Cleaning to Sell Your Home

Preparing to sell your home requires lots of planning and work. You have to clear out clutter, get your home as clean as possible, and keep it that way as prospective buyers visit. Your home’s appearance and cleanliness can make or break a potential sale as well as effect how quickly your home sells. Thorough prepping and careful cleaning can deliver a big payoff in the offers you get for your home. Here’s how to get ready before listing your home for sale.

The Outside of Your Home – Make a Great First Impression

Before you head inside to clean and prepare your home for potential buyers, head out to the street and give your home’s exterior a good, hard look. If you were a prospective buyer, would you stop to come inside? Your home’s exterior is the first impression buyers get, so make it a great one. Remove any dead foliage in the yard first along with weeds. Next, trim and mow (or have it done) and keep it that way while your home is on the market. Make sure porch railings are secure, clean the windows, and maybe add a fresh coat of paint to the front door or the porch.  Keep the front entry swept clean and free of cobwebs. For the final touch, add a lush, seasonal potted plant (s) near the front door to welcome prospective buyers and give your home a well-kept look.

Inside and Out – The Art of Touch-Ups

Both on the exterior and the inside of your home, you’ll want to see that everything looks in good repair. This can be simple as touching up scratches, repairing cracks, or making sure doors don’t creak. You might also consider painting walls if its been awhile or repainting over personal color favorites with neutrals. Replace doorknobs, shades, or blinds as needed.  If bigger renovations are required, ask yourself if the investment will help sell your home more quickly or at a higher price when making the final decision.

Declutter and Prepare for Staging

Decluttering is a big part of cleaning to sell your home. It not only means getting rid of items you no longer use or need, but also putting away personal items so prospective buyers can see themselves in the space. Each of these are pre-requisites to staging your home for potential buyers. Start by tossing out papers – junk mail, magazines, newspapers, etc. – and then move on to the rest of your home – ridding closets and cabinets of items which are no longer used. Doing so will make these areas look more spacious, plus, when you finally get to your new home, you’ll be glad you didn’t pack and move items unnecessarily. Next, go ahead and pack up personal items – like the abundance of family photos, memorabilia, toys (both the kids’ and the pets’) to depersonalize the space and help prospective buyers picture themselves in the home. Now, you are almost ready for staging, only one step to go – cleaning and deodorizing.

Cleaning and Deodorizing Your Home

Clutter is gone, touch-ups have been made, not is the time to clean and deodorize your home. Removing odors is part of the process, as unwanted scents – whatever their origin – can turn buyers away. Cleaners can help remove odors, as can a variety of houseplants and diffusing essential oils. Avoid scented candles which can aggravate allergies and make the odor cover up attempt more obvious. Cleaning needs to be thorough, including taking care in spots you don’t normally clean weekly. The best way to get the job done is by hiring a professional cleaning service like the Signature Maids team. A professional cleaning service is a great investment, providing efficient and exceptional cleaning – ceiling to floor – and every space in between to ensure your potential buyers see only a sparkling, well-kept home.

‍