Going through the process of selling your home for the first time can be an overwhelming experience. And while there are hassle-free ways to sell your house — We Buy Houses Charlotte page is a good example of that — most traditional methods involve quite a lot of care and preparation. Here are some tips you should keep in mind if you’re about to look into selling a home for the first time.

1 - Preparing the house is worth it

First impressions matter and your home’s curb appeal will have a significant impact on how much you can set as your asking price. That’s because while humans would like to believe themselves to be completely objective, a lot of our notions of value are derived from superficial and subjective sources. In other words, a buyer will be much more hesitant to pay above the market price for a house that looks terrible in pictures.

There are, of course, an endless amount of improvements big and small you can make to improve the appearance of a house. If you are on a tight budget, it’s best to focus on small tweaks and on that aforementioned curb appeal. Touching up the paint of the house, fixing the garden, and decluttering the interior of the house can make the property look immediately more appealing.

Deep cleaning various areas of the house can also make the entire property look better. This includes getting old grime off various surfaces of the house and touching up stains and scuff marks on walls.

2 - Check the local market

Spend some time familiarizing yourself with your local house market at the start of the process. Understanding how much properties like yours usually go for and how long they usually take to sell will help you get started with realistic expectations. And if you decide to work alongside a real estate agent, having a basic understanding of the market can help you separate the honest agents from the ones that are prone to overpromising.

3 - Choose how to sell

As we touched on before, there are many ways to sell a home. Hollywood movies often portray the real estate agent approach, but it’s perfectly possible to sell your home without an agent. You can also focus on selling your home to a company, rather than an individual home buyer, or try and look for buyers online. Different approaches come with different advantages and disadvantages, so pick carefully.

4 - Learn about the expenses

Different home sale methods will also incur different fees and expenses, so look into those ahead of time. Real estate agents, for example, often get a commission instead of charging a fee or ask for a commission on top of their fees. And when dealing with a company, you might be able to get a deal where they take care of all the expenses involved with the process of transferring the property.

5 - Get your home inspected

A professional home inspection is a must before selling a house. That’s because disclosing issues upfront is better than having potential buyers find those issues later, at which point those issues may discourage them from closing the deal due to concerns about your honesty.