If your house is/was recently for sale, please come in

kmh2201 · April 2011

Maybe we're crazy to put our house up for sale with 2u2, but we did. What I'm hoping for from you is your "triage" list of things to clean/pick up around the house when you have a request to view your house on short notice. The kitchen is first on my list becuase it's the first thing they see, then the bathroom countertops and toilets, then vacuuming. Are there other important things to consider? TIA!!

lkf041 · April 2011

Ours is for sale now. I won't lie, it is tough to get it ready for a showing! All of the "stuff" has to be put away. First my suggestion would be take down any personal photos, it helps to make it look like a model home. Also, declutter as much as possible... we got a storage unit and dumped tons of stuff in there.

Here is my list of what I do in the case of a quick showing besides the normal cleaning routine:

Remove all toys from all rooms and store away in a closest. I got a ton of plastic bins and all toys get thrown in there and stashed away. I take my diaper basket to my car along with the highchair. The less baby stuff around the bigger the house seems. We don't play upstairs as much anymore because keeping that clean is easy if you don't play in there:)

It's a hassle but it will be worth it when we sell Smile Good luck to you and I hope it sells quick!

maramarrie · April 2011

Sorry I'm not much help....add three cats and a large breed dog and you have the #1 reason we moved out before putting ours on the market. I think we got more for it than might have been offered if we still had all our baby paraphernalia in there. It showed really well when we left it partially staged.

The first thing we did (in case we did decide to stay there while we sold) was pack up EVERYTHING we could absolutely live without for several months (photos, candles, accessories, toys, etc.). DS had a handful of toys and books at his disposal and the rest were packed up in big boxes that were easy to get to if we wanted to swap things out after a while.

memali26 · April 2011

I'm coming at it from the opposite view of you - we're house hunting right now, so if you don't mind advice from a potential buyer... Smile

Since we have a young child, I totally understand when we see baby paraphernalia in various places and know how difficult it is to find a place for it in the first place, let alone trying to hide it away! But, when there are toys and swings and jumperoos and high chairs all over the place it makes it hard to really SEE the house, if that makes sense. Obviously you still live there and shouldn't have to go bare bones, but putting away some of the kid-clutter, if possible, even just in the garage or basement, will make the space look more open and let the buyer really see the features of the house.

Also, I agree with PP who said pack up non-essentials like pictures, and would add that any appliances that don't NEED to live on the kitchen counters could get packed up too. Again, lets the buyer really see the space and features of the house. And the counter space in a kitchen is a big deal to me, so making it look as big as possible is a plus for the seller!

Good luck selling! I always feel bad when we walk away from a house. Even though I know it's not the house for us I just feel bad that someone got their hopes up that they might sell this time and be let down Sad

Telyco · April 2011

We moved into our current house in late January. We also moved before putting our old house on the market. It would have been WAY to much for me since DH works a lot. We were very lucky and sold our house within a week - but were fully prepared to rent it out if needed. We went with a realty company that also manages properties...so if we needed to go that route, the realtor could also show the home to prospective renters.

Paying two mortgages for a few months has been sucky hit to our bank account - but much less than putting me in a looney bin.

TUGOsQueen · April 2011

We went through it while I was pregnant with #2.

We got a POD and put everything extra in it we could live with out and lots of toys and big gear and half our furniture. Having the place staged made it esaier to do a quick clean up. It was during my first trimest and all I wanted to do was sleep! I used a hinged cube for the coffee table to easily throw toys into. I seldom cooked and we ate out too much.

We are in the process of buying a farm now (but fortunately keeping our current place as a rental) and have been looking at a lot of houses. Yes, clutter does make a room seem smaller but I think most shoppers can look past some of it. Get a storage unit or purge belongings to elimate some clutter and then the kid stuff won't seem so bad.

