Wednesday, November 18, 2015 / by Jack W. Zaborowski
De-Cluttering and Staging a Home For Sale
DE-PERSONALIZING AND DE-CLUTTERING TO SELL YOUR HOME
I found this paragraph on a website about getting your home ready to sell: "The first step is separating yourself from the idea of your house as your "home." The next place you live will be your new home. The house you're selling now is just a product, and it's your job to make every possible effort to ensure that this product is at its best for potential customers."I truly found this unfeeling in a way to explain the process of de-personalizing a home. Today, Jack went and met with a potential client, an older woman that has been in this same house since she bought and moved here. She has now decided to sell her home that is full of trinkets, photographs, hodgepodge, and more. All this stuff in the home that this lady has collected over the years, I choose to call memories of a lifetime with loved ones shared while living in this home.
When prepping a home to be sold, yes, you need to prep yourself mentally too, as well as the home, but you do not need to completely separate your mentality from the name "home." I believe this, because as long as you live, it will always be reffered to as your home whether you own it or not. It is NOT just a product, for the next person buying it, will be making it their home most likely too, or an investment as someone else to use as a home.
Obviously, you may be pretty confused by now. What I am trying to say is, when selling your home, NEVER consider it just a product, IT IS A HOME.
NOW, on to the more important stuff. Prepping the home to be SOLD. Begin the process by de-personalizing. That means remove ALL family and personal photographs. Take them off the walls, off the dressers, off the tables, and off the nightstands. Hope you are understanding, remove ALL personal photographs. By doing this, you now allow another person to envision themselves living in this house and making it their home. When people are looking at a home and they see photographs, they tend to pay more attention to the people and places in the photographs and forget to pay attention to the details of the house.
Next, remove clutter. This means, pack away the trinkets, awards, plaques, knick-knacks, and most decorative items. What you have collected over the years, and have displayed nicely all over the house in all the rooms, needs to get packed away. What you consider lovely collectibles, antiques, and gifts will be viewed by others as clutter. Take this as your opportunity to cleanse yourself of some belongings, especially if you are downsizing. It is something that can be hard to do, but this is the time. You may even want to bring in an outsider to see if anything may be worth value and make some extra cash as you down-size.
Now that you have done these 2 MAJOR steps. Painting may be needed, if so the best advice is to stay with neutral colors. If you can't afford to paint, then do your best patching, cleaning and touching the walls up. The next is seeing about rearranging furniture or removing a piece of furniture. The idea is to show the space a room has and not make it feel crowded. A person should be able to walk around without bumping into things.
Then, after you have done all these things, you will need to go back andd add a few tasteful decorative pieces back to make the room feel warm and inviting and like a HOME not a house. If you are living in the home while selling it, the key things are to keep it clean after you do all the above. Try your best to keep personal things away and out of site so it makes it easy for last minute showings to be able to just come by and see your place.
Examples of Homes that Have been Staged and De-Cluttered
KItchens...Do your best to keep the counters free of appliances & items. You don't want it to look like there isn't counter space or storage space. Let someone visualize their own appliances and themselves cooking there.
REMEMBER, people open up cabinets and closets, be sure nothing is going to fall out on them and that they can see inside them for size and space.
Remember, we are always available to interview for a listing if you are SELLING or BUYING a home in SOUTH JERSEY. BONUS: when you list with us, we will help you get your home ready and staged. We don't leave all the work and stress to you, we will help you out. Call us 609-602-7140 Email jackandjill@kw.com or check out one of our websites to learn more about us.www.SouthJerseyHomeListings.com or www.JackandJillattheShore.com
Otherwise if relocating or buying outside of our area, we are happy to refer you an agent ANYWHERE in the world. We have many professional contacts all over. We strive to have a referral network for our clients, family, and friends to make choosing a realtor easier when moving and relocating. If we don't have a realtor where you are going, we will call and do the research for you.
