Home

[CANDLEQUEEN]

I remember the main thing being on HGTV is keeping your house super clean, and if you have pets to keep their area clean as well, people do not want to smell a pet the minute they walk in...I can remember seeing several of The House Hunters episodes, and people would comment right away is there a cat here or a dog?My mom has a big dog as well as my sister and her husband, yet I never smell it when I walk into their home..

[Financialgrl]

I just sold my home. When it was put up for sale, we had a realtors' showing before putting it on the market. I had some pretty brutal comments (replace the wall to wall carpeting upstairs and repaint the whole house some shade of white). I spent about $7000 to do that and most homes in that area take about a year to sell but my home sold in about 4 months. I also lowered the price down to what the realtors all felt was the best break point so it'd go much quicker. Also, whenever there was a showing, the buyers' realtors would add their clients' comments to an online database so we could see if any of the comments were ones we could use. My biggest problem was that the back yard had a deep slope downhill - but as they say, it only takes one person and the hill never bothered me and apparently didn't bother the new owner either!

[Kalli]

I remember when we were kids and our house was for sale, it was a nightmare when we had to run all over cleaning for a showing!  (6 kids, a dog and a cat)  Don't know how my parents survived that!

Anyway, DH often says some simple landscaping can go a long way toward helping sell a home.

[ccassaday]

Our house is going on the market in the spring! Because there are no houses for sale and it is a sellers market we will be doing a lot less than if there were a ton of houses on the market. This summer we have worked in the yard. As soon as temps go down we will be putting up some new trim and priming it. Then hire someone to paint. We have a few shingles that need replacing on the roof. This fall and winter we will be working on the inside. Putting new kitchen flooring down and painting. We will probably paint the family room. The half bath gets a new toilet and sink. Then we plan on moving to a rental while our house is being built. Being disabled and moving in with my parents we had to turn our dining room into a shower room. After we move to a rental we will take that out and carpet it. Then have the carpets scrubbed.

[ID2]

---

@GCR18 wrote:

Remove personal items and clutter.  Like nick nacks, family pictures, magnets on the fridge, stacks of newspapers, etc.

Repaint interior a light neutral color.  If not in the budget, paint rooms that are bold colors or painted special for a child.

Remove wallpaper and borders.

Shampoo the carpet.

Make the bed every morning.  

Keep kitchen and bathroom spotless.

 We just sold our house last year. We had tons of wallpapered walls! Never took anything down and we sold in 3 weeks. I never did live in a cluttered home so that wasn't an issue. I did keep everything spotless though. When showing our house I put away all visual signs that we had two cats, packed up our cats and took them with us when people walked through.Our buyers realtor told me that she knew we were fanatics at keeping our house clean because the window and doorwall tracks were spotless! Being nit-picky when cleaning really pays off. 

---