Selling and Decluttering – The Front Hall Closet

Your front hall closet is going to be viewed when Buyers come to look at your house.  Most people have the front hall closet packed tight.  Before you put your house on the market,  de clutter the closet. 

Buy a box of wooden hangers (they look solid and substantial while costing less than a dollar each).  Take out all the coats and jackets and choose one or two for each person in the house – one if there is little space, two if there is more room.  Take out anything that is not coat, boot, scarf and glove related.  Find a different place in the house for these items.  If it summer, take out the winter coats and vice versa.  You can pack your seasonal coats and outerwear now, in anticipation of the move.  You might take this opportunity to have your coats cleaned and/or given to the Salvation Army.

When everything is out of the closet, sweep and wash it.  Toss the bent hangers and mismatched mittens.  Find a new home for your dozen purses, vacuum cleaner and the kitty litter bag. 

Hang on to your Buyers with a clean, organized and spacious closet.

Photo credit:  Coat Hanger Cintre @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/21025851@N00/2169219432/

Five More Decorating Mistakes that Bug Ottawa Buyers

There was a television special about the 25 biggest decorating mistakes people make in their homes.  Everyone has made a few of these and learned to live with them over time.  However, there are some more obvious to home Buyers than others.  Of the 25 here are 5 more of my favourites when it comes to selling / show casing your home:

  1. Outdated Accessories – For the Owner – the door handles work and over time they are just there.  For the Buyer, old door handles date the house and make the Buyer think that the whole kitchen / bathroom may have to be updated. 
  2. Furniture that Doesn’t Fit- For the Owner the big puffy couch with matching love seat and armchair are wedged into the room with just enough space to get by and why not?  It works for the Owner.  For the Buyer, a room that is stuffed with furniture looks small and may make the Buyer think that they too cannot get their furniture all in the room.
  3. Fear of Colour – everything is in builder’s white.  For the Owner white goes with everything.  There can be no colour mistakes when there is no colour.  For the Buyer, the house has no spark and not memorable.  White walls can look dirty over time so……
  4. Fake Flowers – For the Owner going fake is the answer to replace expensive and short lived fresh flowers.  For the Buyer fake flowers and plants are dust collectors, soon look dated and seldom fool anyone about their provenance.
  5. Ignoring windows – For the Owner, the tacked on blanket has served its purpose for the last three years and why spend money on window treatments now that you are moving?  For the Buyer, blankets, torn fabric, bent metal blinds, dirty drapes all mean that the Sellers are neglectful and cheap. If this is what is not done for the windows, then what is not done for the rest of the house.

Decorating is important when you are marketing your house.  It is not about how you live but how you want the Buyer to imagine themselves in your house.

Photo credit:  Fake Flowers in the Sun @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/orinrobertjohn/1795685457/

Zingers #111 – Behind door #1

You have some very valuable things and decide to put them in one room of your house and then lock the door when people come to see the house.  It might be that you have taken all of your mess, shoved it in a room and then locked the door.  Resist the temptation to do this.  If your house is for sale ensure that buyers can see everything.

Let’s make a deal on the whole house.

Selling and Decluttering – The Linen Closet

A Buyer for your home will open every closet door, including your linen closet.  If you have things that you would rather people not see, put them in a box.  Buyers open doors but should never be opening boxes or drawers in your furniture. Now that you know that your linen closet will be on display, declutter it before your house is on the market. 

Start by removing everything in the closet. 

1.     Wash the shelves, walls and door.

2.     Sort through your towels.  Keep one or two spare sets in the closet and pack or give away the others. If you have the room, roll some of your towels and put them in a basket in the bathroom near the tub. 

3.     Look at all your bed linen.  If you need to make space in the closet choose two sets per bed in the house.  One set is on the bed; the other is neatly folded and kept in the bedroom that contains the bed.  A neat trick is to fold the sheets and the pillow cases but keep one pillow case to be used as a bag to put the matching set inside.  This way, all you have to do is find the one bag for the bed.

4.     Look at your toiletries.  Are any stale dated?  Toss.  What about the cleaning products?  Sort through these in the same way.  Keep only what you will be using for the next few weeks and store the others in boxes in the basement/garage/storage locker.  Watch out when packing liquids.  Most movers will not allow liquids.  You might want to give your products to friends or relatives. 

5.     Have you got photographs, games, wrapping paper and ribbons and a myriad of other things in the linen closet?  Consider putting these away in boxes for the move.  The less you have in the closet the bigger it will look.  Stage it so that Buyers can imagine their own things in the closet.

6.     When everything is sorted, stack what you will keep in the closet. 

7.     Don’t be tempted to put an air freshener in the closet.  If you must, buy some lavender sachets and put them between the bed sheets. It will give a faint smell and is good aromatherapy for sleeping.

