Decorating for Home Selling

Don't think you need to decorate when selling your home?  Wrong!  When selling or preparing to sell your home, decorating is essential.  It can give a great first impression to realtors and potential buyers if done well or leave a really bad one and turn realtors away which also loses those buyers for you.  It is easy and doesn't have to cost much if anything at all.

One main rule is to make sure you declutter your home.  This is probably the most important one and can really set the tone for whether or not your buyer will really give your home a chance or not.  When decluttering this also goes for closets.  The less crammed full a closet is the bigger and more spacious it appears.  And who doesn't want large spacious closets?  Take out some of those out of season clothes and pack them away under your bed or in the attic.  Lose some shoes too, like the worn old dirty ones!  Go through all your closets, even the one in the front wall.  Organize, lose anything unnecessary, and clean it up.  Paint a light color to open it up or install lights if there aren't any and the lighting is low.  This really does make a big impact on potential buyers.

Another easy way to improve your homes sellability is curb appeal.  Clean out the flower beds of weeds and debris.  Trim bushes and keep the lawn mowed and water.  When the outside looks well taken care of then the buyers will be more apt to come in.  And that's where you want them - inside.  No one buys a house they haven't been in or don't want to go in.  It's worth the couple of hours a week it takes to clean  up around the house.  Also keep those walkways swept.  It's the simple things that make the most impact!

Another area that gets overlooked are the bathrooms.  Take out all those bottles and jars of lotions and creams and soaps.  Clear those counters, fold those towels, clean the shower shelves off and clean around the base of the toilet!  Again clean, tidy and spacious are the goals.

Kitchen counters should get a good decluttering too.  Pack away any unused or barely used appliances, decorative knick knacks and what nots.  Show off your best qualities and hide those unsightly ones! Clean the cabinet doors, refrigerator -inside and out- and stove tops.  Scrub tile grout and shake out the rugs.  See if it is something you would want to purchase yourself. 

The final area to keep an eye on is your tabletops.  No one needs to see 25 pictures of you and your family and friends or all the collections you have or even how many candles you can group together.  Seems a silly thing to worry about when what you are trying to sell is your home but honestly most people can't see past your decorations so how your house looks and FEELS makes a big impact on their decision as to whether or not they want to buy.  Just pack away your perfume bottles and your child's collection of hairbows and jewelry.  store the pictures, except for 2 or 3 and let your house scream out "look at me! I'm tidy.  I'm clean. I'm spacious and very well taken care of." 

Don't forget your realtor.  They've probably got lots of ideas to help you prepare your home for their buyers.  Ask and Listen!  It could mean the difference between "asking price" and "reduced to sell".