Presenting Your Home for an Open House

So you’ve decided to sell your home!  It can be very daunting and scary – not to mention keeping a house ‘visitor tidy’ when you have young children is near-on impossible.  

But to get the very best money you can achieve for your home, you need to present it in the right light.  Here are the SAHM suggestions on presenting your home for an open house:

First impressions count so make sure the front of your property is thoroughly clean and tidy.  Make sure your front gate doesn’t squeak, the paths are clean and the front door is in good condition.  Orange flowers are apparently good ‘Feng Shui’ and encourage people to part with their money – so add a couple of pots of Marigolds or similar at your front door or near the front gate (I don’t usually believe in that stuff – but it seriously worked for me!).

via GIPHY

Inside your Home:

• Open all the blinds/curtains to let the natural light in
• Air your house out for a few hours
• Bake some bread or biscuits just before an open house, it leaves the best aroma.  If you don’t have time to do that, light an oil burner with a tiny amount of lavender oil.  Remember less is more.
• Clean all the walls from grotty hand prints and chocolate etc.
• If it’s a cool day, place the heater on low, it makes the house feel more homely
• Pack away all clutter, a house with less clutter looks bigger and more inviting.
• Nothing beats seeing some beautiful fresh flowers on the kitchen table in a glass vase.
• Vacuum and mop every inch of the house
• Turn on all the lights and lamps so the house feels again has that warmly feeling
• Make sure your toilet is impeccably clean and has lovely fresh toilet paper.
• Always helps to clean inside the cupboards as people like to sneak a look
• Pop all dishes away and even the dishes in the microwave
• Clean inside the oven
• Clean all bench tops
• Make sure all you windows are nice and clean
• Clean over your light switches, there is nothing worse than a sticky light switch!

Outside your Home:

• Rake up any leaves
• Make sure all spider webs are swept down
• Always remove your pets and clean up all the doggy doo on the ground
• Mow the lawns, sweep down the driveway, path ways, and outdoor patio
• Weed any gardens and trim bushes
• Just before the inspection, give your plants and lawn a quick wet, it makes everything look a lot nicer, brighter and fresher
• Clean up your garage and garden shed as these are a *man’s place* to look
• Remove your cars and your pets just before the open home – it makes it look more spacious and no one wants someone else’s dog slobbering all over them.

via GIPHY

 Other Things You Can Do to Get the Best Price:

If you’re ultra-serious about selling – here are some serious tips:

• Remove some furniture so that the house looks as spacious as possible.  Take it to a storage shed (not your own shed – that would be obvious)
• Furniture looking a bit shabby?  Borrow or hire some furniture to give your house the best look.  Sure it’s an added expense, but the extra money you may get will make it worthwhile!
• Spacious is good but bare is not.  Invest in some beautiful pot plants for that bare spot that just needs ‘something’.
• Re-caulk your shower and bath to make your bathroom ‘pop’.
• Buy some beautiful fluffy towels for the bathroom and a new doona cover to dress the room.
• Take down all family photo’s and put generic photo’s/pictures up.  You want the new owners to feel like it’s their home, not yours.
• Repaint walls that need it.

What are your suggestions for staging a home?