Q: Pre-Listing Real Estate Agent Review?

[OscarQ]

We're considering listing our house.  I had a contractor in today to talk about what we'd need to do to make this our 20-year house (can't be forever because it's two-story and I'm not dealing with stairs in my late 60's).  It was a ridiculous amount of money.  So it makes the most sense to sell and buy something that suits us now and for the next 20 years, possibly forever.

Contractor said to get a real estate agent in to tell us what we need to get done to list the house project wise.  My question is how "sale ready" do I need to get the house before bringing the agent in?  I have two young kids so it looks like a typical family house.  I know I have to do a lot of work to stage it but do I need to do that before having a pre-listing evaluation?  I'd rather just show it to her as is, get the punch list, do the punch list and then get it staged.

Thanks.

[just]

We didn't stage but we did tidy/clean it within an inch of our life - so we put things in closets, whereas we'd planned to store them at DH's parents during staging. We took down clutter that we didn't need, but left up personal items like pictures, and stuff we used on a regular basis (kitchen aid, kettle, stuff like that). We moved some furniture around to maximize space, whereas we'd planned to sell/store some of the bigger pieces for staging.

We also let him know when he walked in that we knew we'd have to do all that. (We end up selling to a family friend so didn't have to stage at all)

[nomad100]

Our selling agent sold us the house but we cleaned and decluttered like mad before we had her come and take a look so she could see any issues that needed to be addressed before listing.

And we didn't stage per se, we just decluttered and removed some pieces of furniture to a storage unit.

One thing we did do was put a tub that could be stashed in the bottom of a closet both upstairs and on the main level so when we got word of a showing, we could throw all the crap in the tub and put it away fast.

[Deleted]

Other than having the house as clean as I would if we were having company over, I did nothing. We had made a list of things we planned to do and a mental tally of what we planned to get rid of in order to declutter and discussed those things with her. She gave us some insight in to what planned projects we should or shouldn't do and that helped us moving forward. She came about a month before we listed and we took her advice and did the things that we discussed during that month.
Once the projects were done and the house was decluttered we had her come back to check it over again and get a better idea of asking price. This was a Saturday, I believe, and she was back on Monday for pictures and we listed on a Tuesday. We had four offers the first day so it seemed like it all worked out.

[downtoearth]

We were sure we were putting our house on the market in the next 3-4 months, so we deep cleaned, fixed a few little things (painted the porch out front and fixed a missing knob on a kitchen cabinet, added a backsplash), and decluttered by putting about 10 bins of kids clothes and books and some of my clothes in the basement storage area. Then we had two different real estate agents over to give us an idea of market value, advise us on when to sell, and give us ideas on staging and what to improve to sell faster/for more money.

If you're further off from deciding to sell, I'd just clean and organize then make a meeting with the real estate agent.

ETA: Oh and our real estate agent didn't give us much staging advice.  I got most of that here (well on the Nest version of her prior to coming over). 

[OscarQ]

Thanks all. I spoke to my agent and she said just having it company clean was fine. She knows we're planning to do some work so the full purge/staging isn't needed yet.

[lilac05]

I agree with "company clean."

It would help if you have a list of the things that YOU think need to be done (or already plan to do). Then she can say yes/no. She will probably give you other ideas, but the more ideas you have written out, the more productive your meeting will be. Just be sure she knows you're not offended if she doesn't like your ideas/plan and will defer to her professional opinion.

[hbomdiggity]

Company clean. It doesn't need to be staged/ready to take pics.