When your home is for sale and not attracting offers, any one (or more) of these mis-steps need correcting. Show buyers the fantasy of owning your home, not the reality of everyday living.
First Impression
Keep the lawn and front of the home looking it’s best at all times. Weed the flower beds, mow the lawn and trim the edges and the bushes. A good impression starts even before the buyers get out of their car
Entrance
Clean your front door and consider re-painting it, if necessary. If you are a smoker, move your ashtray and smoking chair/area to a far exterior corner of the home. Sights and scents will be the first impressions as the buyers are walking up the home.
Mounted TVs
Those wires dangling from your mounted TV may have become part of the background to your eyes but they will be a minus to prospective buyers. Drill some holes and run them through the wall for a clean look.
Pets
Buyers will not mind your pets but they will not like smelling them or seeing their toys. Put toys away when expecting to show the home. Getting rid of pet scents will go a long way to getting a decent offer. Here are some tips to remove the scent of your dog from PetMD.
Counter Tops
No one wants to buy into clutter, take a long hard look at your counter tops and eliminate as much as possible. Then repeat this process to get down to the absolute bare minimum. Do this for both your kitchen and all the bathrooms.
Drawers, cabinets and closets
Go through your junk drawer(s), kitchen cabinets & pantry and all the closets and remove items you don’t use on a daily basis (e.g. winter clothes in the summer, special occasion china/flatware). Buyers will open all of these at random. The last thing you want is for the buyers to think the home does not have enough space. Your rule of thumb is that when opening any one of these, you should be able to see that there is plenty of space left over even when being used.
Cobwebs
Don’t overlook the cobwebs as you vacuum, mop and dust. Spiders are a fact of life in California, but buyers will not want to see their handiwork .
Furniture
Take a long hard look at how you have set up your furniture. Does it maximize the open space feel of the home? Do you get a sense of the square footage being more than you need? If not consider these tips from US News and World Report.
Storage
While some staging professionals will tell you to store your excess items off-site to maximize the effect, unless you are selling a high-end home were everything must be perfect you can store the not-immediately-necessary-items in the garage. Box everything carefully and stack the boxes at the center of the garage so that buyers can still walk around the sides to get a feel for the size of it. Some creative sellers even arrange their boxes so as to mimic the shape of a sedan or a pick-up truck. Either way, a benefit of boxing these items is that you are already half packed once you agree to an offer.
If you have questions on any of these mis-steps or need tips specific to your home, call/text me at 760 622 5087 to schedule a convenient time for me to see your home.
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