Help Getting Ready to Sell Home

[sweetteavodka]

We plan to list and sell our first home this spring and the thought of it is giving me panic attacks. We have lived here for 7 years and had 2 kids in that time. There is SO MUCH STUFF! I feel like I don't even know where/how to start getting it ready to show. Any advice?

[badgergrl]

Getting a pod was super helpful for us. We have a lot of stuff we wanted to keep (baby stuff, anywhere chairs, extra furniture not great for staging) but that was not good for showings. Getting all that out made organizing the other stuff much more manageable.

[lys]

Start NOW to go thru each room - one at a time- get rid of anything you do not plan to take with you to your new home. (Sell or donate it)
Seriously look at the condition of everything - and make necessary repairs. Clean, Clean, Clean! Paint if necessary.
When showing you will want your closets and cabinets no more than 1/2 full -
Pack up all personal photos, remove most artwork and keep a minimum of furniture in each room.

With less you make the house appear as large as possible.
Remember this is all about selling your home - not living in your home.
Sparklingly clean windows, a fresh coat of paint on the front door.
Tend to the front landscaping -

NEAT, NEAT, NEAT.

Kids toys at a minimum when you have your house on the market.

Same goes for the garage - clean in out + organize a minimum of items.

You want prospective buyers to imagine their life n your house - and not see so much of your life in that space.

[sfy]

Mar 6, 2016 16:40:21 GMT -5 sweetteavodka said:

We plan to list and sell our first home this spring and the thought of it is giving me panic attacks. We have lived here for 7 years and had 2 kids in that time. There is SO MUCH STUFF! I feel like I don't even know where/how to start getting it ready to show. Any advice?

Every few days (so that you're not too overwhelmed), pick a space and purge as much as you can by making a give and a toss pile. Once you do that, do a walk-through of each space with some kind of stickers/tabs and tag everything that is visible but that you do not think belong in the house for a showing. Those are the things you can start storing.

Also, have you already selected a realtor/met with any yet? You may want to do that first. There were things I thought we should do that my realtor said don't bother with and things I hadn't considered that she said we should do. It probably feels like so much stuff to you because you've already considered the logistics of moving it all, but for purposes of selling, it's only important if it looks like it's too much stuff.

[bostonmichelle]

Yep pod/storage unit are miracles. Also try and do a little everyday, even if its one drawer in the kitchen. Also label boxes as you pack them so if you need to get anything you can find it again.

[sweetteavodka]

Mar 6, 2016 16:59:05 GMT -5 badgergrl said:

Getting a pod was super helpful for us. We have a lot of stuff we wanted to keep (baby stuff, anywhere chairs, extra furniture not great for staging) but that was not good for showings. Getting all that out made organizing the other stuff much more manageable.

This may be a dumb question but where does the POD go once you've filled it. Do they take it to a storage place or does it stay onsite? Can I keep my kids in the POD so the house stays clean?

[badgergrl]

Mar 6, 2016 17:58:08 GMT -5 sweetteavodka said:

Mar 6, 2016 16:59:05 GMT -5 badgergrl said:

Getting a pod was super helpful for us. We have a lot of stuff we wanted to keep (baby stuff, anywhere chairs, extra furniture not great for staging) but that was not good for showings. Getting all that out made organizing the other stuff much more manageable.

This may be a dumb question but where does the POD go once you've filled it. Do they take it to a storage place or does it stay onsite? Can I keep my kids in the POD so the house stays clean?

[

You can decide if you want to keep it on your property or store it. We stored it at their facility. . It was slightly more costly than renting a storage unit but so much easier. No multiple trip and when we moved into our new house they just delivered it on a scheduled date and we got our stuff back.

[VillainV]

Purge purge purge!

Go through each room and pick out stuff to toss, donate, or sell. Anything seasonal that you don't need can go into storage. Consider removing some accent furniture as well.

Have a trusted friend come over and critique the result. Ask about any weird odors, furniture, and needed minor repairs that they might notice.

[Mushe]

That's where we're at - 7 years, 1 kid, but everything stored for a kid 2. Purge, purge, purge! We went room by room and either packed what we didn't immediately need and then donated what we didn't want. We actually got our 3/2/1800 sq ft home in a weekend, but it was partially due to our 4 year old being able to play independently. We were going to do a pod, but loaded the garage up instead.

