Maybe some things you might not think of in the flurry of activity to get your house on the market…
Clean Windows — clean them and keep them that way checking before each showing to make sure dogs or kids haven’t left smears behind. If bright and sparkling sells houses, letting the light in through clean glass is the first step.
Clean fans blades — you don’t want everything else to be sparkling clean and have a prospective seller look up and find caked on dust layered fan blades. Get up there with a ladder and give the entire fan a thorough dusting.
Clean bugs out of all light fixtures — while you have the ladder in to clean fan blades clean you ceiling fixtures. Dirty globes block light and you don’t want a prospective buyer looking up and seeing a collection of dead bugs. You don’t want a prospective buyer to even think the word bug while in your house.
Baseboards — it won’t do a lot of good to clean the carpet and floors if the baseboards are grimy. Get down and wash the base boards — especially if they’re white. If they run along carpet use a crevasse tool to vacuum all the crud that can accumulate between the baseboard and the carpeting. I find that crevasse to be an amazing dog hair catcher.
Refrigerators – a lot of refrigerators are the family show place. Kid’s art is hung there, family pictures, magnets from past vacations. All that stuff screams “This is somebody else’s house!” when prospective buyers walk into the kitchen. You want them thinking “Hmmm. Nice kitchen. I could see our family in here.” Take the stuff down and pack it safely away for your new house. The kids will understand why it has to disappear for a short while.
Pictures and showings – I got this from a professional photographer who has a very successful business taking pictures for house listings on the internet. He said houses look best with all curtains and blinds open and every single light turned on. He was right — the pictures he took of my house were spectacular.
He told me the follow-up was to do the same thing for every showing of the house. The worst thing you can do is have your house look great in pictures and then disappointing in person because you haven’t opened every blind and turned on every light so the house looks the same as it did in the pictures. Last thing you should do before walking out is turning every single light on for your prospective buyers.
Create a checklist – create a list of the finishing touches you leave until the last minute and put it on your smart phone. I have mine in Evernote and I consult it before every showing. Little things like doing a toilet check to make sure they’re flushed…
