How to live in a For Sale Home
You want your home to sell for the highest price — but you still have to live there.
Before you put your home on the market, remember all the work you need to do!
Cleaning, scrubbing, de-cluttering…. This sounds familiar because anyone who has ever sold a house has done this! Once you finish the long to-do list, then the panic sets in: how are you going to keep it that way until you sell?
I want to help you prepare for your new, frantic life living in a listed home with some useful tips. Let’s maximize the quality of your lifestyle while you improve your chances of selling your home.
RULE NUMBER 1: Get started on your packing!
Storing non-essential stuff will help you down the road when it is time to move, and will add the bonus of de-cluttering your home. The less stuff you have in your home, the less you’ll have to worry about cleaning. When you look at an item think, should I store it, sell it, chuck it, or donate it?
CLEAN. CLEAN. SQUEAKY CLEAN!
It can be difficult to keep your home clean while you’re still living there, but it’s a worthwhile undertaking. A clean house can gain you $5,000 to $10,000 on your home sale. Aim for that five-star-hotel perfection when cleaning sinks, glass, mirrors, windows, and toilets; kitchen and bathrooms are especially important to keep clean!
Bonus: Cover your tracks, meaning do not leave any hints about what you’ve been doing, or where. After dinner do the dishes immediately, do your laundry and actually put it away, make the beds every morning, little things like that help a lot!
Keep it private
Remember, buyers will naturally open up anything that will potentially become theirs. Nowhere is safe! The cabinets, drawers, the closets, and more…you should expect they’ll take a look inside of those. Make sure your listing agent insists that other agents accompany their prospective buyers during open houses. Don’t keep anything in the house you don’t want anyone else to see, and protect your valuables!
Vacate!
Once you have gone through your open house checklist, head out! You want potential buyers to feel that this is their charming home. Use your free time to take the kids to the park, or head down to the local coffeehouse to catch up on work. As long as you are not there, and hovering, you are doing good! Selling a home is a crazy ride, but you can have fun while doing it!
So do you think you can you live this way while you’re selling your house? A perpetually clean, and clutter free environment sure sounds nice! Remember to cover your tracks – and commit just 15 minutes a day to quick touch-ups. This will help ensure that when every buyer walks through the door, they see your house – not your habits.
Selling your home while you’re still living there can be stressful, but these tips should help minimize the stress and maximize the sale price.
Need helping listing and selling your home? Contact me today!
-Melissa Tucci