Ready To Sell
• De-clutter, then, do it again! The more junk you have lying around, the more it distracts buyers. Do you want them to notice grandma’s antique lace collection draped across your furniture, or the fantastic fireplace? When de-cluttering, remember to de-personalize. You want potential buyers to visualize their things in the house, NOT little Johnny’s soccer trophies and every baby photo ever taken of the little darling! You’re going to have to pack this stuff up when you sell anyhow so go ahead and do it now!
• The kitchen is the focal point for most families and the most important room in the house! De-clutter as much as possible in this room. Remove small appliances from counter-tops, clear out rarely used items from cabinets and drawers, clean out the pantry AND make sure the refrigerator is clean and organized if it is to convey with the property.
• The Front Door – the first impression that you make on a potential buyer is right here. Make sure the porch is swept, replace the faded welcome mat and for heaven’s sake throw away the rotting pumpkins or wilted poinsettia’s from the holidays! Clean or replace the hardware on the door, repaint the door if necessary, get rid of dirt daubers, spiders and their evidence.
• CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN that Austin area home and clean some more. Face-it, no one wants to clean up someone’s else’s mess so PLEASE don’t make a dirty house the reason it doesn’t sell. Soap is cheap! When cleaning, remember that odors are just as offensive as dirt and grime. Fido’s snotty nose prints on the glass may be disgusting, but FiFi, the cat’s litter box odors can chase people out of the house (believe me, we’ve seen it). This goes for smoke odors as well. There are a number of products available to neutralize odors…use them!
• Neutralize – lime green family room walls are probably NOT going to be a selling point, in fact, odds are a paint allowance will be written into the buyer’s offer (assuming they saw past the lime green to begin with). Save us all the grief and slap that beige on so that sunglasses aren’t required for showing your house!
• Last, but certainly not least, detach your emotions from the house. Emotions can keep you from being realistic about marketing your house. Notice we said “house”, not home. You’re selling a house and will soon be buying a new “home”. Keep that in mind.
