Our job is to sell your home—getting you the price you’re asking for and doing so quickly. We market your home to the best of our abilities, but there are ways you can help! Here are our top tips to get your house ready for being listed, including how to prep it for photos and how to have the best possible showings:
Prepare for Your Close Up on “Photo Day”
When we list your home, we send a professional photographer to take photos of your home. We’ve learned that Buyers spend 60% of their time looking at listing photos, and only 20% each on the listing description and details. With that in mind, we want to ensure your home is viewed in the best light. Our photographer is great at doing his job, but there are certain adjustments you can make for “photo day” to ensure your photos come out next level!
Firstly, de-clutter! Everyone has clutter, we get it—it comes naturally from living in a home. In order for our photographer take the best possible photos, we recommend taking loose paper work, boxes, and other unnecessary knick-knacks off of counters, tables, and other surfaces. If you hide away that clutter, your counters will look larger, your tables will be less distracting, and they’ll be less crowding the room—after all we want prospective buyers to pay attention to the room, not the objects within it! This includes taking all, or mostly all, magnets off of the refrigerator. If you can’t or don’t want to want to throw away the papers and other objects, that’s fine—we just recommend to tuck them away into a closet or a corner of the basement until after “photo day”.
Next, we want to depersonalize the home, if only for the photos. Despite the fact that our photographer will blur out the faces of anyone in photographs you have throughout your home—we recommend tucking away as many of those photos as possible to make them less distracting. Research show that when Buyers are looking at photos of a home, they want to be able to picture themselves in the space—and any personal details of the current owners will distract from their ability to do so. We also recommend removing any large signs that include names (like large lettering of children’s names on their bedroom walls).
Now for the Show
So your photos are taken, your home has been listed and now its time for showings with those potential buyers! Our Broker Annmarie Triolo has a time tested belief that if Buyers get turned off by “Three things in three minutes” the showing won’t go well—so let’s talk about how to avoid those three things.
Here’s a quick and easy checklist:
- Ensure that there aren’t papers, notebooks, and other miscellaneous objects all over the counters, tables, and desks.
- Box up anything you don’t immediately need, and hide it away in the basement. The basement is the one area of the house where Buyers are more forgiving about clutter, but keep it in one corner.
- Makes sure all staircases and hallways are clear, to avoid anyone tripping and falling
- Ensure that the front yard doesn’t have toys, bikes, or garbage from the street spread across it
- Close all toilet seats (and make sure nothing is inside those toilets! Flush!)
- Turn off televisions. Music is fine, but make sure it is at a low volume and it isn’t anything aggressive
- Put all medication, jewelry, and valuables out of sight. This includes any paperwork lying out that would have confidential information, or has any Internet passwords or personal information on it.
- Make sure the house smells pleasant! This can be done with gently scented candles or our favorite trick—a fresh pot of coffee being made right before the showing!
- Make sure dirty laundry is tucked away, or hidden away in a hamper
- Ensure that closets aren’t too messy, and won’t have anything falling out of them if a buyer were to open them to see their size
- Give the pets a quick vacation from the home (take that dog for a walk if it’s nice!), or keep them contained in one room. Cats walking around are understandable, but we recommend keeping larger dogs controlled incase prospective buyers are allergic or fearful
- Open shades and let all that beautiful natural light flood the house—it’ll make your home more welcoming and large
- Avoid taking anything the buyers say personally! You love your home, but not everyone is going to—if you’re insulted by something said, brush it off and walk away—let the agents do what they do best!
Communicate With Your Listing Agent
Last but not least—one of the most important parts of ensuring your home is ready to list—communicating with your listing agent! Feel free to ask them if there is anything you can do that they believe would make your house more marketable. Are you anxious? That’s understandable! Tell them what you’re worried about, so they can ease those worries!
Selling homes is an art form, and we’re always improving our skills in doing so—want to learn more? visit our
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