Cutting Down the Time it Takes to Prepare your Home For Sale


If you’re thinking of listing your property, one thing that might be holding you back is concern about preparing your home for sale. You may be wondering how much work there will be. Is it going to take a couple of months? A couple of weeks? A few days?

That, of course, depends on the state of your property.

However, regardless of how close your home is to “show time” ready, there is plenty you can do to reduce how long that preparation takes. Consider these ideas:

  • Sell stuff online. The less cluttered your home seems to buyers, the better it will show. So, make a list of items you want to sell, and then list them on one of the many local online market websites. Price items fairly and, chances are, you’ll get rid of everything in a day or two.
  • Have a repair day. Go through your home and make a list of everything that needs to be fixed. Then, schedule repair people to all come on the same day. Voila! In one day, all needed repairs (or, at least, most of them) are done.
  • Get staging advice. Instead of guessing at what changes you need to make around your home to make it look its best, get expert staging advice. You’ll find out exactly what the experts suggest you do, and you’ll save a lot of time and money. (By the way, I can provide you with that advice too.)
  • Ask before making big improvements. Are you planning to convert a wood burning fireplace into a gas unit to help sell your home? Before doing any big improvements or renovations like that, talk to me. You don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on an unnecessary project.
  • Hire help. You don’t have to do everything on your own. Get the help you need. For example, hire a painter, a cleaner, and/or a junk removal service. Those will significantly shorten the time it takes to prepare your home for sale and save you a lot of work. Also, the costs of those professionals may be off-set by the increase in the sale price of your home.

Bottomline: Preparing your home doesn’t need to be overwhelming and time-consuming. Contact me for more ideas to help get your home ready for sale, quickly.

Bathroom Staging Tips from Professional Home Stagers

There’s a reason why there are “kitchen and bath” stores, and even design magazines devoted to these rooms. A well-staged kitchen and bathroom can make the entire home look better. So, it’s no surprise that professional home stagers pay particular attention to these spaces.

What do these pros have to say about bathrooms?

Professional stagers advise that you start by taking a picture of the room. Looking at that picture will give you a better sense of how others see your bathroom and reveal what needs to be changed.

Then, de-personalize it. When you’re showing your home to buyers, you want the bathroom to resemble a guest bathroom. So, no shaving kits, toothbrushes, sticky notes to self on the mirror, etc.

Stagers also recommend that anything worn be replaced. This will likely include the shower curtain and mats, which tend to wear and stain quickly.

Hang fresh new towels on the rack. (If you’re buying new towels for this purpose, choose white.) Put an unused bar of soap or hand cleaner next to the sink. Make it look like a freshly stocked hotel bathroom.

If required, paint the walls. Off-white colours, including beiges and light greys, work well.

As you can see, it doesn’t take much to stage your bathroom and make it look its best for buyers. Looking for more staging tips? Call today.