Lynn07 · April 2011

lkf041:
Ours is for sale now. I won't lie, it is tough to get it ready for a showing! All of the "stuff" has to be put away. First my suggestion would be take down any personal photos, it helps to make it look like a model home. Also, declutter as much as possible... we got a storage unit and dumped tons of stuff in there.
Here is my list of what I do in the case of a quick showing besides the normal cleaning routine:
Remove all toys from all rooms and store away in a closest. I got a ton of plastic bins and all toys get thrown in there and stashed away. I take my diaper basket to my car along with the highchair. The less baby stuff around the bigger the house seems. We don't play upstairs as much anymore because keeping that clean is easy if you don't play in there:)
It's a hassle but it will be worth it when we sell Good luck to you and I hope it sells quick!

I agree with a lot of this. We put our house on the market 2 weeks ago, and as you can see DSs are 13 months apart. It is difficult to pick up and go. I need at least 45 minutes to get everything picked up and both boys changed and packed into the car. Our realtor company has information in our profile that limits the amount of short notice showings we have (they MUST call us before allowing a showing, same day showings need to be in the afternoon, no showings between 12 and 2:30 because of nap time). Declutter before going on the market, take down personal pics, and just constantly be picking up as you go through your day. I vacuum every 3rd day or so, and we are having a cleaner come every 2 weeks to do the big cleaning. It's hard work, but we've already had 10 showings in 11 days, so I think it will pay off. Good luck!

laura1 · April 2011

We sold our place right before DD was born, so I only had one at the time. But it was still a challenge! Right before we put it on the market, we had my parents come over for the weekend and help us clean up and put things away - like someone else said, we put away all knicknacks, candles, picture frames, etc.

We took just about EVERYTHING off or our kitchen countertops - all that was left was a fruit bowl and a plate of freshly baked cookies (only during open houses). The toaster oven, coffee pot, knives, canister of kitchen tools all found a new home either in drawers or in the basement.

We also cleaned out a whole bookcase (books went in a bin in the basement) and stacked DS's toys on it - that way if someone had to come over on short notice, we could put them away there without drawing attention to them. We moved his exersaucer to the basement, along with some other bigger toys. The nice thing about it was after we accepted an offer, we moved them back up, and DS was so excited to see them

I kept a bunch of wipes around - lysol or clorox wipes for the counters/bathroom surfaces, wood wipes for our dining room table, and stainless steel wipes for our appliances. Probably not very greeen, but it was a quick way to clean up.

We also kept an empty box around so if we had nowhere to put something that looked like clutter (mail, toys, whatever), we woult throw it in that box then bring it out to our car when we were leaving, along with DS's stroller which normally sat in the front hall.

Good luck! Our place was on the market for a month and a half and it was rough, even for that short amount of time. I truly feel for anyone that has to go through that for even longer!

KittahMama · April 2011

We just got a contract on our house and we are buying as well (moving cities) and here is what I did:

My mom took my daughter for a weekend while DH and I painted with some friends in stuff that needed to be done (LOTS of trim needed to be done!). We also decluttered. We took down most of our pics (except ones on the wall that would have left a real blank look) and others we moved out for generic pics of landscapes/destinations- less personal.

For DD's stuff- we used plastic bins and got rid of non essentials in storage. When she stopped using the swing, we put it in storage, same with her toys/things (like her boppy). We mostly kept all her toys in one area of our family room and before a showing I could throw it in storage bins and put in a closet. It made it look organized and the family room bigger.

I took appliances off the counter top as well- and put any pots/pans that I didn't use at least once a week in storage as well.

I organized all my cabinets and closets!! Don't under estimate this!!! When I am looking at houses now sometimes closets are so damn packed that I can't see how much room there really is for storage and that turns me off!! Same for kitchen cabinets!

Also - when I look at houses now I want to see how a room could look with my stuff, so stuff off the top of dressers and nightstands, which seems stupid- makes a room seem cleaner and easier to picture as my room.

Change the garbage before you walk out the door as well, nothing is grosser than an odor from a garbage can (I've been in three houses like this!).

If I think of anything else I'll share!

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