Well….not really pretend but when you are putting your home on the market it needs to become a kind of pretend house for awhile.
What I mean by that is certain things that you live with every day need to go away when your home is being shown to a perspective buyer.
It also means putting things out that you will only have out for your showings. One example is towels. There is nothing better than fresh towels that you have just purchased and that have never been washed. They are nice and fluffy.
These should become your ‘pretend’ towels that you never use while your home is for sale. You put them out only for the professional photography session and for showings. If you leave for work every morning the pretend towels get hung up when you are done showering and getting ready so the bathrooms are ready for a showing.
All ‘real world’ things go away and the pretend world takes over. Is it a pain in the side? Yes. Is it a hassle? Yes. But the goal is to get your house in top selling condition, get an offer quickly and then go back to living normally. You don’t want this to drag on and on and buyers don’t want to see your ‘stuff’.
‘Stuff’ includes:
Tooth Brushes, Shampoo bottles, trash cans, bathroom scales, toilet bowl cleaners, phone charges, dirty laundry, mail, dish drain, piles of shoes, outdoor trash cans…..you get the picture. I will go back to my model home analogy.
If you wouldn’t see it in a model home, a buyer shouldn’t see it in your home. People love model homes because they can immediately see themselves living there. They don’t feel like they are walking into ‘your’ house but ‘their’ house.
Sometimes it is tough to determine what those ‘real world’ items are as we are so used to looking at them every day.
You may want to consider having a trained professional Home Stager come in to let you know what you should and should not have seen during your showings.
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