When you're selling your house, it can be tempting to hope that buyers will see past the surface to the beautiful bone structure of your abode and realize what a lovely life they could make in it.
But the truth is that most homes could use a little bit of a facelift before you invite people to walk through and hope they'll make an offer on it.
So, what do you need to do?
To get your house into perfect shape and keep it that way throughout all the showings and events, here's a rundown of the steps to make and keep your house not only picture-perfect -- but open-house perfect.
Getting Started
- Start by walking through each room and asking yourself what items you haven't used lately or that you can do without for a while. Minimizing the stuff in your house will make it much easier to keep everything clean throughout the selling process.
- Don't forget about the furniture! Removing furniture from a room can make it look more spacious if you have too many pieces. If you don't want to get rid of anything, rent a storage unit where you can stash your larger items until you're finished showing your house.
- Declutter! Visitors should be able to walk around everything without bumping into anything else.
- You'll want to pack up and stash any books, clothes, appliances, equipment, or other things that you don't need or want immediately (or, realistically, for the next couple of months). It's fine to keep a few back -- nobody lives in a completely empty house -- but remember that less is more and do your best to streamline to less. You want the buyers to look around and be able to envision their stuff in your house.
Some of the best advice I can give, is anything that you WILL NOT leave with the house that would normally stay... go ahead and get it out now! Things like a sentimental light fixture, all your matching curtains and rods, an attached built-in piece of furniture, a portable building, etc. If it is not there during showings, buyers will never have the opportunity to see it to begin with, and it will never become a stress point for negotiations in the future.
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Details, Details, Details
- Look at your walls and ask yourself if you need to add or remove anything. One strong piece of artwork in each room is a good goal -- two if the room is really big.
- Where you aren't replacing art, repair any holes in the walls and touch up paint over them. In fact, if you're going to give any rooms in your house a coat of paint, now is a great time to do that -- before the real deep cleaning starts.
- Add a houseplant or two. Assess your houseplant situation: How many do you have, and do you need to remove or add any? Like artwork, no more than one or two plants per room is probably a good balance.
- Assess the lighting in your house. Are there dark areas in certain rooms? A well-placed floor or table lamp or two can take any room from gloomy to soft and relaxing, so think about where you could use a little light help and add it. Replace any bulbs needed.
- Think about how your house (and each room) smells as you walk through it. If you have pets and your nose might be sensitized to odors, then ask a friend to give you an honest opinion about how odiferous the place is.
Once you've tackled these general tasks, it's time to get down to nitty gritty dirt in each room and outside your house. Get ready!
The Kitchen
If you haven't already decluttered the kitchen, start with the cabinets and work your way down. Box up and store any dishes and kitchen appliances that you don't need accessible -- you may be in for a few weeks of boring dinners or take-out, but it's all in the name of making your house staged worthy. Remove everything from your countertops and deep clean them, making sure you scrub the backsplash and pay attention to any tile grout. (You may want to steam clean or bleach grout if you have tile countertops or floors that have turned dingy over the years). Replace any worn burner pans on your stove and pack up any personal items you've secured to your fridge door with tape or a magnet, like kids' drawings or phone number lists to bring out again later in the new home.
Organize your pantry, your cabinets and other kitchen storage spaces, which should be quite a bit easier to do with fewer items to organize.
Spend some time deep cleaning all of your appliances -- oven, stove, fridge, microwave.
The Living Room
Clearing off surfaces is going to be the first order of business in the living room.
After you've cleared coffee tables and bookshelves of any mementoes or unnecessary items, clean them and then do your best to keep those surfaces clean and dust-free. Throw pillows or a throw blanket can add back a pop of color if needed. Make sure any fireplaces or wood stoves are in good working order and cleaned out. Leave items that aren't too personalized, and make sure that mantles aren't overly crowded.
Kids' toys can be one of the biggest contributors to a messy living room, so confine them to bedrooms or invest in a toy chest or bin where you can quickly toss them and keep them out of the way.
The Bedrooms
Do you have a "special occasion" bedding set that doesn't get used very often? If so, now's the time to haul it out and put it on the bed, to make sure that your nicest bedding set is on display.
Clear off all the surfaces in your bedrooms of all of the day-to-day products and personal items -- bedside tables, dressers, and any other surfaces -- and dust them thoroughly.
One tip: Don't just shove everything in your closets. Buyers look in there, too!
The Bathrooms
Obviously, one still has to live and use items daily while your house is on the market, and most of our personal things are found in the bathrooms. One thing to think about, is every morning when you are done getting ready, is to place those personal items inside a cabinet or drawer out of sight. We all like our daily regimen sitting out so it's convenient for us, but tucking everything away each day before showings will not only keep bathrooms looking tidy, but will also keep your most intimate of products private.
Always, always, always, keep any prescriptions, jewelry, cash, or other expensive or potentially harmful items out of sight and preferably locked up.
Exterior Of The Home
After picking up limbs or trash, repairing needed issues, and cleaning outside of the home, the important thing to continue for all showings, is keeping the yard maintained and allowing that curb appeal to stay top notch. You never want buyers to have to wade through knee high grass to get into the house. Also, when Spring hits, you may want to do a walk around looking for wasp nests and any other critters that have chosen your home... as their home. No buyer wants to get stung at their potential new perfect property.
Pools should be clean and not green, fresh mulch in flower beds is a good idea, and make sure any yard decor is appropriate for the season. If it's July, it's probably time to go ahead and take down the giant blown up Santa.
Melissa Summers
Hi there! I am the Broker & Owner of Country Roots Realty, and I am here to help sellers or buyers with all their real estate needs here in the heart of the Pineywoods of East Texas.
