Organization is the backbone: preparing a house for sale
A good organization system is invaluable in any home, but it can Live without it in your day-to-day life if you wish. However, when your house is for sale, it is absolutely necessary to organize all the spaces in the house. If you skip this step when preparing your home for sale, it could cost you money by closing with a lower offer or causing buyers to sell the home entirely.
Organization can be difficult to reach. People have the best intentions to get organized and stay organized. They go out and buy boxes and baskets and promise to use them from now on. And sometimes they do, but most of the time, it doesn’t work that way. Usually these people end up with boxes and baskets full of stuff, and more stuff elsewhere. This is fine for everyday life, but when the house is for sale, it just doesn’t work.
One of the many reasons it’s so difficult to live in a home while it’s listed for sale: All areas of your home simply need to be well organized while the home is listed. Why? Because buyers are curious (nosy) and for good reason.
When a potential buyer decides to visit your home in person, there are so many obstacles to overcome to even get them through the door. Do online photos look great? Is the house priced right? Is the curb appeal cool? Is there something that smells funny from the front?
When you actually get them around the house, you’re solidly in the game. You have overcome all the initial hurdles in selling your home to these particular people. These can be your buyers, so don’t screw it up with ‘behind-the-scenes’ chaos.
Behind-the-scenes chaos occurs when a home looks good on the surface, but beneath clean windows, excellent furniture arrangement, and strategically placed lighting is a disorganized space. Cabinets, drawers, built-ins, and cupboards have a huge impact on the purchase decision. If buyers cannot easily see how their things will work in the space, they will become emotionally disconnected from the home. You don’t want this disconnect to happen. It is the buyer’s emotional connection to a home that offers the best deal. Disconnecting from chaos makes them want to get out of the house, not buy a house.
Shoppers are a nosy bunch, and for good reason. They want to inspect all the spaces they are considering buying. Wouldn’t you? Buying a home is often the most important purchase that people make in their life. They need to feel safe when bidding. They need to feel connected to a home to be willing to pay for it.
They need to see every inch of space the house has to offer. This includes all drawers, cabinets, and built-in closets in the home. Each. One of them. Is reasonable Thinking buyers won’t open drawers and cabinets on furniture that won’t be included in a home sale, but don’t count on it. No real estate agent can be in every room at all times. The drawers will be opened, inspected and court. Keep this in mind.
Even the most beautiful staging of every room in a house is destroyed by cluttered closets or cabinets with disasters. If you have just thrown things into any space, large or small, you are telling the buyer that there is not enough storage space in this house to live in peace. Buyers don’t necessarily hear the chaos clearly or in those words, but they will strongly feel the discord in the space. They will “feel” a reason to give up the property or to make a low offer because they don’t feel there is enough storage space. They may move to the next house because they think their things will never fit in this one.
Your clutter process should have helped you cut down on only those things that bring you joy or that you really need. The next step is to organize the things that remain in the best possible way so that it gives you and more importantly your buyers a sense of peace.
Buyers are willing to pay for spaces where they can imagine a quiet and peaceful life. They want to think that if they lived in your beautiful organized home they would have the quiet and peaceful life to which they aspire. They believe they will be able to find car keys, sunglasses, and cell phone at all times.
Organized spaces are the “bones” that sustain the quality seen in an organized home. Without organization, even the best prepared room cannot stand up to a buyer’s inspection.
When preparing your home to sell, be sure to organize each space as part of your process because you know buyers will be looking everywhere. You’ll be glad you took the time on closing day with cash in the bank!