The Art of Presentation
Three Steps to Preparing your Lake Chelan Home for Sale
Want to sell your home for top dollar? Follow these three simple steps: clean, de-clutter, and create a cohesive flow. The Morris family followed these steps and received a full-priced offer on listing day. Here’s their story.
The Goal
In preparing a home for sale, your goal is to create a ‘model home’ experience for buyers. The entire space should feel crisp and inviting, spacious and well-adorned.
But if you are like me, our homes in daily life rarely offer such poise and style. I’m writing this blog from my rather "un-cohesive" home office. Nearby, I see old toys from my daughter’s youth, a random book collection, and stacks of printer supplies. No style.
Tough Love
When my staging expert and I made our first visit to the Morris home we expected this reality. We looked past the cluttered countertops and closets full of boxes. We looked past rooms full of too much furniture. But we made notes.
Our first job in selling your home is some tough love. Imagine a neat-freak visiting and leaving a list. That’s our role at this point.
We tell you what is dirty. We tell you what is cluttered. And we tell you where your home needs more cohesiveness with little touches of texture and color.
But our team doesn’t leave you to do all the work alone. Before taking listing photos, we arrive with hundreds of dollars of staging items to improve cohesiveness.
The Punch List
Three days after our visit, the Morris family received this three-page punch list. The list outlined items inside and out that would:
Improve cleanliness
Reduce clutter
Increase cohesiveness
Then they got busy.
The bathrooms were transformed by a deep scrubbing of the cabinets, an organization of drawers, and a removal of items on the countertop.
The master bedroom was transformed by moving the bed to another wall and purchasing a floor rug to integrate the room.
And outside, the Morris family installed a set of paver stairs leading to their front door. The original landscaping missed this feature. Finally, the home's stately entry had a stately approach.
The Investment and the Payoff
If you are like me, you are groaning right now. So much work!
But consider: would a new buyer want to do any of this work either? Of course not.
Buyers want homes ready to be enjoyed on move-in day. The market rarely offers them this gift. By creating a clean, clutter-free, and cohesive environment in your home, you are giving this gift to the Buyer.
Your reward? High demand for your home.
The Morris family completed their punch list with military precision. Our team then deployed hundreds of dollars of staging items to offer the finish touches.
The home listed for sale on a Friday. Twenty-four hours later, the Morris family had a full-priced offer. Mission accomplished.
The Take Home
I hope the take home for you is clear: if you thinking of selling your home, the time to start preparing is now.
Focus on creating a clean, clutter-free, and cohesive environment. And like the Morris family, please call us. Objectively viewing our homes that we live in daily can be difficult. We are here to help at every step of the journey.
