Getting Ready to Move? How to Market Your Home ~ Part One

                                                                                        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