Last year we had some of our sellers experience sticker shock when it came to figuring out how much it costs to prep a home for sale. For many sellers the last time they had to pay to have someone paint their home, replace the carpets, and other details was at least five if not ten years ago. Keep in mind that the cost of building a new home has gone up 38.8% since 2019. These building costs trickle down to other aspects of the home sale process.
Every aspect of our economy has seen some type of inflation. This also includes the costs for trades, materials, and other components when it comes to preparing a home for sale in Seattle. We thought it would be really important to be transparent and give you the details of the true costs it takes to prepare your home for the market.
How Much Does It Cost To Prep My Home for Sale in Seattle?
In this blog we are going to answer all of your questions about what it takes to prepare a home for sale in Seattle.
- What Type of Expenses Should I Assume When Selling a Home?
- The Average Cost to Stage Your Home For Sale in Seattle
- How Much Does It Cost to Have Your Yard Landscaped When Selling Your Home?
- What is the Average Cost to Do Repairs On Your Home When Preparing Your Home for the Market?
- The True Costs to Paint Your Home When Preparing Your Home for the Market?
- How Much Does it Cost to Clean Your Windows When You Are Selling Your Home?
- What Should You Expect to Pay to Have Your Home Deep Cleaned When Selling Your Home?
- On Average How Much Did it Cost to Prepare Your Home for Sale When You Have Put Off Home Maintenance Chores on the Home?
Start Here – Get Home Seller Educated
- Download our Guide “How to Sell a Home in Seattle”
- Read the very detailed blog “Guide to Selling a Home in Seattle”
- Check out our guide “Staging Your Home Will Help You Make More Money”
- Read our guide “How Long Does It Take to Prepare a Home For Sale”
- Watch Kim’s Video About Each Step You Need to Know About Selling a Home in Seattle
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What Are The REAL Costs to Prep a Home for Sale in Seattle?
In this guide, we are going to show you exactly how much it costs to clean, repair, and stage your home to make sure you are able to make the most amount of money in your home sale. Trust me when I say that very few real estate teams have the data to give you this detailed information. Our team is well known for doing more listings that an average real estate agent. We have a dedicated vendor manager whose job is to find vendors and track expenses for our sellers. I also went to the team and asked them directly what the costs that they are seeing for their home sellers when they prep a home for sale.
What Type of Expenses Should I Assume When Selling a Home?
You should assume it will cost you about $12,000 to $25,000 to get your home ready to sell in Seattle. Here is a general list of the type of expenses you should prepare yourself for when prepping your home for sale:
- Staging: $3,000 – $6,000
- Landscaping: $500 – $3,500
- Repairs: $1,000 – $3,000
- Painting: $7,000 – $10,000
- Clean Windows: $250 – $400
- Deep Clean: $400 – $1,500
- Total: $12,150 – $24,400
Please Note: Deferred maintenance costs increase the above total by $10,000 to $25,000.
Wow that is a lot, Diva!!! What if you do not have cash on hand to do this work? Do not worry! We have tips and tricks on getting this work done even if you are low on cash on hand. Many of our sellers are sitting on gold mines in equity in their home. But these same sellers do not have a lot of cash on hand to do this basic work to maximize their home sale potential. We have some tips and tricks to help you.
The Average Cost to Stage Your Home For Sale in Seattle
It will cost about $3,000 – $6,000 to stage your home in Seattle.
Last year we saw home staging costs go up. There used to be one big warehouse that stagers could rent staging materials from. That company went out of business leaving a lot of folks without inventory to stage homes. In addition, we also saw stagers get out of the business. Let’s say it is a bit of a mess right now. In general, to stage a 2-3 bedroom house it will cost about $3,000 – $4,000. If you have a home that is larger or super unique you can expect the costs to go up to about $6,000. In general, it is about a $2,500 minimum, and $500 extra for a home beyond 2 bedrooms.
Advice From Team Member Roy:
“I prep sellers by letting them know it is about $3,000 – $4000 for a 3-bedroom house. The cost is around $500 per room and to include the bathrooms, kitchen, and bonus spaces in that overall cost.”
How Much Does It Cost to Have Your Yard Landscaped When Selling Your Home?
It will cost you about $500 – $3,500 to have your yard looking market ready.
Landscaping can be a quick mow and blow with some mulch to give a home that Diva first impression. Or you could have a yard that is overgrown and needs a whole lot of love. For a quick mow and blow the cost is around $500. Last year we did have a few sellers who had a yard filled with blackberry bushes and completely overgrown. It cost these sellers about $3,500 to get their yard market ready.
Advice From a Team Member Lindsy:
A full landscaping cost roughly $1,500 – $3,500 for the following:
“Mowing the grass/edging the yard, weeding garden beds, cutting back blackberries or ivy, adding beauty bark, planting some flowers, trimming the bushes and trimming the trees. Also cleaning up the fallen leaves and pine needles.”
What is the Average Cost to Do Repairs On Your Home When Preparing Your Home for the Market?
It will cost you about $1,000 – $3,000 to do minor repairs to your home before putting it on the market.
Sellers who were buyers with Team Diva originally are super educated about how to maintain their home. We also try to keep in touch with our clients over the years to help them with any repair questions that they might have. In general, we do not see a lot of our clients have big repair lists.
However, we do have clients who are selling their parent’s home that has a lot of deferred maintenance. This is where the repair costs really start to climb.
