When you are trying to make a first impression, what do you do? You look your very best, right? You make sure you shower, fix your hair, shave your legs, and brush your teeth? You put your clean undies on? Wear your best shirt?
When you have a house on the market, you need to think of this as your very first impression. The first place people see your home is online. So if your pictures aren’t spectacular, why would they get off their couch decide to walk through your front door? They won’t I assure you. You have ONE chance for the first impression…you must make it impactful.
Whether your realtor is using a professional photographer or is experienced enough to do this on their own, there are things YOU can do to make a difference. When you put your house on the market, it is because you want to sell it, because for what other reason would we put ourselves through that?
Now is the time you need to do a good cleaning. Empty the closets by HALF. That means, take out HALF of everything. It is okay to have some empty shelves. Buyers sometimes have a tough time looking past your items and imagining their things. The less personal stuff you have, the easier it is for them to imagine their things in those places. Box up the books and decorations by HALF. You are moving, so you need to box them up anyways…so why not do it now? Hide those Precious Moments, no really, the actual Precious Moments. Clutter is the biggest turn off in a house. I have had buyers walk into a home, take three steps into a living area, and turn back around and walk out. Why? Because the space was so cluttered and full of stuff they didn’t have the desire to look past it…and in the DFW area, they don’t have to because there are SO many other houses for sale in North Texas. Turning around in yours means nothing when there are twenty-five others within a mile that also meet all the same criteria. If you have a ton of family pictures on your walls, take them down. You don’t want to distract people. It is more critical for them to focus on your house, then if they know the people living in it.
Decluttering is always a difficult task because people don’t see their stuff as clutter. As a realtor, it is tough to tell clients that they need to box up half of their things to sell their home….
Remember the first impression? You have about ten seconds or seven pictures to impress someone enough to send your address to their real estate agent. Which of these kitchens have the least amount of distractions?
Talk to you soon!
Your Top North Texas Real Estate Agent - Brenda Debus
