First-Time Home Seller Checklist (Part 2)

A home doesn’t lose value only from big problems. It can lose momentum from tiny signals like a dark bedroom, a sticky front door, or that one unfinished project you’ve stopped noticing. We pick up our first-time home seller to-do list and focus on the practical home selling tips that change how buyers feel in the first 30 seconds and how your home looks in the listing photos that get them to book a showing.

We get into what’s worth doing before you list, starting with deep cleaning that actually moves the needle: carpet shampooing, polishing hardwood floors, and even refreshing fabrics so stains and odors don’t steal attention. We also talk about the danger of leaving “almost done” projects around the house, why buyers see them as risk, and how a staging consultation and smarter furniture placement can make rooms feel larger and more inviting without a full redesign.

Then we shift to curb appeal and the entry experience, because the front door sets the tone. We cover simple improvements like opening window coverings for more light, adding fresh plants and flowers, and making sure locks, handles, and doors work smoothly so the first impression feels effortless. We also hit the overlooked safety basics like smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, and checking radon systems so showings and inspections stay clean. Plus, Jeff O’Brien shares a Minnesota legal minute on the homestead exemption and how it can protect home equity from judgment creditors.

If you’re thinking of selling in the next month or the next two years, listen now, then subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so more homeowners can avoid the expensive mistakes.

You can always find U. S. Home Talk and connect with the hosts and the community at their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/U.S.HomeTalk/ or at our website, USHomeTalk.com

Transcript

Welcome And Seller Game Plan

Jason Walgrave 0:15

And welcome back, folks. This is U.S. Home Talk. Jason Walgrave here with Walgrave Real Estate Group and the Minnesota Real Estate Team. We've got the magician of mortgages, mortgage Michael Overson with Illuminate Bank here as well. We've got the great Marcus Walgrave with Hague Realtors out of the Stu Fowls Empire Real Estate Market. And then we have our um unmatched, unbelievable producer, Evan Little. Thank you, Evan, for doing what you do. He's also with Paragon, folks, the our insurance expert as well. Folks, welcome back. UShometalk.com. Best way to get a hold of us anytime during the week. We've got a real estate hotline number, 612-234-7585. We're finishing up. We started last week. First time home sellers, things to do, your to-do list. Started that last week. We'll finish up today. Your first time homebuyer getting ready to sell your house. Folks, whether you're thinking about doing that in the next month, the next six months, the next year, the next two years, we want to talk to you now. We want to walk through your home with you, talk about recommendations, suggestions, things that uh you should do or you shouldn't do. I oftentimes, uh Marcus, and I know you do too, uh, will be walking through the cellar and they they are just dead set on something that they have to do, you know, and and um they're convinced. Um it's usually one of them is convinced and the other one isn't. Um and and and we just we want to walk through and say, no, you don't need to do that. Um that's that's not a big deal, you know. However, um you should do this. You know, we talk about the things that are most important. Um, we're gonna finish up uh some of those recommendations this week. Again, best way to get a hold of us is our website, ushometalk.com. Our real estate hotline number is 612-234-7585. All right, um let's go back to recommendations.

Clean Carpets And Refresh Fabrics

Jason Walgrave 2:14

Uh, your to-do list, you're a first-time home seller. Clean the carpet, polish the hardwood floors. We talked about last week doing that deep clean, right? Uh carpet shampooing, folks, is it's it's important, um, especially if you have um a bunch of kids and and pets, um, like Marcus and I do. Overson, he's just got a whole bunch of kids. He doesn't have any pets yet. Uh pets, pet humans.

Mike Ouverson 2:43

Um, hey, I I tell you what, I'm probably the only person in Dakota County that's got snapping turtles as pets.

Jason Walgrave 2:53

That's pretty good. I got four snapping turtles.

Mike Ouverson 2:56

Little ones, yeah. We got them, we found them as babies, freshly hatched babies, and we've had them since last July. So they're a little bit bigger now, they're still not too big, but we got four snappers that we'll have to release this year because they'll just they'll get too big.

