5 Tips for Living in Your For-Sale Home

Five ways to help make selling your home simpler and more efficient.  

How can you continue to live in your house once you put it on the market? Your home has always been your sanctuary, your one true personal space, but now it’s listed for sale and will soon get a ton of foot traffic. This can get very stressful and make it difficult to continue living your normal life in your house, especially if you have young children. So here are five tips to help you continue living your life in your for-sale home and keep things a bit less hectic:

1. Start packing now. Packing and storing boxes in the basement or garage is completely acceptable. We want to open up as much space as possible; we’re emphasizing floor space and square footage, so the larger it feels, the more money you’ll get. 

2. Purge what you don’t use. We accumulate a lot while we live in our homes. When you’re packing, try to get rid of things you don’t need. My recommendation is if you haven’t touched an item in a year and it’s not an heirloom or memory, it’s time to part with it. Try to at least donate items that are still in decent condition.

"Packing and storing boxes in the basement or garage is completely acceptable."

3. Get squeaky clean.  A clean, cared-for house can net you $5,000 to $10,000 more for your sale. Get a professional cleaner to spruce up the home before you list. It’s less work for you, and you’ll only have to dust every now and then. 

4. Maintain privacy and safety.  Buyers are going to be looking through closets and other areas people wouldn’t typically see. Ensure there’s nothing valuable or personal anywhere that they could find. If you’re unsure about an item, be on the safe side and lock it away somewhere secure (this includes medications).

5. Establish parameters. Set aside time for important things, such as lunch, your kids’ naps, dinner, etc., so that you’re not completely occupied with people coming through your home. If a buyer wants to see the home during a blocked-off time, they can always call your Realtor and see if it’s okay. Establishing these parameters with your Realtor upfront can help keep you sane.

If you’d like to dig deeper into the tips above or have any questions about real estate in general, please shoot me an email or give me a call. I would love to help in any way I can.