Getting your home ready for sale
One of the main differences between buying a newly built home and buying a resale is that the new homes being showcased by builders all have one thing in common: Down to the last detail, they are staged to appeal to the highest number of potential buyers.
With that in mind, how can the average reseller bring her house up to a higher standard of appeal?
According to many experts, by depersonalizing and decluttering it before placing it on the market.
“Decluttering is probably the single most important detail when prepping to sell. Not only does a cluttered home feel smaller, but it puts doubt in a buyers mind as to whether or not the home has seen proper maintenance. A decluttered, organized home shows buyer’s pride of ownership … which is key,” said Jonathan Scott, who hosts HGTV’s “Buying & Selling” with his brother, Drew. The two “Property Brothers” stars live in Las Vegas.
Not only that but excessive clutter can give the impression that there’s insufficient storage available in the house, said Lindsay Cleveland, owner of Life Organized, a local company that helps people arrange their home. She said pre-listing is “a good time to go though and purge whatever you can before you pay for it to get moved anyway. Ask yourself whether you will need it when you move to your new home. If the answer is no, getting rid of it before you put the house on the market is a good idea.”
This will make your house look more spacious, she explained, adding that keeping all counters, tables and other flat surfaces clean and tidy is essential to achieving a welcoming atmosphere in any home.
“Clutter actually causes stress, whether it is your clutter or not. So when someone walks into a cluttered home it creates stress, and no one buys a home that creates stress,” Cleveland said.
Where to start?
After sorting through your possessions, you can begin to organize the remaining items in a sensible, orderly way. This may require renting a storage unit, which is the advice Realtor Debbie Tuttle gave to a local couple considering selling their home which they’ve lived in for 40 years.
“They have more closets than I’ve seen in a long time, and they’re all full. So we walked through the house and talked about what has to be cleared out.”
She recommended they rent a storage unit.
Tuttle, who works at Keller Williams Realty, The Marketplace in Henderson, said she’s “not afraid to tell people what they need to do. They hire me to help them get their home sold and make it look the very best.”
She begins the process by handing them a notepad and going room by room to decide what needs to be changed to make the house look its best. That includes removing personal items like photos or artwork.
“I’m pretty particular about the photos in the home. It has to be decluttered before I bring in a photographer,” Tuttle said.
She also suggested removing excessive furniture or simply rearranging it to make each room more inviting.
“We want the room to look as open and spacious as possible. I explain staging is all about illusion. A buyer is going to come in and they can see themselves living in the home if they’re not obstructed with your things.”
She says personal photos and other items often inhibit a buyer from noticing the home’s features.
“They’ll say, ‘I didn’t really see it’ later because they were distracted by family portraits on the wall.”
Another important part of the process is a thorough cleaning, Tuttle said. “Very few of us live in a home where both adults don’t work, so I will refer them to a cleaning service, if necessary.”
If you need help:
There are numerous closet-planning systems available through specialty companies or do-it-yourself from big-box home improvement stores.
Home organization aids can be purchased in stores, such as Target or Kmart, but only one store in Nevada sells virtually every imaginable storage aid for every area of the home: The Container Store in Town Square.
Norine Rudolph, the store’s general manager, recommends starting with just one area “that gives you the biggest headache or that a guest in your house would most easily see. It’s based on your needs, but you always want to start in one place, set your priorities and stick to it. Then when it’s completed, you feel empowered. You want to make sure you celebrate what you completed, then move onto the next space.”
“If they’re overwhelmed, we recommend they connect with one of our home organizers for an in-home consultation to discuss their individual needs and style preferences,” Rudolph said.
The store has a program called The Contained Home, which matches customers with several local professional home organizers who can consult with them to help meet their goals. An initial phone consultation is free, and then if they decide to move forward, a home consult costs $100, which can be applied toward a minimum of five hours service, at $75 per hour.
If that’s not within your budget, Rudolph said, “customers can do this themselves. There are many solutions within our store that will help.” She mentioned toy storage, pantry organization and home office as popular home areas they help customers with.
The company’s website offers 12 important tips to get started at www.containerstore.com/tip/roomLiving/top12tips.
Keeping the house ready for a buyer to walk in anytime is something Tuttle stresses all the way to the walk-though.
“We want the house to look spectacular. You want it to hit the market looking the very best it can look, and that puts money into your pocket.”
