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The Game-Plan: De-Clutter and Clean

1/6/2016

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What Can You Do? A Messy Home
Despite this being after the staging section of our Game Plan, the most essential aspect of ‘staging’ a home is the de-cluttering that is required to make a home show better. Clutter eats equity – this is the best way to think about clutter. Here are some rules of thumb that will help you as a Realtor or a seller:
  • All counter tops, desk tops, or the tops of any furniture should be clear of everything, except items that are necessary, e.g. a clock on your bedside table;
  • Remove 50-75% of EVERYTHING from your closets and cabinets (yes, that much); It is ideal to have the top shelf of the closet, and the floor empty; Buyers DO look in cabinets and closets, so making it seem as if there is ample space for storage is the goal in this tip;
  • If you have a pot rack, or are holding cook-wear and other kitchen items in plain sight, figure a way to get rid of some of it, or put it into your newly cleaned cabinets; This correlates to shortage of storage/cabinet space from a buyer's eyes;
  • In bathrooms, get rid of everything in plain sight except the soap dispenser and towels; Regarding Staging, put clean white (new and unused) towels onto the towel rack for each showing;
  • The TV stand should have your cable box, game system(s), and router, but nothing else (i.e. no games, dvds, and other items in plain sight);
  • Kids toys should be kept in containers, and the majority removed – ask your child which toys he wants to play with for the next month, and put the rest in a box in the garage, for now;
  • It is better to fill the garage/attic with boxes, and have an overflowing garage, than to have all your stuff out and about inside the home.
The goal of de-cluttering is to remove the distractions that are common in every home. A buyer needs to have the best opportunity to look at the home, and not the stuff. Considering this is a zero-cost solution to help a home sell, every homeowner should do their utmost to take these tips to heart.
​Hand-in-hand with de-cluttering is the last step before photography - cleaning. It is essential that for every showing, that the home is picked up in advance. You might make a habit of cleaning every morning before going to work, to avoid any issues here. But it is also a good idea to do a deep clean prior to listing, especially if it has never been done before. Hire a company, as it makes it so much easier for you. You can find someone for $30-$50 per hour, which is well-worth the money. You should also have all carpets cleaned – for a vacant home, I have a carpet cleaner that does one ‘zone’ for $50, basically any room is considered a zone. Make sure to clean inside and outside of windows as well. 
For a seller, the de-cluttering and cleaning processes are infinitely low cost solutions to making the home smell and feel livable for a new buyer. 
This article is one of several about Listing Real Estate - The Game-Plan.
The next topic in our Game-Plan is Photography.
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    We (Joe and Chris Balestriere) are Realtors in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Our blog is meant to educate buyers and sellers and equip them with tools to get the most out of their Realtor, whether it is us or someone else. We focus on technology and how it enhances the work we do for our clients--we are not top CT Realtors by accident.

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