Make Your Home Irresistible & Marketable to Potential Buyers

Prepping and Staging your home, these are two words you might hear your Real Estate Agent say.... but what do they actually mean?

Your goal, once your house is listed, is to sell your home fast, and for the top dollar amount.You want homebuyers to scurry for their checkbooks.

Here's some tips to accomplish just that.

It's not Your Home anymore...

View your home as a stranger, as it is a product. Let-go of all emotions, Little Timmy's measurements on the closet door, the living room where Cassie took her first steps. Instead look at the deterioration of the closet door and the carpet. Say goodbye to the memories, and hello to the repairs. After all, hopefully one day soon you will be handing over the keys to the new owners.

Start Packing. And begin with personal objects. Photos, family heirlooms, the quilt you hung on the wall because Grandma made it by hand. Buyers want to see clean tabletops, fresh walls, and want to envision their own furnishings.

De-Clutter! This cannot be screamed loud enough! Even if you think the room is clutter free, pack up more, in fact, pack everything you do not need to survive, and put away all those items you do need, neatly into drawers and cabinets. Remove all books from the bookcases, here's a good rule. If you haven't noticed, or touched an item in 3 months- pack it in a box for moving, or decide to donate it. Pack up all knick knacks, including your glass dog collection.  Clean and scour everything- cabinets, counter tops, things you might have never cleaned since you moved in. If you can touch it, or see it- clean it. All this de-cluttering will start your job of packing to move, and when the time comes to get out, you'll be pleased you have a head start. Also, take a picture of each room, what do you notice?  Are your eyes drawn to the figurines on the table tops? The rugs in every corner? Remove it all- re take the picture- you want to showcase the room. A un-cluttered room will appear brighter, and bigger in the listing photographs, and that's what will draw potential buyers in.

Buyers are Snoopers. If a buyer can open it, they will, and they should! When you were house hunting, didn't you want to open the closets? Would you prefer to see a nicely organized space, or a hideaway junk area? Again, the more organized it is, the better the buyer will like it, and the larger it will appear. So line up the shoes, turn coffee cups so that the handles are all facing the same way, invest in plastic stacking boxes for the closets. And make sure lightbulbs are new, bright, and dust free.

Oh...the garage! You want your garage or storage space to look large, clean, dust free, and yet where else would you put all those items you are currently packing away to de-clutter? While the penny-pincher in you is going to balk at the suggestion- get a storage facility to house your items. It may cost more than stowing your stuff away for free in your garage, but-it just may help you find a buyer sooner, and that is the goal.  So make it look neat, stack boxes, label them, mop the floors, and treat your garage like it was just another interior room of the house.

Remove and Replace those Items you love.... Do you hate to part with the curtains that match your comforter? Is the lighting fixture in the dining room a family jewel? Then pack it up, before you list your home, and replace it with something nice, that will sell with the house. Once a buyer sees it fixed to your house, they will assume it will go with the home, and not move out with the home owner...so make the necessary changes ahead of time.

Fix those Minor Repairs. If you see it- the potential buyer sees it- so get out the spackle, touch up the paint, and tighten those leaky faucets. Oil squeaky anythings, replace all the lightbulbs (the brighter the better), think your own bedspread is faded? Replace that too! Looks are everything in the selling game! Toss the fake flowers- place a few vases of sweet smelling, bright flowers around the house, just not too many.... You don't want to cause an allergy attack of a buyer, but you do want the house to smell neutral, and not like last nights lasagna, or those moth balls you just tossed out. YES! Toss out all the moth balls! Have personality colored walls? Go neutral. Even though every home show on TV these days paints rooms red, orange, and green- they are being painted to suit the owners personalities, you need to paint your rooms to attract any buyer- that means, whites and tans, let the new buyer decide if they want a red bedroom or a blue den.

Sparkle and Shine! Wash the windows, inside and out.  Remember- you want everything as bright as possible. Pressure clean the concrete and sidewalks. Re-caulk tubs, showers, and sinks. Polish, polish, polish! Clean out the refrigerator. Vacuum every other day- you want to show off those vacuum lines, and if your carpet is older, get it professionally steam cleaned.  If the carpet has an odor, make the cleaner aware so he can sanitize and freshen the smell of the carpet, especially if there are pets in the home.  Wax floors, dust everything, even those fan blades, after all, you wouldn't want a glob of dust falling from the fan and landing on a potential buyer! Hang up those special occasion towels, keep a full roll of toilet tissue on the roller, you want everything to look as new as possible. Bathroom towels look great with ribbons and bows- think the Ritz line of hotels- that is the look you want for the bathrooms. Fresh potpourri always helps, and those scented, blue toilet ducks are a plus, but keep the toilet lids closed. They are bad for Fido if he has a habit of drinking the toilet water.

Now get some fresh air. But no resting allowed! It's curb-appeal time. Keep the sidewalks clean and clear. Mow the lawn, and edge. Paint faded window trim, plant yellow flowers- yellow, more specifically the Goldenrod color attracts buyers and the human eye- it has been scientifically proven! Trim the bushes, and put up new house numbers. Got yard gnomes, or porcelain animals jumping through the yard?  Not anymore more- pack 'em up!

Now tour your home- as a stranger!

Does it look bright, airy, and inviting?  Does it look like no one lives there and it is a model home? Walk from room to room, open closets, cabinets, inspect the showers, does it smell clean and fresh?  (Not like bleach and cleaners..) Do you see the vacuum lines? Does it feel like a team of people just tidied- up the house just for you to stay in? Do you envy the owner?

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have just achieved a Staged & Prepped Home ready to Sell!

Now some little things..

Pets- you can have them, but you do not want the potential buyer to KNOW they exist. Put away the food and water dish, get rid of any pet odors, and store the dog bed under your bed, except when Fido needs it. Now is a good time for Fido to vacation with a loved one.

Dim Rooms- Are a No-No. Add lamps, add brighter light bulbs, open every curtain in the entire house. Stop thinking about keeping the A/C bill down, and pack away the penny-pincher, it's time to suck it up for the sake of selling!

Busy Wallpaper- a major problem, just like an all pink room. Think Neutral, and get rid of the wallpaper- it will turn away even a wall paper lover. Wall Paper is like wine- everyone has their favorite kind, and your choice probably won't be the buyers. For some reason, people have a hard time dealing with the thought of having to tear down wallpaper.

Gutters- this is not a place for a garden to grow! Just clean them out- enough said.

Sellers who hang around- go for a walk before the agent arrives, you don't want the buyer to associate your home with any person other than themselves.

A Vacant House will sell the fastest- so if you need to stay in yours- make it as vacant as possible- store extra furniture- rule of thumb- no more than 3 furnishings and 3 decorations per room. And vacant homes have no people.

GOOD LUCK!