Selling Your Home in Hoover Alabama - Clean, Clean, Clean

Last month I showed a house to some clients who were looking to Buy a Home in Hoover Alabama. The house had a good floor plan, good colors, and a great backyard, but it was filthy. Dirt on the baseboards, dirty oven, dirty windows, mildew in the shower (the grout needed to be redone) - and yes the lady was living there with her 2 small children. The house had been on the market for 6 months and had just been "reduced". This is a common sight in this business.

When getting your house ready to sell a home, you have got to clean like you have never cleaned before. If you are not physically able, or just plain don't want to, then hire someone. I don't mean the dust it and wipe it kind of clean, I mean the scrub down to the bone kind of clean. Clean like a fiend. Scrub all the fingerprints off the switch plates and walls, scrub bathrooms ‘till they shine. If the tile is cracked and the grout won't come clean, have the bathroom fixed by a professional. No one wants to get in someone else's dirt and grime. The Kitchen - same thing. Look at the air filter on the fan on the stove and the oven. Clean cabinets, the refrigerator and that means even the junk drawer. You should be able to eat off the kitchen floor and the bathroom floor.

You'll need to banish suspect smells as well; you don't want your house to become known in real-estate circles as "the cat pee place." If your pets have had one too many accidents, you may need to replace the affected carpet and padding and have the underlying floor sealed. I got out of a Sales Contract years ago because the woman had cats with "kidney issues". When I first looked at the house, the candles were burning and I didn't notice it but every time I went back that smell was there. I even had a friend come with me to make sure it wasn't my imagination. If you're not sure how your place smells, get your least tactful friend to take a few whiffs and tell you the honest truth.

If you'd like additional information about selling a home in Hoover, Alabama or the Greater Birmingham Area, I'd love to talk to you, just contact me at www.ToniBird.com