Advice From Team Leader and OG Diva Kim:
“Team Diva is pretty lucky that most of our clients maintain their homes well. Most of our clients had to spend minimal money on repairs. Maybe $1,000-$2,000 for things like replacing windows, upgrading a hot water heater, minor plumbing issues—things like that. So far, very very few of our clients have had to replace a sewer, a roof, a furnace or anything that major before listing. AND we do a lot of educating our folks when they buy a home. It pays to keep your home well maintained so you don’t have to address these things at the last minute before you list.”
The True Costs to Paint Your Home When Preparing Your Home for the Market?
It will cost you about $7,000 to $10,000 to paint the interior of your home before selling the home.
The biggest investment you can make to get the most amount of money for your home is painting and staging. Almost every single one of our listings have had to be repainted. And unfortunately, painting the interior of your home is one of the areas that has gone up the most in the last few years. In general it costs $7,000 – $10,000 to paint your home. The cost goes up if you need to paint the trim of the home.
Advice From Team Leader and OG Diva Kim:
“Fresh paint is the biggest lift to a home. It takes a dull home to a Diva Dwelling. Please note: People do not realize how much it costs to paint trim work in a home. I think they think that painting a home is just the walls. As soon as you add in the paint the price goes up. Also I love helping people pick paint colors. Let me know what I can do to help you pick some fab colors now or for a future home sale.”
How Much Does it Cost to Clean Your Windows When You Are Selling Your Home?
It will cost you about $250 to $400 to have your windows cleaned before you sell your home.
Nothing says “I’m worth it” like clean windows and a fabulous view. There is a reason other buyer brokers refer to our listings as having a Diva Tax. Basically our homes look like gold and sell like a platinum record. Generally most of the time the cost to have your windows cleaned will cost about $250 – $400. This can go up if you have a larger home or the windows are hard to access.
Advice From Team Member Lindsy:
The cost to clean the windows for a 2,000-square-foot house will cost between $250-350 on average.
What Should You Expect to Pay to Have Your Home Deep Cleaned When Selling Your Home?
It is going to cost you about $400 to $1,000 to have your house deep cleaned.
Now this section is really based on you. We have had sellers who basically piled up everything they did not want into the garage and it ended up costing around $2,500 to clean their home. Most of our sellers are counting every dollar and are really good about getting their home ready to turn over to the painters and handy people. But this is one of those cost expenses that is totally in your control.
Please Note: If you are a Diva Dweller we pay up to $400 of the cleaning fees.
Advice from Team Member Roy:
:Generally it is about $50 per hour per cleaner. At a minimum every home will need at least $400 in cleaning expenses even if you leave it clean. A buyer notices every little detail. Now if you leave the home messy it will take a cleaning crew an entire day to do the cleaning. Also do not forget to clean your oven and empty your freezer. No one likes wilted vegetables when touring a home.”
On Average How Much Did it Cost to Prepare Your Home for Sale When You Have Put Off Home Maintenance Chores on the Home?
It will cost you about $20,000 to $40,000 to get a home ready for the market that has not been properly maintained over the years.
First off, deferred home maintenance is a huge deterrent to getting top dollar for a home. You might have hot water heater that is way past its prime that needs to be replaced. Or you have a leak in the roof that you might think is not that big of a deal but those leaks cause a lot of damage. It pays to choose one big project a year to work on in your home. And make sure you are getting regular maintenance on the gutters, furnaces, yards, and other areas.
Advice From Team Lead and OG Diva Kim
“I have seen some sellers have to pay up to $40,000 in home repairs because they neglected areas of their home. Some deferred home repairs can also include bad trim work, wood floors that are damaged, or water damage from a leaky roof. Deferred maintenance adds up and fast. It could cost you about $25,000 – $40,000.”
Do You Have a Clear Idea of What it Costs to Prep a Home for Sale in Seattle?
Hopefully we were able to answer a few of your questions. In general it costs about $12,000 – $25,000 to do the work to get your home on the market. Buyers are easily spooked if a home doesn’t look like it is ready for HGTV. Hence Seattle home sellers really have to put in the work in order to get top dollar.
In this blog about the costs to prep a home for sale in Seattle, we answered the following questions:
- What Type of Expenses Should I Assume When Selling a Home?
- The Average Cost to Stage Your Home For Sale in Seattle
- How Much Does It Cost to Have Your Yard Landscaped When Selling Your Home?
- What is the Average Cost to Do Repairs On Your Home When Preparing Your Home for the Market?
- The True Costs to Paint Your Home When Preparing Your Home for the Market?
- How Much Does it Cost to Clean Your Windows When You Are Selling Your Home?
- What Should You Expect to Pay to Have Your Home Deeped Cleaned When Selling Your Home?
- On Average How Much Did it Cost to Prepare Your Home for Sale When You Have Put Off Home Maintenance Chores on the Home?
Just to Recap The General Cost to Prepare Your Home for the Market is Around $12,000 to $25,000
The Costs to Prepare Your Home For Sale
- Staging – $3,000 – $6,000
- Landscaping – $500 – $3,500
- Repairs – $1,000 – $3,000
- Painting – $7,000 – $10,000
- Clean Windows – $250 – $400
- Deep Clean – $400 – $1,500
- Total: $12,150 – $24,400
And remember these costs can go up if you have any deferred maintenance on a home.
We are here to help. Our team understands that this process can take a year or two. And we are more than willing to give you a personalized plan to get the ball rolling. Feel free to contact us directly at thediva@teamedivarealestate.com or call/text 206-271-0264.
