How to Prep for Listing Your Family Home
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
How to
Prep for Listing Your Family Home
Are you getting ready to sell your home but
staring with despair at your linen closets, multiple junk drawers (we all have
them), and overstuffed closets? You’re not alone. Preparing a house to sell is
one of the most stressful parts of moving. At least when you’re house hunting,
you have the sense of excitement that comes from finding the perfect home that
offers the quality of life that you want.
Before you start pulling your hair out or just
throwing everything in boxes without rhyme or reason, read this guide from real
estate pro Paul Ross that will help you have a
less stressful home sale preparation.
Decluttering: A Must Do
When you’re moving out of one home and into
another, it signifies a new phase in your life. That means you should get rid
of the things from your “previous” life that you don’t want to bring into your
new one.
If you have clothes that no longer fit or that you haven’t
worn in years, there are plenty of people out there who could use the clothes you’re not
wearing. And the same thing goes for hobbies you don’t participate in anymore
or old paintings by your kids. Can’t
bring yourself to throw out all the artwork? Go to an office supply store or an
art store and buy an artist-sized expandable portfolio. They look like the ones
you’d use for school, but bigger.
Buy one for each child (or grandchild). Only
keep what you can fit in those portfolio folders. Now their precious works of
art will be organized, and as a bonus, the plastic dividers keep them
protected!
If you still need help cutting down on stuff,
find a professional organizer in your area. You can hire them for a
consultation, or just for an hour or two, and create a strategy you can then
use on your own. These pros do charge $50 - $90 per hour, so make sure
you can afford their services.
Play Neighborhood Detective
Find another house for sale in your
neighborhood or general area. Find out when they’re holding their open house,
and then make a plan to attend. That way you can head over and check out how
the owners have staged and depersonalized their home to make it more attractive
to buyers. This open house snooping, if you will,
gives you ideas and inspiration for staging and depersonalizing your own home.
If you don’t have time to go in person or the
houses you visited were empty, you can always do a bit of online reconnaissance
with other homes in your area. Online listing sites will show you what those
houses are going for in your area and give you an idea what you can list your home for
when you’re ready. Their photos can also give you inspiration on how to stage
your home and how to depersonalize it.
Staging and Depersonalizing: Your
Turn!
Now that you’ve explored and have inspiration
from surrounding homes, it’s your turn to get your house show-ready. The first
thing you should do is take down all the art and photos from the walls. Does
this make things a little drab? Sure, but buyers need to be able to imagine their
items in your home when they visit. If you have built-in storage, pack that up
next. Put the boxes in the garage or somewhere else out of sight.
Once your walls are bare, you can assess the
shape of them. Is the paint discolored, or do you have decades’ old wallpaper
that’s practically melted into the sheet rock? Rather than break out the paint
cans and rollers, opt for wallpaper with water-activated
adhesive. You can apply it quickly to cover damage and
make your spaces look brand new, and it can be removed in case it’s not what a
home shopper envisions once they make your home their own.
Finally, consider having a stager come into your home and
place accessories or even new pieces of furniture in the right locations. If
possible, have them take pictures on the same day as or right before you host
your open house. That way you won’t have to pay for the staging service twice!
In the majority of cases, whatever you spend
on market prep helps you get a higher offer price and helps your home sell
faster. Those are two things everyone wants!
SOURCE: Mark Simons / LOCALIGRAF
