How to Prepare Your North Shore Home for Sale

The esteemed neighborhoods that make up Milwaukee’s North Shore area accommodate some of the most intellectual residents of the Midwest. Spacious mansions and modern abodes line the pristine shores of Lake Michigan in a bucolic, forested area with easy access to downtown’s hustle and bustle.

While the North Shore may have served its time in your life, this housing market offers bountiful returns for your wooded property as you plan to sell and move on to your next property, whether upsizing or down. Selling can get competitive in this neighborhood of luxury and prestige, so for the best return and a seamless process, partner with the Peter Mahler Team at Sotheby’s International Realty Group, to put your finest foot forward and execute the home sale of your dreams. Peter Mahler’s team of four combines decades of real estate experience in the Greater Milwaukee area to provide paramount service to elite clients transacting luxury homes for sale in the North Shore and other areas of Milwaukee. Today let’s look at how to punctually prepare your prime North Shore real estate for a substantial sale.

The first vantage point of your home a prospective buyer sees comes from the sidewalk. This means that even before we address entryways, living rooms, and staging that we need to attend to front-facing exteriors.

Feed and water your lawn for a lush, green spread and mow in a cross-stitch pattern for an expert landscape. Prune foliage and fix driveway cracks or repave your entry entirely if needed. If your exterior paint job is stale, revitalize it with a fresh coat in a neutral color for maximum aesthetic pleasure. Your curb appeal is the first impression before your personal first impression, and you only get one shot.

Before pining over subtleties like lighting and furniture choice, make sure your basic home fixes are taken care of. These can range from cracked tile or plaster to re-shingling your roof or replacing corroded piping. What you’re doing here is minimizing damage; no matter how ornate your primary bathroom vanity is, that yellowing linoleum countertop will stick out in buyers’ memories like a bad date. These fixes can get expensive, but your point-of-sale price will put that money right back in your pocket after these fixed investments.

While you cherish heirloom family photos or vintage band poster collections peppered around your home, your prospective buyers won’t. Remove all personal items that may insinuate that a buyer is not actually in their home. Though it isn’t theirs yet, a blank canvas to let one’s imagination run wild is a far more effective selling point than your Green Bay Packers or Milwaukee Bucks memorabilia. Make your house a generic template anyone can relate to and intrigue as many buyers as possible.

Once you’ve made those glaring necessary fixes, you’re ready to tackle the aesthetic angle of preparation. The best option is always hiring a professional stager to get the most out of your beautiful space in a classy community like the North Shore. Improvements from replacing cabinetry and adding a fresh coat of paint to bringing in sleek furniture and modern accouterments contribute to making your home as sellable as possible. On average, homes will sell 88% faster and for 20% over the listed price when a house is staged versus when it isn’t, so let’s follow the numbers here and maximize your potential with a professional touch.

The open spaces greet and flatter, but behind closed doors matter just as much. Clear out at least two-thirds of your closet space and arrange the remaining items as neatly as possible, showing off the ample storage space in your home. This is an essential utility that homebuyers look for when purchasing a home, as you move in with all your belongings.

Make sure you’ve opened your home to all gateways for light, as an attraction to natural light is in our human nature. Make sure all glass windows and doors are cleaned and wiped spotless on the inside and out. Replace old lampshades and curtains with new fluorescent replacements, and even shop around for lightbulbs with a higher wattage to brighten your spaces.

While more subtle than any visual improvement you’ll make, take measures to stimulate a home seeker’s sense of smell with a bit of incense or fragrant flower placement at the entryway to get two senses on your side. Grocery stores use a similar tactic to get shoppers in by greeting them with pastries and flowers at entrances; an ingenious marketing tactic applicable to home staging as much as food shopping.

Connecting with a trusted local agent with years of experience and an all-encompassing network of buyers and sellers is vital. Your agent should know the local territory and have a track record of similar properties sold with a perfect report card from past clients. Thankfully, the lucky residents of Milwaukee’s North Shore neighborhood have the Peter Mahler Team, seasoned in luxury real estate buying and selling in the Greater Milwaukee area. With diversified backgrounds in construction, interior design, architecture, retail management, marketing, sales, finance, and more, the Peter Mahler Team sells over market value swiftly and amicably for prospective luxury home sellers. Connect with the Peter Mahler Team today to make your North Shore selling dream a reality.