How to Prepare Your Home for Open House

Selling your home and moving elsewhere, whether it is across town or across country can be a big undertaking. Ideally, a house sells quickly so the process is not prolonged. Holding an open house can increase visibility of your home and help to generate offers. Salt Lake City Movers can take care of the move once the house is sold.

Remove the Clutter

A home that has less stuff in it will appear bigger. Removing items including extra furniture, children's toys, and countertop appliances can give your home a more spacious and streamlined look and feel. This advice also applies to closets and other storage areas like garages; they can be repositories for lots of clutter. Rent a storage unit if you don't have the space to store all the things you remove. Salt Lake City movers can move your things to a storage unit if needed.

Stage Your Home

While you want to de-clutter a home, you don't want it to be completely empty. Staging a home with furniture and other items can make it more attractive to potential buyers. Consider renting furniture if you have already moved out or the furniture you own is really worn and dated. One of the key tricks to staging is making the traffic flow of rooms clear. This can be achieved by moving furniture away from walls and positioning chairs and sofas in conversational groupings.

Create Curb Appeal

Sprucing up the exterior of your home can make it more enticing to prospective buyers. Cutting the grasses, removing any dead branches, and planting new flowers and shrubs are things that can be done to improve curb appeal in the yard. Spending some time on the front door and entrance area can also help. Hanging a wreath on the front door, replacing old hardware and fixtures, and cleaning any glass can all contribute to enhanced curb appeal.

Neutralize

You want people to be able to picture living in your home. It may be easier for them to do that if the home has a neutral look. This means removing personal items including photographs, posters, and other artwork. If your home is painted any bright colors, it might be wise to consider repainting in neutral shades. Make every effort to rid your home of odors including perfumes, cigarette smoke, and cooking and pet smells. This can be done by airing out a home and using a neutralizer spray.

Advertise

When you go to the trouble of preparing your home for an open house you want to be sure people know about it. Put a sign in the front yard a week before hand listing the days and times. Another good idea is to place a sign on the corner down the street from your home advertising the open house; this can be particularly helpful if you live near a busy intersection. If you are using a realtor, be sure he gets the word out to other realtors who may have interested clients.

Holding an open house is a great way to generate more interest in a home. Following these five tips can help change the “For Sale” sign in the front yard to one that says “Sold.”