Wondering why your home isn’t selling? Clutter deters a home sale and also a price that is set too high for current market conditions.
It is among the most problematic aspects of landing a sale for the home you are selling.
Keep reading to learn how to prevent a messy home from being your undoing.
Selling a home is not always the easy process you might expect. Even if your home is large, in a great neighborhood or has other terrific features, there are things that some prospective buyers will likely be unable to overlook.
If you tend to accumulate lots of personal items and your home’s current condition reveals that trait, you are sure to find it hard to secure an interested buyer. The key to selling someone on your home is to help them envision themselves living in the space and making it their own. This is extremely difficult to do if around every corner is a pile of your own, highly personalized memorabilia.
If at all possible, try to start eliminating excessive furniture from the home as soon as you decide to list it. It probably will not be possible to remove things such as beds and sofas if you plan to continue occupying the home until it is sold, but do your best to get rid of unnecessary pieces. This makes your rooms appear larger and gives the home a feeling of spaciousness that buyers will love.
If you are a collector of shoes, books, knick-knacks or anything else that takes up a great deal of visible space in your home, try to relocate those items for the time being. Ask friends and family if they would be willing to store some of your treasures for you while showings are occurring at your house. If that is an impossibility, you may want to look into the option of renting a storage unit for a few months.
Kitchen clutter is another huge hurdle for anyone looking to sell their home. Because kitchens and bathrooms are such major selling points when it comes to residential properties, it is important to show yours in the best possible light. It may be that you are an avid cook and love to keep your appliances and tools on display, but this can be quite detrimental to your prospects. For the near-term, you will have much greater success by packing away some of your bulkier items that make counter space seem nonexistent.
There is no doubt that your own personal possessions carry great value and meaning to you and your entire family. However, that is not the same thing as adding value to your home in the eyes of prospective buyers. It is absolutely vital to stage your home in such a way as to highlight the potential and available square footage in the property. If each and every room is strewn with clutter and tchotchkes, home shoppers are likely to run in the other direction. Remove personal photos of the family from walls and tables to bring about a more neutral environment. It also helps to make the potential buyers feel more comfortable and less like they are invading your personal space. They may end up not seeing the value in your home, but rather speed things up so they aren’t intruding.
Make your home a neutral, blank slate on which buyers can project their own style and taste, and you will find yourself at a closing table sooner than you ever thought possible.
