Many of us know that most of the time our homes are in a condition that we call "lived-in" and unfortunately most sellers still have their homes in this same condition which is not optimal for showing or selling. Having a home in this condition may affect the timeliness of a quick sale and furthermore may also bring in reduced dollar offers.
While many sellers may just do the minimum of cleaning up and organizing their home, they often leave out the necessary cleaning that will make the home truly shine.
There are several steps that your client may want to take before showing their home:
Clean up the papers
Everyone has a place where paperwork collects. There are several "hotspots" that are the most popular paper collecting areas which include the coffee table, the kitchen table and a desk.
If the sellers have kids their artwork, school memo's or schedules can be found in many areas, but the usual hotspot for these items is the refrigerator in the kitchen since it's a family hangout. Don't forget the junk drawer that holds all menu's of their favorite local restaurants and other papers which may be out of control.
Sellers should be careful because many times when they are getting their home ready to show they put everything into a pile and put it somewhere out of sight. Doing this can run the risk of losing important documents.
Its best to organize the papers and put them into temporary files for easy access and by putting the papers out of site can also prevent potential buyers from looking through your papers while visiting your home during an open house.
Keep your information private
Today with many people having the option of working from home many homes may have a home office. During open houses people are walking through the home and will be going in every room in the house. It's recommended that the sellers put away and lock up any and all personal financial information that may be seen during an open house.
Often times there's at least one computer in a home and we all know that computers contain sensitive financial and personal information. Make sure they are turned off and require a password to access the computer should it be turned on.
Put away any and all bills such as medical bills, credit card bills, department store bills and other papers that can identify the seller which may be stolen and could cause them considerable harm if their identity is stolen.
Clean and reorganize all closets
As buyers look through an open house they look at everything and that's particularly the case when it comes to closets. They want to know if all their things will fit should they buy the home.
To insure a successful sale the seller must set up the home to the buyers' expectations of what a suitable home should have and every buyer sees the right home as having lots of closet space.
One thing is for sure and that is additional closets cannot be built, but the seller can show the buyer that there is enough closet space for all their things. The seller might want to go around the home and remove half of everything inside all the closets and put those things in storage if needed.
After the seller has removed half of everything including; the clothes, the linens and the toys then they should reorganize what's left. The closets should look as neat and as spacious as possible.
After all these steps have been taken the home should feel much bigger because a lot of extra space has been created. Secondly, if the seller has packed away, given away or donated all the stuff that was taken out of the closets, then they will be ahead of the game when the home sells and it's time to move.