, this is a very inexpensive fix.
Also when you are walking up to your front door, look at your roof, is it clean or does it have a lot of leaves and debris, especially in the valleys, the same goes for the gutters. Are your gutter nails tight against the gutter or have they pulled part way out? When you walk up to the front door, how does your porch or overhang look, is it clean and free of clutter? Flowers in this area, invites people in. Are your windows and screens clean inside and out. Again check the trim paint around the windows. While you are looking, this would be a great time to look at the caulking.
While you are looking things over, you might to think also about Pressure washing all areas of your exterior, including front porch, driveway, walkways, sidewalks, rear porch or decks.
How does the front door present itself? Does it have any dents or in need of a fresh coat of paint. Look at your handle and lock sets, Are they tarnished and outdated. Inspect the hinges and threshold, no paint allowed on either of these.
As you start making your way around to the side of the house, look at your garage door and side trim. On the subject of trim, include the soffit area and facia around the gutters, make sure there is no dry rot. If it looks suspect, take a small screw driver, and push in that area, if it goes in more than ¼” it needs to be attended to. Either replace the bad trim or dig out the bad area if it is not to large and fill with a good exterior wood putty or water putty, then prime, caulk and touch up.
On the rear and both sides of the house make sure the caulk is in great shape, no gaps. This inspection also includes the trim around all windows and exterior doors. Your windows and screens need to be clean, inside and out. Do a complete inspection of the side doors, as you did on the front door.On the rear of the house, if there is a sliding patio door, make sure both the slider and screen move and lock with no effort, or get them repaired. All windows in the house must open, close and lock easily.
If your house has a deck or fence, this would be a great time to pressure wash them both.Make sure there is nothing loose including decking, handrails, top rail and spindles.This would also be a great time to again, look for any signs of Dry rot, under the deck. Look at the posts, beams and joists. Fix or Replace any loose or broken fence boards. Your gate should close and lock easily. Double check that the posts in the gate area are very solid in the ground, if not you may want to shore up the post, which might include digging around the posts and embed the posts in concrete.

INTERIOR  
Now let’s move inside. As you start your inspection, be sure pull your sphere of vision, into a very narrow band. It is always good to start at the ceiling and top of the wall and work your way down and move over moving side to side and look, I mean really look.
Make sure that all the excessive stuff and clutter is moved and cleaned up. This allows your house to really show. You should really consider staging the house. If you are not sure how to go about these areas, your professional real estate agent or interior decorator would be able to help you in these areas.
The following is for all areas not including the kitchen or bath rooms, we will get to those shortly. The following is a list as you proceed from room to room.

• All lighting and fan fixtures must be clean, no dust
• All lighting and fan fixtures need to be in good shape and not dated.
• All walls must have all dings and holes repaired
• The paint must be in top notch shape. If you have touch up paint walk around with blue tape, put small piece on each area then go back and touch up those areas with a brush. Again move from side to side, as much as possible, as you are inspecting this.
• The painting also includes all doors and trim, caulk any trim as needed.
• Your doors must close, shut and lock easily.
• Make sure the door handles are tight and in good shape, replace if badly worn.
• Check your door hinges, no paint on these. Door stops must be in good shape.
• Closet doors must open and close easily, Check the hardware. Remove as much as possible from this area and get it organized.
• Window blinds must be in good shape, open and close easily.
• Check the window sills, a lot of abuse in this area.
• Switches, outlets and plates should be clean, straight and no broken plates
• It goes with out saying, the carpet must be clean., Shampoo if needed.