Preparing Your House for Sale
Preparing Your House For Sale
Selling a house is one of the major decisions in your life. How you approach it will make a massive difference in whether the outcome is positive and quick or a long-drawn-out grueling task. There are some things that you can do to make the process easier and make your house more attractive.
Smells
Rover – get off the couch and stay off! I love my dog (Dozer is his name) and he loves to sleep on the couch between us as we are reading or watching the television. The same with “Blossom” our cat, who commands a spot on the couch, chair or whatever space “Her Highness” chooses to occupy at the time. We bow to their wishes mostly – after all, they are part of the family. BUT when guests are coming over, we realize they may not appreciate our animals as much as we do, the animals go outside, and we do a thorough cleaning to get rid of any pet dander, hair and odors. When preparing your house for sale, try and get the animal smells and hair out and ensure that they stay out during the entire selling process.
Furnishings
A vacant, staged home will always be the most attractive, but sometimes that is not a possibility. Here again, we are trying to create a blank slate that a perspective buyer could take and envision their belongings and furnishings occupying this space. The objective is to clear out as many big pieces as possible and arrange the remaining furniture to accentuate the openness of the large open spaces. If you don’t have large open spaces, you need to remove as much as you can to make it look like you do. Also, little knick knacks that means so much to you are only clutter to anyone looking at your house, so box them up and put them in the garage or storage – that will help give you a head start on packing for your move.
Clutter
It is truly amazing the amount of stuff that we can accumulate. One of the hardest things to do when moving or selling is deciding what stays and what goes. It’s hard – but necessary to clear out the clutter. What many people do is to rent a storage space for anything that isn’t used every day. After the house is sold, you can either move everything into your new abode – or you may decide to have a massive garage sale!
Emotional
And finally – after you have done all that you can with your belongings, colors, furniture and pets; it’s time to work on you and your frame of mind. I am a firm believer that we attract to ourselves what we think about most. If you are mentally or subconsciously holding onto your home (think of it as this house), it could prevent you from taking the necessary steps that are needed to get the house sold. Envision the house ‘SOLD!” and try to think of this as passing the house on to the next proud owners.
Mental
Preparation
Before you pick up the paintbrush and hammer, the first thing to begin changing is your state of mind. At this point, you should begin thinking in terms of “the house” rather than “my home” this will help get you in the state of mind necessary to do some of the necessary tasks. You’ll have to mentally and emotionally remove yourself, your personality and connection to this house, and move on to the next house in your life, which will become “your new home.” Your job now is to prepare this house – which used to be your home – as a blank slate for the next inhabitants of this house. Buyers need to be able to walk into this house and envision themselves, their children and belongings inhabiting this space. They cannot do this if your personality still permeates the house.
Colors
We as Homo sapiens tend to express ourselves through our music, bumpers stickers and many different avenues – including colors. Colors are very personal and what looks good to one of us may be a total turn-off for others. This is fine in the course of everyday life, but when it comes to whether your house is going to be attractive to a prospective buyer or not, it could be the difference in whether they just do a quick drive-by, or stop and investigate further.
What does this mean? As much as you love it and though you are proud of how it is an expression of your feelings -the fire engine red den may have to go! Unless that is you are marketing to the small select group of folks in your town that have that very same affinity for fire engine red dens.
I’m not sure that there is actually a color called “realtor’s beige”, but that’s what we call it. Beige or shades of neutral colors are non-intrusive to all and leave your walls a blank slate which allows people to imagine what color would look good on that wall.
Exterior colors – once again we are shooting for colors that are attractive to the majority of people – which pretty much eliminates the Reds, Yellows, Purples and other bright colors that you might love but the majority of the population may not.
Let’s Get Started! Let’s Get Started!
With my expertise and market insights, we’ll set the ideal asking price to maximize your sale while avoiding pitfalls. I’d love to start the process and help you get your home priced, listed, and sold for the best possible price.
Contact Me for a free Market Analysis of your home’s value
Or call 541-953-7165 ~ email [email protected]