Tips to Spruce Up for the Sale

Making the decision to relocate, finding a new house, and researching schools is absolutely draining. Then, once you’ve committed to making the changes and following through, there is still a lot to do; for example, ensuring that your house is in shape to start showing. On top of everything else, cleaning up your home and getting ready to sell can be incredibly stressful. However, with these five tips, you can reduce seller’s anxiety, and make showing and selling you home significantly less nerve-wracking.

1. Make a Schedule: In order to ensure that you are on track in the selling process, you’ve got to have a schedule. Briefly going over the paperwork from your relator can help with financial dates, and conversing with a spouse to agree on hard dates can help too. By marking important dates on a calendar or elsewhere, you can easily check to see how much you’ve got done, and what’s next. This will help de-clutter your mind, and keep you focused on the big picture. Additionally, if you’ve got children, you can delegate tasks to them with rewards like a healthy snack, or time watching television.
2.  Stick to it: We mean it! It can be so easy to skip day on those tasks we’re not terribly fond of, but it adds up! As important as it is to make a schedule, it is even more important to make sure that you commit and follow through. If possible, try to set aside some time – the same time ideally – every day to going down your to-do list and knocking things out one by one. Being able to cross things off does wonders for the mind. Also, think about setting daily reminders through your smart phone or computer if you’re having trouble. The reminder can get you in the rhythm, and the progress will keep you going.
3. Remove clutter: Getting rid of odds and ends and knick-knacks can be difficult. Box up extra electronic cables, set moving materials aside, put away the vacuum, and make sure there’s nothing to trip over on the floor. While it may be convenient to have six pairs of shows in the closet, try to keep it down to two; the same goes for clothes and jackets. An over abundance of “stuff” can make your home look smaller than it is, which is just the opposite effect that you are going for!
4. Clean up outside: As they say, first impressions are everything, and there’s a word for it in real estate, “curb appeal.” This means that from the moment a prospective buyer pulls up outside your home, they are making judgments. It may not be fair, but it’s the truth! Make sure that your trees, bushes, and brush are appropriately trimmed. If you can’t stand to do yard work, consider hiring professional landscapers. They are fairly inexpensive and will do a top notch job. After everything is cleaned up, consider adding flowers, walkway lights, or other exterior decorations to make your home more welcoming.
5. Stage your home: The best way to think about staging is that you’ve got to be ready to present and show at a moment’s notice. This means organizing books still in the home (and getting rid of the extra piles), keeping dishes out of the sink, and keeping clothes tidied up. Furthermore, you may love the way that your souvenirs from Disney, Paris, and the ball game come together on the mantel. Unfortunately, you’ve got to look at things objectively and remove those items.  You may also want to remove extra seating or large furniture that makes your house feel crowded.  Your goal as a seller is to create the feeling that a buyer would want to live there, and this means tastefully making your home a blank slate.