[Balki.Bartokomous]

Mar 6, 2016 17:11:19 GMT -5 lys said:

Start NOW to go thru each room - one at a time- get rid of anything you do not plan to take with you to your new home. (Sell or donate it)
Seriously look at the condition of everything - and make necessary repairs. Clean, Clean, Clean! Paint if necessary.
When showing you will want your closets and cabinets no more than 1/2 full -
Pack up all personal photos, remove most artwork and keep a minimum of furniture in each room.

With less you make the house appear as large as possible.
Remember this is all about selling your home - not living in your home.
Sparklingly clean windows, a fresh coat of paint on the front door.
Tend to the front landscaping -

NEAT, NEAT, NEAT.

Kids toys at a minimum when you have your house on the market.

Same goes for the garage - clean in out + organize a minimum of items.

You want prospective buyers to imagine their life n your house - and not see so much of your life in that space.

Alllll of this. Pare it down to the bare essentials & put everything else in storage or in boxes in the garage so it doesn't have a chance to creep back out & make a mess when you need the house show-ready. Also, some good advice we got was to have NOTHING on your closet floors bc it makes them look bigger. For us, we were always drawn to a clean home, so definitely deep clean. And get rid of as much as you can NOW. Enlist your kids to help pick out which toys they want to get rid of & have a family garage sale. You don't necessarily need to paint, but walk around with a magic eraser & take care of any spots on the walls, doors, etc.

For showings I put fresh flowers or a small green plant in the kitchen & anywhere else where it feels too dark (an interior bathroom, for example). I kept a roll of paper towels & a bottle of vinegar/water in every bathroom so I could quickly wipe off counters & mirrors every morning before we left the house.

[scout8]

I would recommend having your agent come over and go through the house with you. She can help you figure out what should stay and what should go. I always do this with my sellers. That way you will know what to focus on and what you can skip.

[thatgirl2478]

Purge as much as you can. Start in one room & work your way around. I had the following 'bins' to help sort:

- Sell: you don't need/use it and it's still in good shape. Put on craigslist/varagesale/letitgo/etc
- Donate: you don't need/use it but it may not be sellable (not seriously used mind you but useable)
- Toss: you don't need/use it and it can't be sold or donated
- Misc: random parts that belongs to other things you're keeping/selling/donating - that way you can keep everything together.

While you're doing this you can pack boxes or bins of stuff you DO use but maybe aren't using NOW (off season clothes, books you've read & want to keep etc).

If you can afford it, get a storage unit.

After that you can see what you have to work with. Make any repairs you know you need to make, clean everything (windows, baseboards, door frames, etc). If your paint is dingy or extremely crazy colors consider repainting.

For showings we made sure our 'walk ways' were as open and clean as possible. If it wasn't 100% necessary to the room, we put it away. We emptied out the top shelf and floor of the linen closet to make it look like there was a lot of storage, same goes for the kids closets. We took extraneous furniture (like my cedar chest, some extra bookshelfs, a few ugly end tables, extra sofa tables and the glider) and put them in storage. Any toys the kids don't play with ALL the time went in storage.

[mainelyfoolish]

We rented a storage unit a mile down the road and took over load after load of stuff with the minivan. (We also donated loads of stuff as we were packing and decluttering.) We looked into PODS but I can't remember if they weren't available where we live or if they were just much more expensive. We also stacked other things in boxes in our unfinished basement; the realtor said people don't really care if there's "stuff" in an unfinished space as long as it looks neat.

[whitemerlot]

Mar 6, 2016 20:18:14 GMT -5 scout8 said:

I would recommend having your agent come over and go through the house with you. She can help you figure out what should stay and what should go. I always do this with my sellers. That way you will know what to focus on and what you can skip.

This was amazingly helpful for us. Our agent went through room and suggested things. Our house sold really fast and looked great with a lot of stuff removed.

[magpie]

Our house just went on the market and I echo a lot of what's been said. Start purging. Store what you want to keep, dump or sell what you don't want to keep. It's helpful to have space to store stuff. We have a big garage/shed/workshop structure in the back of our yard where we have ample room to neatly store boxes. We've gone through all our stuff and pre-packed a lot of things that we don't need right now for the move. We also fixed up anything that was slightly broken or messed up. Lots of touch up painting and outdoor painting projects (the garage door, the backyard wall, the front door, etc.). We also hired some cleaners to do a deep clean, which was probably good because I don't even know how to clean an oven

We've only been on the market for a few days, but one of the most noticeable things we did was enroll our dog in doggie daycare. She loves going there and it's sooooooooo helpful to have a place where we can drop her off (they are open 365 days a year). She went there yesterday and today for open houses and she'll be going a bunch next week for showings.

