How To Stage Your Home To Sell! Pinole Real Estate Agent Shares Her Secrets |

I recently met with a client about selling her home. We talked about several aspects of what is going to sell her home. There are four main areas that need to be considered when selling your home. The first is pricing the home based on the comparable sales in the area. The second is compensation to the broker who brings the buyer to the home, the third is making the home easily accessible to prospective buyers. The fourth and very important is the way the home looks to prospective buyers.

Before Photo of an Ugly Home

When I asked my client to show me around her home, one of the things I’m doing while we are viewing her home, is making a list of things that need to be rearranged, removed, cleaned, and added to when the home is on the market to potential buyers.

Think about it this way, if you were going to sell your car, what would you do first before you showed it to a buyer…. no matter who I ask this question to, the answer is 100% the same every time…..DETAIL IT! That’s right. So the first thing you should do is clean your home from top to bottom, paint the walls, clean or replace carpet, and polish the floors.

Think about it this way…. the moment you decide to sell your home, it becomes a commodity, a product…. and is no longer your home.

After Photo of Ugly Home

Of course it’s difficult to live in your house while you are selling it. That idea strikes fear into the hearts of many home owners. Especially if you have small children, the idea of selling your home and keeping it clean with your children in the house, is a terrifying experience. When you decide to sell your home and you will be living in your home while you are selling it, make eating out, spending a lot of time away from the home on the weekends, and possibly a weekly house cleaner and gardener as part of your home selling costs.

The first thing you should do is get rid of clutter. This is the “lived in” look that everyone has but everyone hates. Bills that need to be paid, paperwork from your childrens’ school, knick knacks on shelves and tables, make-up, toothbrushes, and contact lenses on the bathroom vanity, even some of the furniture should go. If you were going to get new stuff when you move anyway, sell it. If not, then consider getting a storage unit or if your garage is not already overflowing, make a very specific and small spot in the garage for any furniture you will be keeping. Another very important thing to do is clean out your closets. Get rid of at least half of the stuff in the closets. One of the major things house buyers look for is storage in the home, and stuff closets are a real turn off.

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