One of the most frustrating aspects of selling a house is the stress and pressure of preparing the home for pictures, listing and showings. This includes not only staging but also purging, repairing, landscaping and depersonalizing your home. No doubt about it, this process is exhausting and universally overwhelming. Here are a few suggestions to make that process a bit more manageable.

  1. Start early. Don’t wait until you are about to list the house to do these projects. It’s the urgency that raises your blood pressure, so plan ahead.
  2. Adjust your mindset. Unless you are a very rare exception, you probably have too much stuff. Most people use about 25% of the items in their homes. That includes clothes, shoes, kitchen items, books, art, magazines, keepsakes, and anything else that fills up your space. Long before you list the house, you need to start purging the things you don’t need or use. Donate them to charity, give meaningful items to relatives, make your grown kids come pick up their old junk, then mindfully consider whether each piece has any usefulness in your life. For example, did you save all your baby’s toys and he’s now in college? Pull out his favorite toy, then give the rest to someone who would enjoy them. Did you save your jeans from 2000 in the hopes you could wear them again? Seriously? They’re not in style and you’re never going to wear them. Let them go. Once you start purging, you’ll find that it is extremely cathartic. Keep the mindset that you are starting a new adventure, and this is the first step. Everything you purge frees up more room in the home, makes the house look bigger, saves you from having to pack it later and ultimately makes you more money.
  3. If it’s broken, damaged or inoperable, fix it or throw it away. All real estate agents will tell you that little flaws signify to the buyer that the home has not been well-cared-for. Even little things like nicks in paint, broken light switch plates, cracks in sheetrock, old water stains from long-forgotten leaks, burnt-out light bulbs – these are minor problems that are easy and inexpensive to fix. But to a buyer, they send the wrong message. Sheetrock often cracks when a house settles, but to a buyer (and too often an inspector), it implies there is a foundation problem. Old water stains scream “this house leaks” even if the problem was resolved long ago. Perception is reality to a buyer, and some inspectors use wording in their reports that scares the buyer to death. Pay attention to the little flaws because they add up.
  4. Make it look clean and new. It’s always a shock to show a house and find that it is filthy. Pay attention to fingerprints on doors and light switches. Wipe down your baseboards. An often-overlooked sign of old age is the home’s vents. They get dusty and dirty. For the price of a spray can of paint, you can disconnect the vent covers, clean them, coat with spray paint then reconnect them making it look like new construction. Don’t forget to check your front door. You probably come in the garage and haven’t looked at it in ages. The buyers will get their first impression standing on your front porch. Make it sparkle. And don’t ignore pet smells. You probably don’t register those smells, but a buyer will. Most of the time, getting the carpets cleaned will make a huge difference, and Febreze is your friend.
  5. Landscaping matters. We often hear that the deer eat all of the flowers in people’s yards. Let’s all agree that lake deer are well-fed. Check with your nursery to see what plants are deer-resistant; then choose plants with as much color as possible. Purple flowers do not show up well in pictures, but yellow ones do. Marigolds are not the prettiest flowers, but they keep bugs away and show up on camera. Lemongrass is also bug resistant and makes a nice backdrop for other plants. By all means, refresh your ground cover and kill weeds. Also, old overgrown bushes, especially boxwoods and similar shrubs, can date a house. Trim them down or better yet, replace them with something smaller. Today’s landscaping trends are fairly simple. It’s better to have a variety of colors and textures than huge, mature plants that actually cover the features of the home. You can find hearty, leafy plants in gold and burgundy that complement the look of your green plants, and you may not even need flowers (a.k.a. deer food).

And last but not least, go ahead and pack up your personal items including family pictures, memorabilia, trophies, awards, etc. You are going to have to pack them anyway, so get a head start. You want your buyers to focus on your gorgeous lake views, not your gorgeous grandkids.

It’s all about starting early and doing these projects over several months. The goal is to make the home look bigger, lighter and loved. And don’t forget your dock. It is adding a lot of value to your sale, so make it look as neat and cared-for as possible. Roll up ropes, replace rotting boards, and pressure wash it if needed. You want buyers to imagine themselves having fun on that dock.

These steps will help your house sell quicker and for more money. It’s worth the effort.