I was thinking the other night of ideas for my next post.  I came up with my inspiration from my husband.  He suggested that I write about preparing your garage when selling your property.

As a car enthusiast, to him the garage is the most important room in the house (next to the kitchen - he loves to cook).  When we were looking for our home, he was most interested in checking out the garage.  At open houses, he would take one look at the garage and then quickly go through the rest of the house and announce that he didn't like that one.  There were some homes that I had to agree with him on; however, there were others that I thought were fantastic.

Finally, after a lot of teeth pulling, I got him to put into words what it was that he didn't like about them.  In a lot of cases, it was the garage.  Can you believe it?  If the garage was being used as a storage room, he was put right off.  He couldn't, as many buyers can't, visualize what he could do with the garage.  He is one of those people that have to have a place for everything and everything in its place.  I keep telling him that he should take the training and become either a Home Stager or a Professional Organizer.  I think he would be great at both of them.  Hopefully, one day he will join me and become a Stager.  Anyway, back to the purpose of my blog - garages.

Here are a few tips for home sellers:

• Try not to use the garage as a storage facility.  It at all possible, rent a storage unit on a short-term basis to keep all of your unneeded belongings.  Your home stager will love you for that too.  He or she will be able to use the unit for other items in your home that should be packed away.
• If you have a double car garage, a portion of it could be set up as a workshop - unless you are fortunate enough to have a separate workshop in your home.  It doesn't have to be anything elaborate.  Even a set of saw horses underneath a piece of 3/4 inch plywood will serve as a good work area.
• Good lighting is important in the garage, especially if you have a workshop in there.  Buy a three pronged fluorescent light fixture, hang it from chains and plug it into the ceiling receptacle socket.  You can remove it, if you like, when you move and replace it with a standard light bulb (as long as you don't include it in your agreement with the purchaser).
• A pegboard comes in handy on the wall to hang up all of your gardening and workshop tools.  It will keep everything more organized and much tidier looking.
• The floor of the garage should be clean.  If there are oil stains on the floor, remove them as best as possible with a TSP solution.  If you are feeling really energetic, roll a concrete sealer onto the floor, followed by a primer and a top coat.  I know that sounds like a lot of work.  If other areas of your home are in more need of repair, then maybe you should forego this and just make sure that the garage floor is swept.

All of these things will help make your home more attractive to potential buyers.  Believe it or not, there are people out there that put a lot of emphasis on the garage when they are house hunting.  I don't think my husband is the only one.

By the way, as I'm writing this, hubby is busy outside vacuuming the garage - goof grief!

Dezigner Digz is a home staging and interior decorating company located in Burlington, Ontario and servicing Ancaster, Hamilton, Aldershot, Burlington, Waterdown, Stoney Creek, Bronte, Oakville, Milton and surrounding areas.  The owner, Charlene Storozuk, is a member of the Real Estate Staging Association and is the founder and current President of the Halton & Hamilton-Wentworth Real Estate Staging Association.  For more information about us, visit our website at www.dezignerdigz.com