I’m asked frequently by sellers what they should do to get their home ready for the market and as part of my team’s service we provide professional staging advice. Getting your home market ready doesn’t mean you have to turn your home into something it isn’t, staging is a tool we use to make your home show at it’s best. Here are the top 10 things that we tell my clients.
1. Box up those personal items. You need to de-personalize your space so that perspective buyers can imagine the property with their personal items in it.
2. Clean out those closets! Storage is such a common request with buyers that you want to make sure these areas are viewable. If they are packed full of your items it may be hard to appreciate the space.
3. Get rid of the clutter. It helps for perspective buyers to be able to move freely through the house and to be able to see all the great space your house has. It may seem like a painful idea but you’re getting ready to move anyways, it’ll help you on moving day!
4. Give each room a purpose. Not only are you going to want to make sure that there is plenty of room to move, you want to make sure that each of your rooms has a purpose. If it’s a bedroom, make sure it’s set up as a bedroom.
5. Clean or get the cleaning person in. If there was ever a time to make your house sparkle this is it. Wash the windows (inside and out), vacuum the carpet (daily), and get rid of those cobwebs.
6. Paint. So you’ve tried to clean the walls and that didn’t work or somewhere along the line you thought fuchsia was a good colour for the living room, now is the time to paint in a neutral colour. You really don’t want people to remember your house as home to the child who likes to draw on the walls!
7. Make minor repairs. Major renovations are for buyers not sellers but if there is a leaky faucet fix it, if there’s a hole in the wall patch it, if there’s a burned out light bulb replace it. All of these things are distractions for perspective buyers.
8. First impressions really do matter. Make sure the outside of your property looks great. Mow the lawn, wash the front door, and plant some flowers.
9. Get rid of those smells. You don’t want people running out of the house because they can’t stand the smell of the litter box or last night’s dinner as much as you don’t want people running out of the house because the smell of the flowers you bought to mask those smells gave them a migraine. Air your house out often and use subtle air fresheners.
10. It’s not your home anymore. You need to be able to think of your home objectively and get rid of the emotions. Your home is a good that you need to sell and you’re getting ready to move into your next home anyways!