Jason Walgrave 3:07

But it's it is well, I mean, and you kind of have you kind of have tiger muskie pets. I mean, you have you catch them, they're your pet for five or ten minutes, and then you release them. Yeah, right? Then I got that too, right? You can do have that too. But um, carpet shampooing is important, uh, polishing the floors. Uh, sometimes heart of floors are so beat up that we recommend that you have them refinished. Uh, that's a big project. Uh it's it's expensive. Um, usually you can get by with just a deep clean and a really good polish. Um, but the carpet shampooing is can be really effective. We've I've seen many times I've seen carpets that I the sellers like, oh man, it's we we gotta replace the carpet. Um they had it shampooed first and they didn't have to replace it because the the shampooing worked that well. So uh cleaning the carpet's important and it's on uh one of your to-do lists. Uh a part of that uh can be uh cleaning the fabrics. And so you know, even though personal property like furniture and stuff is not um doesn't generally stay with the sale of a home. If you've got that couch that you love and you're not getting rid of it because it's so comfortable, um but you got some stains on it, um, little things like that can make a difference, right? And so um maybe maybe consider having the fabrics or the the the couches cleaned as well. Got any stains on your couch, Mike?

Mike Ouverson 4:28

We just got new couches uh a couple months ago, so which surprises me that we don't have stains on them yet, the way our kids treat them, to be honest with you. So I can confidently say no for now just because they're basically brand new couches and the kids just haven't quite destroyed them yet.

Marcus Walgrave 4:43

Not yet. Not yet.

Mike Ouverson 4:44

It's common, it's coming, it's common.

Marcus Walgrave 4:46

I was adamant when we got furniture and we have children and pets, and and I was adamant about no furniture unless it was leather. Yeah, and that's what we have. We have only leather in the house, and and um, you know, like toothpaste, but that comes off and oh yeah, it comes off. You know, the the boob the chocolate that got melted, that comes off, and so it's a little bit easier of a wipe down and and it doesn't hang on to any kind of pet odors.

Jason Walgrave 5:14

So yeah, um leather's great, they last long, super comfortable. Folks talking about as a first-time home seller your

Finish Projects And Consider Staging

Jason Walgrave 5:21

to-do list. Uh, if you've got any unfinished projects, um, let's let's finish them up, right? I mean, I think that I think most of us do, you know, we've got some things that aren't quite finished, and whether it's um maybe maybe you started working on that basement bathroom and it's 80% done, but it just the the trim isn't up, or there's you know, it's just not finished. But you gotta finish the little project if you don't have the time. Um we've got fantastic resources, uh handyman resources and and uh contractors. Um but again, this is about uh pres presentation. Are we presenting your home in the best possible light that we can? An unfinished project project will will not will not allow us to do that. So finish up those projects. Um maybe some of them you've been working on for many, many years. So um talking about uh first-time home sellers and the to-do list. Um rearrange your furniture, or even better yet, have have staging done. Uh we uh work with Melissa Evans at Trend Staging. Uh she will come in and and a part of our uh listing package, our marketing is uh she'll do a consultation, a staging consultation, and uh and just say, hey, we got to move this stuff around or let's take this down, let's let me bring in a couple pieces. Um you don't necessarily have to have your home staged, um, but a staging consultation with the furniture and the stuff that you currently have can be really, really effective, not only for when people come in your home, but the photos. And remember, the photos are what get people to come into your home. So rearranging furniture or staging recommendations, um, that that's on our list as well. Folks talking about uh first-time home sellers, the to-do list. I'm gonna go over uh a couple more and then we'll jump into uh the legal

Light Matters Plus Flowers Help

Jason Walgrave 7:09

minute. Uh, you gotta uncover the windows, folks. Open the blinds. Um if you've got uh I sometimes you go into bedrooms and I don't think the blinds have ever been opened. I mean, the the the bedroom is clearly for sleeping, no lights coming in, right? You get you gotta open the blinds and you gotta open the the window coverings. We want as much light to come through as possible. Uh pictures are better, it shows better, um, and it just presents better all the way around. Uh, this one is is um, I mean, my wife would definitely agree with this one. I do as well. Um, just had sellers last week ask me about this. Buy fresh flowers and plants. So they're like, hey, should we put some you know fresh flowers in the in the pots besides the front door? Absolutely. It looks great, it looks great, and it it looks great in the photos, it's welcoming, right? And so fresh flowers and plants um I think is a great uh is great to be on this list. All right, we've got a few more to do, but let's first go to Jeff O'Brien's legal minute.

Legal Minute Minnesota Homestead Protection

Jeff O'Brien 8:18

This is Jeff O'Brien, attorney with Hush Blackwell with a U.S. Home Talk legal minute. Minnesota law goes a long way to protect a person's interest in his or her home. One of these protections is the homestead exemption from judgments. This law presently provides that up to $390,000 of equity in a home is exempt from any judgment creditor. How does this work? Let's say you are sued and the other party gets a judgment against you for $300,000. If you own a home worth $590,000 and have a mortgage of $200,000, your entire equity is exempt from collection. In addition, if you're a married couple and own your home as joint tenants, a 2004 Minnesota Supreme Court case holds that the joint tenancy cannot be severed in order to satisfy a judgment against only one of the joint tenants. These exemptions are very important for business people who often have high-value homes with significant equity and are concerned about protecting their home against business liabilities and personal guarantees. This is Jeff O'Brien, attorney with Hosh Blackwell with the U.S. Home Talk Legal Med.

