How to Prepare Your Home for Showing Appointments

Would a list of steps to prepare your home for showings be helpful as you start the process of selling your home? When you list your North Carolina home for sale, you must be prepared, often at the drop of a hat, for showing appointments. If you prepare your home for showings ahead of time, you can avoid rushing around frantically at the last minute. Use the following tips to help keep your home prepared for visits from interested buyers.

Depersonalize Your Home

Your listing agent will most likely ask you to remove family photos and other personal items from view in your home. The reason is simple: potential buyers need to be able to visualize themselves living in your house. Depersonalizing your home helps create a blank slate for them to use their imagination. This simple step will increase the value of your home in the eyes of buyers.

Declutter Your Home

Keeping your home clutter-free is another important step to take as you prepare your home for showings. You want to show off your living space and clutter prevents that from happening. Also, by decluttering as soon as you list your home, you will avoid the stress of rushing around to straighten and clean up when a showing appointment is scheduled.

Empty Garbage Cans

Potential buyers certainly don’t want to smell odors in the kitchen or see bathroom trashcans overflowing with trash. Start making it a habit of emptying all garbage cans in your home each morning. Because morning breakfasts also mean more waste, once you send everyone off to school or work for the day, send the trash packing with them.

Make the Beds

If it isn’t already a family habit, making the beds every morning is another daily habit to start. Doing this each day saves time for any other last-minute preparations when you get a call from your listing agent regarding a showing appointment. Buyers are very picky about bedrooms, and a messy bed distracts from the positive aspects your bedroom offers.

Organize All Closets

Closet space can make or break a potential home sale. Even if your closets are not very spacious, organizing your closets and removing unnecessary items will give the impression of more space. And remember those previous steps of depersonalizing and decluttering your home? Don’t take all those things and stick them in a closet, which will solve one issue by creating another.

Set the Selling Mood

As soon as you receive notice of an upcoming listing appointment, it would be smart to add some scents to your indoor living space. Studies have shown that smells can sell your home. According to one study, some of the scents that work best are: lemon, green tea, cedar, pine, basil and vanilla.

Quick Clean Up

While life happens and it will be impossible to keep your home squeaky clean all the time, you can clean smartly, so you will be prepared when that call comes. You could choose one day (possibly a Friday evening before the weekend showing rush), to give your home a thorough cleaning. When the call comes in about a showing, give the bathrooms and kitchen a good wipe down and spend time in the other rooms quickly straightening up and dusting when necessary.

When you list your North Carolina home for sale with Red Door Company, we will offer advice on how to prepare for showing appointments and make your home more valuable in the eyes of potential buyers. Want to discuss the sale of your home? Contact us, and we’ll be glad to answer any of your questions.