Creating Home Appeal to All Five Senses

There are two pressing goals when prepping your home for sale: making a quick sale and reaching your asking price. In order to achieve these goals, you'll clean up the house, apply fresh paint, and complete any repairs that are needed. The test of your preparation comes as home buyers visit your open house and walk through with their realtor. If you are in a hurry to connect with your Jacksonville movers and make your own move into your new home, stage your home to appeal to potential buyers' five senses.

Once the touching up is finished, you still have to live in your home while keeping it in top condition for each showing. If you have children or pets in the home, maintaining the visual appeal of your home can be even more challenging. One tip to accomplish this includes reducing the amount of clutter; pack up as many of your belongings as you can do without. Take down pictures of the family and replace them with artwork or fresh flowers. Open up the windows and turn on all the lights. The first impressions of the buyers can color their opinion for the rest of the walk-through.

Smells in your home can either invite buyers or turn them off, but it can be hard to tell if there are unpleasant odors when you are used to your home. Instead, find someone who is willing to give you an honest answer. Two of the least popular odors for home buyers, and the hardest to eliminate, are cigarette smoke and pet odors. Consider using an ozone generator, an air scrubber, or a hydroxyl generator. These tools can be very effective, but may not be able to completely eliminate the smells. You may have to arrange for your pet to stay with a family member and smoke outside as long as you are showing your home. Once any unpleasant odors are gone, consider baking up a batch of cookies or, the more effective, loaf of bread.

Find a quiet moment to listen to your home. Are there train tracks nearby? Do the neighbors make a lot of noise? These noises can present problems as you try to sell your home. You may not have much control over these sounds, but you do need to aware of them and work to find a solution. Keep in mind that some people won't find your neighbors as annoying as you do and might appreciate the melancholy sound of a train whistle at night. Other noise concerns, such as creaky floors or rattling dishwashers can be remedied.

The tactile sense is one that often goes ignored during home showings, but is one that can have a powerful effect on those important impressions. Even if your home is perfect in every other way, you run the risk of creating a bad impression if the home is too cold. Other tactile no-no's include surface dust, blowing air, and heat.

Finally, when you neglect any of these senses, you risk leaving your potential home buyers with a bad “taste” in their mouth. When you really want to get to the point where you are loading your furnishings into moving trucks with Jacksonville movers, you need to present your home so that it is appealing to all five of the senses.