Getting Your House Ready for a Showing

Everyone has their own strengths; some excel at math, others grammar. Some are beasts at weightlifting, others at prepping delicious family dinners. My strength would be getting my house ready for a showing. We have been in the HOUSE FOR SALE season for a while now and I'm a self-proclaimed pro at whipping things in to shape before a showing. If I could make a living on doing the same for other houses for sale, it would be my dream job (perhaps I can use my recently acquired Real Estate license to help clients in this regard?).

What I do When I'm Getting My House Ready for a Showing

I'm a mad woman when it comes to showing my house. I take every recommended step to making my house look like a House Beautiful centerfold. I have out very few family photos and I declutter like crazy. I make an effort to provide refreshments to the guests and leave a thank you note for them taking the time to see our house. Then I take things even further: I repaint and patch walls, repair places kids have left their mark. I rearrange furnishings to make better use of space, remove anything that makes the house look too personal, re-polish the hardwood and tile floors, and basically any other re-doings I can think of. There has not been one showing that I didn't start the days ahead with a paintbrush in one hand and mop in the other.

Why You Should Put in the Effort When Getting Your House Ready for a Showing

I think every amount of effort that I  put into a showing totally pays off (with or without an offer) and I highly recommend you do the same to your own home for sale. It's so hard for the viewer to look past your things and clutter and will mistake your home for being too small if it's too full. A dirty or smelly house will give buyers the impression that your home has not been cared for. If you haven't taken the time to clean your house before a showing, it might make viewers think there may be major maintenance areas that have also been neglected. You cannot afford to give buyers a bad first impression.  For your viewing pleasure, I created a SIMPLE list of the easy peasy basics for getting your house ready for a showing. If you aren't into repainting, repairing, rearranging, etc hire help or ask a friend to help you tackle the big stuff. This list is all of the things that you CAN and SHOULD do before each showing to make your house stand out from the rest and get the offer you want! Get the printable version of the form at the bottom of this post.

We recently took our kids on a drive through town to window shop houses for sale. One of the kids asked if the Elf on the Shelf would move with us. I jumped at the opportunity to leave Rudy the Elf behind and cleverly told them, "You know, Rudy was assigned to us because of where our house is. It's likely that he won't follow us to a new house. Maybe he'll continue to visit whoever lives in our house next." For shame! Think it will work? If getting a new house is exciting, leaving that dang elf behind would be winning the lottery.

What do you do for getting your house ready for a showing? Have I left anything off that you find is a must do? I find the garage to be the hardest area to tackle. Since I chalk paint furniture (like this Trombone Yellow Chest of Drawers or this Swanky Bar), my garage can tend to get filled to the brim with used furnishings. Oh, don't forget to get my Chalk Paint Recipe or eBooks so you too can fill your garage with hand-me-down furniture to paint. ;)

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