Home Sellers, here are a few home selling tips for dressing the inside of your home to sell.
For home selling tips on the outside, be sure to read, Dress Your Home to Sell-Outside Home Seller Tips.
In today's real estate market it is important for your home or condo to "shine."
It doesn't matter if your house or condo is for sale in Sacramento, Elk Grove, Fair Oaks, Carmichael, Folsom, Wilton, Rancho Cordova, Rancho Murieta, Orangevale, Natomas, Greenhaven, Roseville, Rocklin, Lincoln, Granite Bay, Auburn, El Dorado Hills in CA or anywhere else for that matter.
The first step is to declutter your home. It is not unusual to have accumulated knick knacks over the years or have family photos lining the walls.
Those are things that individualize our houses and make it home. But when you are trying to sell your house, those things need to be packed away. This is a time to think positive that you are selling and moving. So, with that mind start packing away all those priceless breakable items. Make sure that the walls are clean and fresh with no personal items.
While packing, it's important to sift through items that have been taking up room in your closets, drawers and cabinets. Only keep your this season's clothing and pack away or give away the rest. Remember, that it is important to have your closet not look cluttered and small. Home buyers will get an impression that there is not enough room if everything is jammed in.
Get different colored bags
In order to keep yourself in a productive mood, put those donation bags into your car and drop off bags. This will give you a sense of accomplishment and spur you on to get even more accomplished.
Box items that are decorations, dishes used for entertaining, seasonal clothing, knick knacks, family photos, book collection etc. Anything that you personally will NOT need to use while selling your home should be packed away. Mark your boxes clearly for your move to your new home.
It's important to always keep in mind that the home buyer see your house, not your things.
If a piece of furniture is blocking a window, doorway or closet remove the furniture. Many times rooms are over crowded with furniture. Less is more. Set aside a place in the garage or better yet rent a pod or storage facility to store boxes and furniture.
Yes, I know it is a pain. I am the first to agree with you but if you want to sell and sell for the most amount of money in the least amount of time, this process is essential. Otherwise, the process will drag on longer and longer until you get with the program. Home buyers tend to offer less to Sellers whose homes are cluttered or look outdated.
Paint and replacing hardware are two of the cheapest ways to refresh your home and give it a more up-to-date look along with replacing out-dated fixtures.
Obviously, make sure that you have hired a full time professional Realtor to get your house sold. Google the Realtor and see if they have a good Internet presence. The better Internet presence the more your house will be seen on the Internet. Which means, if priced correctly and if your home "shines," then an offer will not be far behind.
Staging your house for sale is a sure fire winner for success. If you are interested in hiring a professional stager, I'd be more than happy to refer you to one. If it's merely a matter of helping to use the items that you currently have, no problem. There are different venues to Staging a house for sale.
Together with your Realtor, walk the around the house, go room to room and see if there is anything more that needs to be done. Look with home buyer eyes and you'll see a lot better.
Have carpets professionally cleaned when you are ready to welcome home buyers.
Good Luck!
Tip: Remember to leave the house when the home buyer comes. Home Buyers do not feel comfortable with Sellers in the house.
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Hi Gena, A great piece and one that we can share with our clients. As I was reading this, something occurred to me and I thought I would share it with you.
As REALTORS we see first hand the way people live perhaps in ways that no one else does. We see the clutter, the collections of useless junk ( true of all of us, regrettably) and over and over we preach how it should be and try to help the consumer optimize the impression of the home. Dirt and dust finds it's refuge in the clutter.
What seems to be lacking in our lifestyles today in general is that from very a early age, there is no one that teaches young adults how to optimize their living quarters or their life experience with possessions. That simplicity of design and the avoidance of useless stuff ( junk) actually improves our environment and the avoidance of clutter actually helps with clear thinking and enjoying life to its fullest.
Perhaps this re-defining of our culture needs to be a requisite of our education system for the young as they progress to adults. We shop poorly, we are driven by fad,we make poor choices in color and design and we can not manage the superfluent overabundance of junk.
Then we clear it, box it and store it, unpack it and it starts all over again with the belief that it had value in the first place. Which in most cases it qualifies as junk and usually ends in landfill.
This idea could use some exploring but it may be a useful post at some point.
Great tips, I couldn't agree more.
Gena,
Great post. I have bookmarked it as a reference to add ideas to my listing presentation and sellers brochure. I know you won't mind that I'm assimilating your ideas into my tools to help sellers. The only thing missing from this post is the gold star that I'm sure someone will give you when it is featured! :)
Gena, this is a wonderful post. I will be using it with my clients. Infact, I'm emailing it as soon as I finish this comment. That's a great compliment but you deserve many. Thank you also for your vote in the contest. I appreicate it! :)
William, I think you have a very good point. However, something tells me that this comes with age...I mean as I get older I realize I don't HAVE to have so many things and want to cut down and get rid of things...I wonder if a study were done if it would be a matter of age? Something to think about...
Amie, glad you found it agreeable.
Jan, oh I never mind...it's the best form of flattery. Thank you.
Ricki, glad to be of help to your clients. You are so very welcome and deserving.
Fabulous advice my friend. If all Realtors could really get with a professional stager, (one that offers a multitude of options for them), they would surely be able to turn this market around and prepare homes for sale. Isn't that what we all want... a sale? All the best to you. I hope you are feeling better and I WILL be talking to you soon;)
Lori, glad to have you pop on over...always a pleasure to hear from one of the TOP home stagers. Yes, you are absolutely right...there is no doubt that home staged properly will sell quicker and for more than a home that is vacant and/or not prepared and dressed for successs.
Glad to hear that your business is taking off in a most successful way and looking forward to talking with you when you have time.
Gena,
Great blog on the preparation of the home before selling. I don't know how many times I have seen realtor's put listings up on the internet that shouldn't be. They are really doing a disservice to their clients by not helping them properly prepare their homes for the market. I truly agree that a house needs to be ready before it goes on the market. A lot of times the homeowner does not have the time to prepare their home because of their demanding work schedule. This is where a stager can be of service to handle the extra work load at home that perhaps a homeowner has no time for. (Painting, packing, de-cluttering, decorating, yard clean-up etc.) It is definitely worth the investment to bring in a stager to have the house in its best possible condition prior to taking the marketing pictures and prior to putting it on the market. Gena, this is great advise for all homeowners and realtor's, thank you for spreading the word.