When you're selling your house, it can be tempting to hope that buyers will see past the surface to the beautiful bone structure of your home and realize what a lovely life they could make in it.
But the truth is that most homes could use a little bit of a facelift before you invite people to walk through and hope they'll make an offer on it.
So what should you need to do to get your house into perfect shape, and keep it that way throughout all the showings and open houses? Here's a rundown of the steps you can take to make and keep your house picture-perfect.
Getting started
There are a few steps you'll want to take throughout your house in order to get it ready for deep cleaning and make it presentable for showing.
- Start by walking through each room and asking yourself what items you haven't used lately or that you can do without for a while. Minimizing the stuff in your house will make it much easier to keep everything clean throughout the selling process. Start boxing up as much as you can for the move, while leaving enough to help stage the house.
- Don't forget about the furniture! Removing excess furniture from a room can make it look more spacious. If you don't want to get rid of anything, rent a storage unit where you can stash your larger items until you're finished showing your house.
- When you've removed one-third to half the furniture in your house, rearrange what's left to create inviting pathways through each room. Visitors should be able to walk around everything without bumping into anything else. When working with us, we provide a staging consultation to help with this whole process.
- You'll want to pack up and stash any books, clothes, appliances, equipment, or other things that you don't need or want immediately (or, realistically, for the next couple of months). Of course, it's fine to keep a few things, nobody lives in a completely empty house, but remember that less is more.
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Details, details, details
Now that the house is more or less arranged the way you want it, it's time to start paying attention to some of those details.
- Look at your walls and ask yourself if you need to add or remove anything. One strong piece of artwork in each room is a good goal, two if the room is really big.
- Where you aren't replacing art, repair any holes in the walls and paint over them. In fact, if you're going to give any rooms in your house a coat of paint, now is a great time to do that.
- Add a houseplant or two. Assess your houseplant situation: How many do you have, and do you need to remove or add any? Like artwork, one or two plants per room is probably a good balance.
- Assess the lighting in your house. Are there dark areas in certain rooms? A well-placed floor or table lamp or two can take any room from gloomy to soft and relaxing, so think about where you could use a little light help and add it. Replace any burnt out bulbs and make sure lights have the same color tone bulbs throughout each room.
- Think about how your house (and each room) smells as you walk through it. If you have pets and your nose might be sensitized to odors, then ask a friend to give you an honest opinion.
Once you've tackled these general tasks, it's time to get down and dirty in each room and outside your house. Get ready!
The kitchen
If you haven't already decluttered the kitchen, start with the cabinets and work your way down. Box up and store any dishes and kitchen appliances that you don't need accessible. You may be in for a few weeks of boring dinners or take-out, but it's all in the name of making your house stageworthy.
Organize your pantry, your cabinets and other kitchen storage spaces, which should be quite a bit easier to do with fewer items to organize. Buyers will look in your cabinets!
Remove everything from your countertops and deep clean them, making sure you scrub the backsplash and pay attention to any tile grout (you may want to steam clean or bleach grout if you have tile countertops or floors).
Spend some time cleaning all of your appliances, oven, stove, fridge, microwave. You need them to look their best for showings, but will also need them to be clean upon move-out for the new owner.
Replace any worn burner pans on your stove, and remove any personal items you've secured to your fridge door, like kids' drawings or phone number lists.
The living room
Clearing off surfaces is going to be the first order of business in the living room.
After you've cleared coffee tables and bookshelves of any mementos or unnecessary items, clean and dust the tables and bookshelves, then do your best to keep those surfaces clean and dust-free.
Kids' toys can be one of the biggest contributors to a messy living room, so confine them to bedrooms or invest in a toy chest or bin where you can quickly toss them and keep them out of the way.
Make sure any fireplaces or wood stoves are in good working order and clean off and dust any mantles. Only replace items that are too personalized, and make sure that mantles aren't crowded with knick-knacks.
The bedrooms
Do you have a nice set that doesn't get used very often? If not, you might consider investing in one. Talk to your real estate agent or stager before you do to get an idea of what's appropriate.
If so, now's the time to haul it out and put it on the bed, so make sure that your nicest bedding set is on display in the bedroom.
Clear off all the surfaces in your room -- bedside tables, dressers, and any other surfaces and clean them thoroughly. Make sure you've purged any personal items and keep any additions minimal and dust-free.
The Bathrooms
Deep clean all bathroom services, shower, tile, counters, flooring, and toilet.
Make sure to remove all personal items from the counter, toothbrush and anything else should be stored away in a drawer. Only use decorative soap dispensers, and make sure to use new decorative hand towels.
Don't just shove everything in your closets. Buyers look in there, too!
Overall, make sure to wipe down all baseboards, clean all windows, and have your carpets professionally cleaned. If it is in your budget, we highly recommend hiring a professional cleaner.
