If you're reading this now, that means you have read my Part I of this post - Clean Your Home, and you now have a clean home. Congratulations! It's usually right around now, after most folks have done a super-cleaning of their home that they remark to me thusly:
"Jeff, my home looks so bright and clean, I almost feel like I don't want to move!" *giggle*
Of course you want to move. What you've actually just said to me is that you feel like someone else would be willing to buy your home. If you, my client, can already see the difference, so too shall a new purchaser.
Client: "So I'm all done, right Jeff? I can eat off my floors! My baseboards are clean! When can we have people start coming?!? I want them to see what we've done!"
Jeff: "You're not ready yet. We need to take you out of your house."
DE-CLUTTER
You've seen the shows on T.V. You've read the magazines. You know what you're supposed to do. Yet there are boxes on top of your refrigerator. There are nine appliances on top of your kitchen counter-tops, of which, five you never use, and one isn't even yours. There are pictures of people on pieces of furniture scattered about that you don't even know anymore. We need to do something about this.
We need to make your house (It is in fact your house, as a house is an asset; it's something you sell, to make money. A home is someplace you live, and you don't 'live' here anymore.) someone else's home. To do that, we need to take you out of your house.
I feel a list coming on...
Take out all the pictures of people. Take them away from walls, from bookshelves, from tables. People disagree widely on whether this makes sense to do, but I'm firmly in the camp that it does. There are, truth be told, a certain number of personal photos that can be left in a home while still remaining tasteful, so that it doesn't feel like it's overwhelming a purchaser. However, you as the homeowner/seller, will have a tough time objectively telling where that line is. Thus, I recommend removing them all, so as not to put off a purchaser.
Put away all the mail in a place it can't be seen. The buyer needs to be left to imagine the house as their home. It seems silly, but seeing your bills in their home is psychologically disturbing. Not only are they not trying to think about bills right now, they aren't trying to think about you, either.
Clear every horizontal surface of everything. This is a big one, and might be the most time consuming, but it's important. Unless you really have an eye for style, everything you have on top of your tables, bookshelves, and refrigerator is junk. It's not junk to you, but it is junk to your Danube. Empty is spacious. They Danube needs to imagine where their junk is going to go. Your junk is in the way of their junk.
Rent a Storage space. This one really trips up most sellers. They just don't want to spend a couple hundred dollars to have a place to get their stuff out of the way. It doesn't seem cost effective. Please believe it is. I go into more homes in a weekend than you've probably been inside of in your life. At home with no trappings of everyday lifeshows better than a home that's being lived in 100% of the time. If you don't think that translates into dollars, you're dead wrong. Facts are facts, you have too much stuff. It's likely that this is one of the reasons you're moving. How is your home going to look appealing when it's packed to the rafters? To get ideas on how much stuff to remove, go visit a new home community, and look at a model home. The reason they look so pretty is because a professional stager sets up the home to look beautiful. Notice how there aren't 5 end tables in the living room, or stuff pouring out of the closets when you open the doors?
You may have kids. With kids comes a great deal of stuff. I have kids. They have a great deal of stuff. I'm not selling my house. You are. Thus, you need to get rid of agreat deal of stuff. The challenge here is to get the stuff out of the field of vision, without getting it to a Storage locker. The diaper genie isn't going to do you much good at mile and a quarter away. Here comes, then, a balancing act with having kids, and the next point to be made ...
Your closets need to be emptied. I know, this is another really tough one. Where are you supposed to put all this ... stuff? Leave the clothes. Leave the shoes. Leave the linens in their closets, and the brooms and their closets. People lose sight of what a closet is supposed to be for. It's a convenient space to put things you use regularly so they're out of sight. A closet is not a landfill. You're going to need the space in your closets for diaper genies and high chairs, if number 5, above, applies toyou. If you don't have kids, please empty your closets just the same, under the auspice that people want to be able to see how their junk will go in their closets, and it's difficult to see that with all your junk in there.
You may have a pet. Pets are awesome. I'm a dog person myself, but I love all animals. However, as they relate to the showing of property, I don't like them. They make noise. They smell. They have, in some Cases, as much 'stuff' as you have. It's everywhere, in fact. It's important, with respect to 'Fluffy', as I said in a previous post, assume your buyer is scared to death of 'Fluffy' (your dog, cat, bird, ocelot, raccoon, goldfish, lizard, bat, wolverine, whatever) but that they're violently allergic, too. You need to make sure 'Fluffy' isn't home when you're house is being shown, to the greatest extend you can. You need to make sure that, to the extent you can, 'Fluffy's' bowl, cage, toys, food, and any other indicia of 'Fluffy's' existence are out of sight for your purchaser.
Yes, your garage is part of your house. Yes, you need to declutter it too. Move everything you're not using to storage.
Yes, your workshop is part of your house. You might need to go for just a little while without every tool you own. Hedge on the side of removing everything you can, as the emptier, the better.
BookCases are supposed to hold books. You, however, are not a library. If your bookshelves are full, take half the books out, and put them in your storage locker. Your bookshelf may have photos on it as well. Remove them all.
Empty your pantry, if you have one. Not empty empty, but take everything that you aren't going to eat for the next week or two to a food bank. Pantry space is especially important to purchasers. Create space, so they can see where their food will go. Further, spend a minute organizing the pantry. You'd think this doesn't make a difference, right? Just about all buyers will look in the pantry. When they pantry is well organized, ALL buyers comment on it. It's a good comment. You should be shooting for those whenever you can get them, and here's a cheap and easy way.
Your bathroom should have every product that you don't use regularly removed from it. Those that you do use regularly should be out of sight. Yes, put your toothbrush, tooth paste, brush or comb, shampoo and body wash away. Get in the habit. They're all in coloredtubes and bottles, and they're all distracting. If you don't have a vanity or cabinet in your bathroom into which to put the items, buy a small container, and conceal it in the bathroom, or get used to putting it in the linen closet when not in use.
Most rooms have a piece (or five) of furniture in it that isn't used regularly, or isn't ' bringing anything to the room '. Maybe it's an end table that makes it hard to move around the room. Maybe it's a dresser in the bedroom that makes it hard to open the door all the way. Maybe it's a lime green sofa in a room full of furniture that it doesn't match. These things really should go.
That should get you started. Again, it's not a comprehensive list. But just like the epiphany you had when you cleaned your home for my instructions, you'reabout to have another. By the time you're done doing what I've suggested here, you are really going to wonder why you're moving. That's a good thing. Not because you're not going to move, but because you're beginning to see things from the perspective of a purchaser. You must get to this point, as you stand to make a lot more money when you do.
