House For Sale

My house is for sale.

I know, I know—I just moved here. It’s not that I love moving (and packing, and living with boxes, and unpacking. . .), because I really don’t. It’s simply that when I find another house on the market that has so much potential to be really great (and at a great price), I just can’t resist. That happened to us recently. We found one, we placed a bid, and we bought it. I’m anxious to get my hands on it. But first, my focus is on selling my current (beloved) home.

Having moved a couple times in the past couple of years, my husband and I have had the opportunity to sharpen our house-showing/selling skills. Showing your home to prospective buyers really is an art—it’ll make or break you, so to speak. Some homes sell themselves because of location, character, or high-end finishing. Others, although they may be nice, require staging—dressing it up and setting the mood.



Here are my tips for showing your home for sale:

Clean your home: Yes, I’ve said it before: cleaning your home is probably the most important thing you can do for the look (see ‘The June Clean,’ from June 12). Wash your floors, put neat little vacuum lines in your carpets, and dust everything. If you have vaulted ceilings, tie a towel to a broomstick and sweep away any cobwebs that may have gathered up there. Also (this is one of my personal pet peeves, so to speak): get rid of pet hair and smells. This turns off prospective buyers like very little else.

Declutter your home: Get rid of newspapers, personal documents, dish cloths (put them under the sink for the showing), folded laundry, dirty laundry, counter-top food, bathroom unmentionables, and anything else that may be in the way and not look so good. Also: empty your waste baskets.

Turn on all the lights: Yes—all the lights. Sacrifice the possibility of a higher electric bill for the short time your prospective buyer is in the house. Lighting highlights all the positive aspects of your home, brings colours out and makes everything look brighter and, well, better.

Add a little music: Okay, this one isn’t necessary, but it’s certainly a nice little extra. Playing soft jazz (we like Chet Baker or Miles Davis) or something neutral like that (Norwegian death metal probably wouldn’t be a good idea) adds a little ambient noise that will cut the silence in the home and allow the viewers to talk to each other about what they really think.

Put out a bouquet of fresh flowers: I like doing this whether I’m selling a home or not. Fresh flowers (especially ones that smell beautifully, like stargazer lilies) makes your home look even lovelier. Another tip is to break up one bouquet (you can get a nice one at the Superstore for $9.99) into three separate vases, to be distributed about the house.

Make yourself scarce: If you’re selling your home privately, you have no choice but to be there when you show it. Be inviting and gracious to your visitors (they are still guests, after all) and give them a quick run-down of where everything is when they walk in. But don’t be a fixture in your home try to leave prospective buyers alone to walk through on their own—but be available for questions.

I think the main thing when showing your home is to try and make a highly artificial moment feel like a natural one. It’s not a museum, it’s your home but of course, you want the prospective buyers to feel like it can be their home too.

So, anybody want to buy a house?

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.