We recently (as in, oh, four days ago) sold our house. It was posted on the MLS (multiple listing service) Thursday morning and we had an offer by Thursday afternoon (yes, the same day!). That's almost unheard of in today's market! While I'm sure there was a fair amount of luck involved in this, there were also some well thought out moves on our part that definitely helped the house sell quickly.
Home Staging
I really do believe that the way I staged our home contributed to the quick sale. Home staging involves moving furniture and decorations to best highlight the positive features of your house.
1. Declutter, declutter, declutter!
This is one of the most important things you can do when getting your house ready to sell. Pack away personal items such as family photos or anything that you're not using at the moment, like those 5lb weights I bought and have barely used. You want people to view themselves living in your house - so anything that is specific to you should be removed. As a bonus, it gives you a head-start on your packing!
This is one of our guest bedrooms that also acts as a storage space for items that don't have a home anywhere else in our house (suitcases when not in use, exercise gadgets, extra blankets, etc.)
I neatly stacked away anything that was taking up floor space in the bedroom closet. The futon was covered in a clean sheet to brighten it up (the mattress is black and super difficult to keep clean). The objective here is to make the room look as large as possible by removing all distracting clutter.
2. Let there be light!
When taking photos to put online and before anyone ever came to view the house, I walked through the house and turned on every lamp and light in the house. Despite having large windows that let in plenty of light, turning on all the lights adds a brightness and cheeriness to your house. Think about it - no one wants to buy a dark, gloomy house!
Our master bedroom isn't huge, but with the blinds of both windows open, both bedside lamps on, two lamps on the dresser on the right turned on, and the ceiling fan light above the bed on, the room looks bright and spacious.
It may seem like overkill at first, especially since most of us don't turn on every single light in the house when we're chilling at home. But people will be busy looking at different features of your house and will most likely not think "why are all the lights on?". Instead, they'll remember how bright and cheery your house is.