 

Please your Buyer with an organized and clean linen closet.

Photo credit:  118/365: Towels, Again @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/playfullibrarian/3498846572/

Photo credit:  Lavender square @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/dichohecho/3800608793/

 

Things Ottawa Home Buyers May Notice #35 – Missing Pictures

Everything you read about staging says to take down personal photos and unusual pictures from the walls.  What some advisers fail to say is – take out the hooks, the nails, the thumbtacks and any other type of hanger and fix the wall. 

Buyers and I were looking at a wonderful bungelow.  The layout, while a bit unusual, was appealing.  However, everywhere you looked there were hooks and nails in the walls where the owners had previously hung their ‘art’.   These were owners who hung stuff over the doors, low on the walls (probably for the children) in collages, above cupboards, etc.  When we finally made it to the basement, there was the ‘art’, stacked along the walls ready for packing. 

It would have been advisable to patch the holes and touch up the paint. 

This house became unhooked from the Buyers’ list.

 Photo credit: Uninspired 46/365 @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/skyfire/4359853973/

Zingers #103 – Wow

Try to have at least one “wow factor” in your home. When Buyers have viewed your house you want them to remember that your house was “the one with the wonderful kitchen”, “the one with the great view”, “the one with the fantastic bath tub”, “the one with the great yard”.  Whatever it is, look for and feature the most impressive thing about your house.

Watch Out World

Why these 5 Decorating Mistakes Turn Buyers Away

There was a television special about the 25 biggest decorating mistakes people make in their homes.  Everyone has made a few of these and some are more obvious to home Buyers than others.  Of the 25 here are 5 of my favourites when it comes to selling / show casing your home: 

  1. Toilet rugs – for the family who want to keep their feet warm – good on you BUT for the Buyer this is just a trap for bodily bits and fluids.  This one has a high yuk factor.
  2. Packed Foyer – for the family this is the first catch all station of book bags, boots, shoes, garbage going out, groceries coming in and dropped outerwear.  For the Buyer – this is about getting inside the house and part of the first impression of the house.  Let the Buyers have room to navigate getting their own shoes off and stepping into the living space.
  3. Lack of traffic pattern for furniture placement – for the family where the furniture sits becomes known and members can navigate in the dark around all the pieces.  For the Buyer – clear room to walk in and around the space is needed.  Keep big things away from doorways.  Less is more when you remove furniture to make room for Buyer traffic.
  4. The room purchased in a box (where everything matches).  For the family this is a simple way to decorate – get the bedding, wallpaper, border, pillows, lamps and rug all in the same pattern (the same would go in bathrooms with towels, shower curtain, paper, border, vanity accessories).  For the Buyer this is a nightmare.  
  5. Floating area rugs – For the family, the small rug under the coffee table is perfect.  For the Buyer, the eye sees this as making the room smaller and chopped up.  The solution is to get a bigger rug and anchor it with the legs of the couch, armoirs, etc.  

These are five of my favourites.   There will be others in later blogs.  Remember, if you are not selling, who cares how you live.  When you are selling, you are selling a product – an image – a lifestyle.  Stage your home to show off its best.

Photo credit:“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” Albert Einstein @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/katerha/4526272937/

Selling and Decluttering – The Deck and Patio

Even if you never go outside, declutter and stage your deck and patio. Think simple.  Think clean.  

 

If you are thinking of selling sometime in the future and it is summer, get your camera out and take as many pictures of the decluttered deck and patio as you can.  You may have to sell in winter and these pictures will be invaluable to have on your listing or to leave for Buyers to see when they are looking at your house. 

 

You are selling a package – the house and the yard.

 

Photo credit:  Patio @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/dailyinvention/33941672/

Build Your Ottawa House Buying / Selling Team

Think of your house buying and selling as one huge project and you are the project manager.  Project Managers will tell you up front that they are not necessarily experts in every area of the project but that they can find the resources, create a team, set a project schedule with milestones and, in the end, be able to evaluate the success of the project.  Now you, the home Buyer/Seller are going to be the manager with your own PMBOK – Project Management Body of Knowledge, including creating the team. 

Who do you need? 

Don’t be afraid to call upon people to be part of your “team”.  Buying, selling and moving are huge endeavours and it is unrealistic to think that you can do all of this alone. 

Photo credit:  Project Management Plan @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/perhapstoopink/467087455/

Zingers #100 – Represent and warrant

In the Offer to Sell, the owner usually is required to represent and warrant that all fixtures and finishings will be in working order when the new owner takes possession.  If there is a pool, the period may extend until spring when the new owner can determine that the pool is in full working order.  If you are selling, ensure that you leave everything in good repair.

You will not want to make many unhappy returns to your old house.

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