De-cluttering is such a buzz-but how can it help me sell my home?

De-cluttering goes a long way to selling quicker and for top dollar.  It’s this month’s focus as one of the top ten selling tips.

De-cluttering and staging a home are crucial to success in today’s market.  Buyers need to ‘visualize’ themselves and their possessions in the midst of your belongings.  Inevitably their first impression is the one that sways their decision to make an offer.  How can they possibly see themselves as having enough storage space if they can’t get past the visual noise of stuffed cupboards, overflowing drawers and claustrophobic closets, all dead giveaways of the present family’s torment?

When you're ready to place your home on the market, start by packing personal belongings into a self-storage container.  They can be delivered directly to your driveway so loading can start immediately eliminating the need for extra packing and unpacking.  To simplify packing create 3 piles; packing, donating and tossing.  Once you’ve decided where the items are to go, you have ultimately created less packing to take along with you to your new home and saved a great deal of money for storage as well.  Packing at the beginning of a move liberates space in the house, facilitating carpet and floor cleaning or painting if necessary.

This fall is a perfect time to tackle all of those areas that have been out of sight, out of mind.  If the spring market is on the horizon, right now is the time to start. Here are a few helpful hints we use with our clients when packing:

-2 cubic-foot boxes work best for books and small kitchen items

-6 cubic-foot boxes work best for items in the linen closets (sheets, blankets)

When you're ready for staging, you can do it yourself although we suggest using a professional stager.  The reluctance on behalf of sellers to spend extra money on a professional is counter-productive as study after study shows that the increased selling price of a staged home far exceeds the cost of having it staged.  Professional stagers can turn a cold lifeless looking property into one that is warm and inviting. Many homeowners dismiss home staging as the process of de-cluttering and cleaning alone when in reality the real work of staging originates once the de-cluttering is completed.  The next step is to address those 9 other factors and strike a balance.