Oh and another thing--get to know the market for your neighborhood if you don't already. My H obsessively follows our neighborhood real estate (like, he has gone to every open house in the past 5 years, just for funsies) and the knowledge he had gained has been great. We interviewed two agents who work a lot in our 'hood and both had pretty different price range suggestions. One of them had a pretty unrealistically high suggestion and I'm absolutely sure we'd be sitting on the market for a long time, dropping the price again and again had we listened to her. We a relocating and need to sell pretty quickly, so I think it is good to understand the market pretty deeply. I mean, I know agents will help advise you on this too, but, in the end, I think you need to look out for yourself as best you can with as much information as you can.

[ellipses84]

Everything everyone has mentioned is great. DH relocated before I did so I was stuck working full time, with a toddler and selling a house. I bought some nice looking storage solutions to make it easier to hide the clutter and toys on a daily basis. For example, I had a big round wicker basket that I would throw my laptop, mail and any other random things in and then put a folded up throw blanket over it, as I was rushing out of the house in the morning.

You can do this once its on the market, but take care of any deferred maintenance items, like cleaning out the dryer lint trap on the outside of the house. Also, get to know a handyman if you don't have one already. That way you aren't so rushed after inspection when there are things that have to get fixed. For curb appeal, I used potted flowers and plants near our front entry.

[UnderProtest]

Declutter, declutter, declutter.....and organize. People look in closets and drawers. Don't let them get the impression there isn't enough storage. Definitely take care of any deferred maintenance and do a deep clean. And find a realtor that knows your neighborhood and that you can trust. We talked to two and they had vastly different ideas on what needed to be done to get the house show ready (and a listing price). We went with the one that had more experience in the neighborhood (even though they both lived in the neighborhood too) and got way more money and didn't have to paint our red living room!

[tres3]

We are in limbo and have been slowly getting the house ready. Decluttering is huge. We had a realtor come in. We have done some updates but mostly because we will be completing with new construction as our subdivision isn't built out yet.

We painted our kitchen cabinets and added new back splash. That was about $2500.

We also painted the whole house. (my painters is good and fairly cheap so again not too much.

We removed the large mirrors from the secondary bathrooms and updated them with picture frame mirrors and new lights. (about $150/per bathroom).

Right before we list I'll put in new carpet $3600. Ours is 12 years old and 3 kids and a dog later is gross.

This year instead of planting veggies I'm just going to plant flowers in my raised garden.

Most of it is just making sure the house is decluttered and clean.

The minor updates of about $10k total mean we can list our house probably for $50k more than we paid vs $40k less than we paid which is what houses with no updates are doing in our 'hood. 

[sweetteavodka]

Thanks everyone for the solid advice. I will start room by room purging and organizing and then have our realtor back to discuss any improvements we need to make. We recently got a new front and storm door and recarpeted the stairs but I'm sure there's more to be done. I told my H last night that we were definitely renting a pod!

[thatgirl2478]

Mar 7, 2016 9:48:01 GMT -5 sweetteavodka said:

Thanks everyone for the solid advice. I will start room by room purging and organizing and then have our realtor back to discuss any improvements we need to make. We recently got a new front and storm door and recarpeted the stairs but I'm sure there's more to be done. I told my H last night that we were definitely renting a pod!

Pod's are expensive, but convenient.  Around here they are $55 to drop off, $110 a month, and $55 to pickup, then $55 to drop off at your new place and $55 to collect at the end.

If you have a vehicle that can handle whatever big things you want to store, the more mm thing is just a storage unit.

[hski2349]

It is worth it to get a pod or storage unit. Get it out of the house, and it will make it easier to clean, stage, and keep clean and staged for showings.

I don't know if you read the Joy of Tidying, but I would suggest reading that. I read it and took certain aspects of it, and I have purged so much in our house. I am not as extreme as the author, but it has helped me realize there is no reason to have everything we have. The kids stuff in an exception. Purging will also help when it comes time to move too.