Entryway Curb Appeal And Front Door

Jason Walgrave 9:11

All right, folks, we're talking about first-time home sellers, the to-do list. We started this last week and we're going to finish it up today. Uh, next, uh create a welcoming entry. What does that mean? Okay, so what's the first thing folks are gonna see? They're gonna pull up to your house. Curb appeal, front elevation. What are they gonna do? They're probably gonna go in the front door. So, what it what is the first thing that they feel and they see when they walk in that front door? A butler, a butler with fresh cookies and milk, right? Welcome, welcome to this home, you know. So, but but it you know, that space, it need it needs to be welcoming, certainly needs to be decluttered, right? You don't want that foyer to have stuff in there and make it feel smaller than what it is. Um but one thing that that I think a lot of people overlook is the front door. Okay, does the front door need to be painted? Does it need to be stained? Does the lock and handle work smoothly? Does the key open smoothly? Because I've uh Marcus, we've been to homes and you get to that front door and we're it's not locking and it's all sticky, and the door's not looks like you got some, you need some sound there, Marcus. Um and and so you know that's not a great first impression. The agents all fluster and you can't unlock the door, or you or you or you open the front door and it's and it creaks or whatever. Um so make sure, folks, you make that that uh front entry welcoming. The front door is a big part of that.

Marcus Walgrave 10:44

Yeah, think about that front door too, right? And and I I always find it interesting that some sellers I'll go on some tours and showing some homes to buyer clients, and some sellers, you know, you get into the lockbox, you open it up, no key, garage door code. It says go through the garage door. That's like, okay.

Jason Walgrave 11:07

Not welcoming.

Marcus Walgrave 11:08

I I I get I get that's where you guys come in, the homeowner, and that that's where these people would go in if they bought the place. However, you know, you're you're wanting them to go into your garage is the first uh uh uh impression of the home, and then you want to go then uh have them go into the mud room or the shoe room or whatever that space is that's coming into the house, you know, and then they gotta okay, are we in the kitchen? You know, where's the living room? Like, you know, let them in the front door and and and get them excited, like you said, have it be welcoming. Um yeah, super important. I think so. You know, that that for that front door is a big one.

Mike Ouverson 11:45

MTV cribs. Think of MTV cribs, yeah. Right? Yeah, do they go through the garage when they're filming that? Hey, here's this house we're just pulling up, it's Jay-Z's house or whatever, right? Yeah, do they go in through the garage and then go into the the mud room coming off the garage right there? No, no, they go in the front door.

Jason Walgrave 12:02

Yeah, you you want them to go. It's the most impressive. It's the most impressive. You want people coming in the front door, you know, and and it, you know, and it's sometimes you know, unforeseen things happen, right? Maybe it's winter and the lockbox froze or or whatever. I mean, that that happens. But Marcus, you're 100% right. I don't want any buyers coming through my listings through the garage. I want them coming through the front door, you know, and and so super important. Folks talking about first-time home sellers, the to-do list. This was a two-part show, started last week and finishing this week. We got two more uh to talk

Smoke Detectors And Safety Fixes

Jason Walgrave 12:33

about. Uh the next one, this one's important, kind of overlooked a lot of times, but uh have your safety equipment installed and working. What I'm talking about are your smoke detectors and your carbon monoxide uh detectors, right? Uh, if you've got a radon mitigation system, make sure that's up and running and using um and and working correctly. Last week we talked about having a home inspection. If you do that, a lot of these items will be called out. But um, I I think smoke detectors only last like six or seven years, or or that's that's their expiration date, right? So get those things fixed now. Um get all new ones put in. It's just one less thing you're gonna have to worry about. The buyers are gonna have to worry about, and and you have to it's not gonna come up on the inspection. So make sure you get those things um updated and switched out and and working. Plus, plus, we don't want to hear it at 3 a.m. in the morning because that's when they that's when the batteries go out. Right? Yeah, it's it is too. Oh my god, in the middle of the night. It's awful. And you try to like pretend like you like you can't hear it, like it's a bad dream, go away.

Mike Ouverson 13:40

And then you and then you can't get it to stop beating, beeping for some reason, and you literally just want to take a sledgehammer out and just smash it.

Jason Walgrave 13:48

And it's the one that's 15 feet in the air that you can't reach, so you gotta get the big ladder.

