Preparing Your Home for Sale, and Showing It

First Impressions are Lasting Impressions.

The exterior of your home often determines how buyers will view the interior, so:

Focus on the Positive.

Try to see your home with a fresh perspective and arrange each room to bring out its best attributes, including:

Clean windows and floors
Repair all paint and wallpaper
Repair worn woodwork
Steam clean carpeting or replace it, if necessary
Repair loose knobs, sticking doors and windows, warped cabinet drawers, broken light switches and other minor flaws
Check and repair caulking in bathtubs and showers
Open draperies and curtains to let the light in
Remove all unnecessary clutter from your attic, basement and closets to better display spacious rooms
Remove excess furniture
Keep fresh, clean towels in the bathroom
Use candles or air fresheners

Put Your Home in the best possible light.

Strategically lighting your home, even during daytime showings, can create a cozy mood and highlight positive attributes of each room, so:

Avoid the use of overhead lighting that makes rooms look washed out and lifeless.
Be creative and arrange lamps to help smaller rooms seem larger, and large rooms seem more intimate.
Use lighting to highlight the “living areas” of your home, such as a pair of chairs near a fireplace, or a table in a breakfast area.

Inside:

Clear all unnecessary objects from furniture throughout the house. Keep decorative objects on the furniture restricted to groups of 1, 3, or 5 items.
Clear all unnecessary objects from the kitchen countertops. If it hasn’t been used for three months…put it away!
Clear refrigerator fronts of messages, pictures, etc. (A sparse kitchen helps buyers mentally move their own things into your kitchen.)
In the bathroom, remove any unnecessary items from countertops, tubs, shower stalls and commode tops. Keep only your most needed cosmetics, brushes, perfumes, etc., in one small group on the counter. Coordinate towels to one or two colors only.
Rearrange or remove some of the furniture if necessary. As owners, many times we have too much furniture in a room. This is wonderful for our personal enjoyment, but when it comes to selling, we need to thin out as much as possible to make rooms appear larger.
Take down or rearrange certain pictures or object on walls.
Paint any room needing paint, clean carpets or drapes that need it, clean windows.
Leave on certain lights during the day. During “showings” turn on all lights and lamps.
Have stereo FM on during the day for all viewings.

Outside:

Trim landscaping to reveal architectural detail (bottom of windows, etc.).
Go around the perimeter of the house and move all garbage cans, discarded wood scraps, extra building materials, etc., into the garage.
Check gutters and/or roof for dry rot. Make sure they are swept and cleaned.
Look at all plants…prune bushes and trees.
Clear patios or decks of all small items, such as small planters, flower pots, charcoal, barbecues, toys, etc.
Check paint condition of the house-especially the front door and trim.