Getting Ready to Move ??
This is a Primer on what to do as soon as you decide to sell your home, BEFORE you call the Realtor to consult about listing it.
No. 1 TRY TO SEE YOUR HOME AS A VISITOR DOES.
I know this is a difficult assignment but you really have to do this. Visitors to your home are not sentimentally attached to the evidence of day to day living and family life, as you are. Their eyes won't mist over when they see the evidence of your late dog's scratches on the door nor will they appreciate the Christmas tree that is still up in July. If you remember back when you moved into your new home, you had all kinds of plans for improvements you would make.
Then life gets busy. Your kids get into sports, your Mother gets ill and you have to take care of her, and then your spouse discovers golf....you get the picture. Not much of the wonderful home improvements on your wish list gets done and here you are, 10 years later with basically the same home you bought but it looks a little tired.
Taking pictures is a great way to see your home as others will. When we live there,
it all becomes background, we don't see the flaws or the junk anymore. We have selective blinders on that prevent us from seeing the tow feet high stack of magazines as clutter. To us, it is reading material we plan to get to some day.
Take notes on what you see that needs to be removed, cleaned, repaired or
updated and make a plan TO DO IT!
No. 2 Pack up all the out of season clothing, equipment, ANYTHING you don't need on a daily basis and move
it to a storage unit, garage or designated spot in the basement. You are going to move, right? Then get all
your extra STUFF out of there.
This includes the "collections," the kids' old toys, broken items that you will fix someday (yeah, right), hobby
items, old albums, cds, to-be-completed projects, furniture that is not moving with
you, and the stack of vacation T-shirts you never will wear. I'm sure you get the
general idea. The house should start to look like when you moved in and there
was plenty of room for all your things. This is what you want buyers to see:
LOTS OF ROOM FOR THEIR STUFF!!!!
No. 3 CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN as if Queen Elizabeth is coming for a visit and you want
everything to be absolutely perfect. You cannot clean too much. I know 99% of
us do not live in houses this clean but this is how it has to be, if you
want your home to sell quickly and for the most money. Square those
corners, clean all the light fixtures and make sure they have 75-100
watt bulbs in them.
Regrout the tub and sink area if they need it. Clean the windows,
inside and out, screens included. Clean the carpeting or rugs. Now,
relax a little because Part Two is coming up.....Part Two of How to Market Your Home coming soon.
The View from Here ~ Bonnie Westbrook's Grand Rapids Real Estate Blog
Grand Rapids Real Estate is Our Real Job
Copyright by Bonnie Westbrook
Contact us at : 1-888-240-1968 x 0
Website url: Terry Westbrook.com
Email: http://terry@terrywestbrook.com
Photos from flickr by summer anne -My closet / behind the camera by thinking in reverse /Queen E. by telegraph.co.uk
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