Mike Ouverson 13:53

Yep.

Jason Walgrave 13:54

Rune and you gotta reset it, which sets them all off.

Marcus Walgrave 13:56

Sets them all off. Right, everybody just did that like two weeks ago, the one in the hallway in the basement, like, no. Couple kids woke up, you know, that whole dilemma. But um, JC, we I know you've experienced this too, where you know, you're showing homes and you open up the door and you already have one chirping at you. Oh, it's brutal. It is brutal, you know, and like again, the uh the the first impressions or like I we understand it's just a battery. Everybody knows it's just a battery. But however, you start thinking in the back of your head, like, when's the last time this house was even you know in by the owners? You know, how how how empty, how vacant, you know, does anybody check on this house? Yeah, you know, starts kind of casting doubts in it. Um, you know, it ends up being a little funny, but kind of not funny in the same token, too.

Jason Walgrave 14:44

No, and it's a terrible sound. And and it's every time it goes off, I'm all I'm thinking about is how terrible that sound is, right? So you're distracted, you're not looking at the house, you're just like, oh, am I gonna hear that beep again?

Marcus Walgrave 14:55

You know, and so it's like that front door when I was muted. You know, like you don't want your your clients to be heckling you asking if this is the first time you showed a house, yeah, and you open up a door and you're getting all sweaty, and so you're excited to tell them about all of the cool features. You know, now now you're uh you know, you you got a little razzled and and and uh so you definitely want to make things you know tied up, especially with the smoke detectors. Absolutely.

Jason Walgrave 15:20

All right, folks. Uh last couple weeks we've been talking about first-time home sellers, the to-do list. We've got uh one more here uh to wrap it up.

Neighborhood Development Research And Wrap

Jason Walgrave 15:27

This one's important. Uh this is something that that both you and your real estate agent um could do some research on and should know. Um be aware of recent or upcoming developments. And so not not just other homes or or home developments, but do you do it is the city building new parks? You got anything going on? You know, knowing um what's going on in the neighborhood in the area is important because you're not just selling your home, you're you're selling a lifestyle, right? And and so what's around you? What's going on? Um, we often talk about you know the these cool things, these new things that are coming up uh in the area that that our homes are listed, uh, and buyers buyers really like it. So uh folks, we do appreciate oh, go ahead, Marcus.

Marcus Walgrave 16:14

I was just gonna say how how important that piece is, right? I mean, that there's you'll you'll hear it from like a uh um a managing broker, you know, in terms of like saying, hey, that this is a liability as a licensed real estate agent. You should know what's going on and educate your clients of what they're buying. You know, this idea that they don't have backyard neighbors because it's a cornfield right now, and then in you know 18 months now it's uh uh an apartment that was already had been zoned for it and preliminary plans approved, you know, and you're telling them, no, this isn't no backyard neighbors, it's like, okay, well, that's gonna come back to bite you in the butt for sure. But um, in terms of like the lifestyle, I just I literally had the conversation with the city of Sioux Falls. We're seeing a lot of really impressive growth in in the uh Midwest, in the Great Plains. You know, you look at the our our big cities and and the markets are hot. Um, you look at the the developments, I mean it's not just like one part of a of a city, you know, it's developments on the outskirts of almost the the you know northeast-southwest, and that's kind of what we see in Sioux Falls, too. Um I just had a conversation with the planning and development uh department of down here in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, had that question. There was a piece of vacant land, said, Hey, what do you think is gonna go here? Well, it's zoned for commercial, okay, and then he's like, but it it it there's a good chance it'll probably be the apartment style apartments that are right next door. And then we have a really nice uh new highway being built just south of Sioux Falls, and so he kind of explained to me why he thought the commercial was gonna go a little bit further down to where the intersection was gonna happen with the main vein and this highway, and why you know apartments were gonna go there. So I shared that with my clients here this morning, and you know, super excited to know, have at least a general idea of what was gonna come up in their backyard, and and that's gonna come up sooner than later because we have some really good growth down here. So not hard to find. Um, especially if we're gonna with a with a top-tier realtor, you know, they probably have a lot of these people on like speed dial. Yeah, and like, hey, it's me again. I got a question about this parcel. Here you go. What do you think? You know, what's going on with it?

Jason Walgrave 18:20

And so it's good stuff, folks. We've been talking about first time home sellers, the to-do list last week and this week. Appreciate you tuning in. Best way to reach us anytime is our website, ushometalk.com. A real estate hotline number, 24 hour real estate hotline number is six one two three four seventy-five eighty-five. We uh appreciate you tuning in. We'll see you next week.