Selling
Investor
Keeping the house tidy when selling with children!
05-Sep-2017
So you've made the big decision to sell and are feeling excited about moving to a new place. Selling your gorgeous home should be a breeze, right? You're neat, tidy and the house is beautifully renovated, a quick look around and all it needs is a little wipe over, a vacuum and ...oh to remove the 10 tonne of junk you have accumulated over the years from having children around! Hmm this may be a bigger exercise than one first thought!
The house is very "well loved" and it wouldn't be a home without all the odds and ends lying around! And lets be honest, no child would be ok with having their toys hidden away all the time. However, to showcase the properties best features when selling, it's probably a good idea to remove the over flowing toy box which is currently the "piece de resistance" in the middle of the lounge room and pop it away while people inspect your home.
It's not easy keeping your home clean while it's on the market, after all you still have to live in it! Having children around certainly doesn't make things any easier. However decluttering and ensuring everything is neat and tidy can help attract the right buyer.
Here are a few tried and tested tips from our team:
1. Before placing your property on the market, take the time (and it could take weeks) to declutter your home and throw away, give away or store away any unnecessary items. If you have space in your garage it's a great place to neatly store items such as toys, books and papers while the open homes are on.
2. Try (very hard) to keep on top of the house work daily. It may not always be possible with our busy work/life schedules but doing 15 minutes every day is far better then madly rushing around for hours before an open home. Keen buyers often want to look at the property during the week outside of the scheduled open times so leaving the home before work tidy and presentable is a great idea as it saves you stressing out or even worse turning the buyer away.
3. This is a tricky one, but try and get everyone involved...yes even the moody toddler that's doing a very good job of destroying your styling efforts. It's not easy keeping your property in "show home" condition as it's not a relaxed way of living so people often get tired of it. If the kids aren't too keen on helping then maybe a little bribe to treat them to pizza or ice cream may be the answer!
4. Remember this is temporary and your home won't be on the market forever so hang in there! Although it seems like a huge pain now, it will all be worth it in the end. Also remember, buyers are humans too, who may be selling their own home as well and are in the same situation. If you forget to put away a few of the toys its not the end of the world, keen buyers will see past this!
The house is very "well loved" and it wouldn't be a home without all the odds and ends lying around! And lets be honest, no child would be ok with having their toys hidden away all the time. However, to showcase the properties best features when selling, it's probably a good idea to remove the over flowing toy box which is currently the "piece de resistance" in the middle of the lounge room and pop it away while people inspect your home.
It's not easy keeping your home clean while it's on the market, after all you still have to live in it! Having children around certainly doesn't make things any easier. However decluttering and ensuring everything is neat and tidy can help attract the right buyer.
Here are a few tried and tested tips from our team:
1. Before placing your property on the market, take the time (and it could take weeks) to declutter your home and throw away, give away or store away any unnecessary items. If you have space in your garage it's a great place to neatly store items such as toys, books and papers while the open homes are on.
2. Try (very hard) to keep on top of the house work daily. It may not always be possible with our busy work/life schedules but doing 15 minutes every day is far better then madly rushing around for hours before an open home. Keen buyers often want to look at the property during the week outside of the scheduled open times so leaving the home before work tidy and presentable is a great idea as it saves you stressing out or even worse turning the buyer away.
3. This is a tricky one, but try and get everyone involved...yes even the moody toddler that's doing a very good job of destroying your styling efforts. It's not easy keeping your property in "show home" condition as it's not a relaxed way of living so people often get tired of it. If the kids aren't too keen on helping then maybe a little bribe to treat them to pizza or ice cream may be the answer!
4. Remember this is temporary and your home won't be on the market forever so hang in there! Although it seems like a huge pain now, it will all be worth it in the end. Also remember, buyers are humans too, who may be selling their own home as well and are in the same situation. If you forget to put away a few of the toys its not the end of the world, keen buyers will see past this!