How to Sell Your House in a Under a Week
Part 1: Home Improvements
Part 2: Clean Up
Part 3: Staging Your Home
Stage your house in preparation to sell. It doesn’t have to be painful! To effectively stage your house for sale, remove the items that make it your home. That’s right, take the personal stuff out for now. Once you’re read to move, you’ll need to pack it up anyway. Right now, you want potential buyers to walk in and think, “I could live here,” not “someone else lives here.” Removing all your excess clutter will help!
Like it? Pin it or REPIN it!
Staging a House is all about rules:
The Fifty Percent Rule: To stage your house effectively, just remember this simple rule: Remove half of your stuff, and then look again. Does it still look cluttered? Remove half of your stuff, and then look again. When you get to the point where it doesn’t look cluttered, you’re done decluttering! Don’t be afraid to ask a friend or family member to be objective for you. Removing half or 75% of your furniture will make your rooms look MUCH larger. People don’t want to buy a small, cramped house.
Rule of Threes: Do you have lots of knickknacks, pictures or stuff cluttering up your place? If so, either sell them at a yard sale [don’t miss our printable yard sale signs & price tags!] , donate them or give them away on Freecycle, or pack them up safely and put in storage. The rule of threes is that when decorating any flat surface, have only three items on it. Go from a table full of knickknacks to three like-colored or complimentary-styled items positioned off to one side. It looks uncluttered and classy. Buyers like that! That doesn’t mean you need three things on EVERY surface. Pick a few (maybe no more than 2 per room) and go for it.
In short: DECLUTTER!! When we sold our home, we rented a storage unit for a month before we moved. The first month is $1 at many storage facilities (you will pay a small admin fee), so you really can’t go wrong. But, don’t just shove everything in storage. Moving is a great time to PURGE stuff you don’t need or want anymore. You’ve heard the saying, “if you haven’t used it in a year, you don’t need it.” I don’t like that saying much, but you do have to draw the line somewhere. That’s not to say you should get rid of family heirlooms you’re saving for your kids, but not everything is worth saving!
Decluttering also helps to detach yourself from this house you’re selling. Mentally preparing yourself to leave your home is an important step in moving on. It will help you let go, and really get it looking great for potential buyers.
Mentally preparing yourself to move: Think of this house as a project, not your child’s first home. Think of your new home and new opportunities to make memories, rather than approaching it as if you’re losing something by selling this house. I actually got to the point that I was angry at myself (in a gentle way) for letting all this clutter build up. I felt like my stuff owned me! It’s freeing to be rid of things that are weighing you down. And that’s a great feeling!
In summary, declutter, purge and stage your house to look like a model. Stage your house so that potential buyers can see themselves living there.
Part 4: Listing for Sale