Are you thinking about listing your home for sale this Spring? If so, there are some important steps to take to get it ready.
As a home stager, I’ve seen lots of homes and one thing that everyone has a lot of our family photos on walls and other surfaces. While that’s great when you’re living there, when you sell your home, these need to be packed and ready for your move so that when potential buyers come to your home, they won’t be so taken with your photos that they miss the features of your home. Yes – this really happens! If the seller is visiting more than a couple homes in one day, they will easily forget what they saw in your home that would influence them to purchase it.
They will remember the clutter!
Family photos, collections of all kinds, kitchen clutter are all things that need to be addressed before your list your house.
Pack it up!
Pack it up and get it ready to go to your next home, but don’t leave it out! In your kitchen only leave out the appliances and other items you use every day. Pack the Cuisinart, blender etc and put them in cupboards until you sell your home. Otherwise it adds to clutter on your counters that makes your kitchen look crowded and messy. Does your son or daughter have a shelf filled with athletic trophies? Pack them up! Do you have supplements, make-up and hair accessories on your bathroom counter? Pack it up. Put your supplements in a plastic container that slips easily in a drawer or cabinet, put the make-up in a make-up case and put it in a drawer! Have your bathroom counters spotless and fairly empty.
Potential buyers will remember the clutter and not your house if it’s not neat and de-cluttered.
Paint It
Does your son have a bedroom painted bright orange or bright blue? Paint it! The potential buyer won’t be able to get past the color.
Is your master closet crowded and messy? This is a place buyers really take note of. Make sure yours is orderly and out of season clothes have been packed up and put in bins. Make sure hangars are the same and that clothes are facing the same direction on the hangar. Store sweaters and purses in plastic bins and if there isn’t room for them in the closet, put them under the bed!
Your goal is to make your home look as inviting as possible and as roomy as you can! De-clutter, organize and pack up things early. You will reap the benefit of not having your home on the market too long.
“The way you live in your home and the way you sell your home, are two different things!”
Take a walk through your house and look at it with a potential buyers eyes…..what do you see??? Don’t skip the outside either, grass needs to be cut, bushes trimmed and perhaps other over due maintenance issues. need to be addressed. Take care of them now and they won’t pop up in your inspection report for you to do later! Get busy and be ready in the Spring to sell your home!
Happy de-cluttering!
Karen Van Nort, Home Stager, Interior Designer, Project Manager & Consultant
Photo of couple cleaning out the garage from realtor.com