Look at it this way: would you put away those stray items for a few months if someone offered to pay you $10K, $20K or even significantly more? That may be what you are leaving on the table by not making your house appear to be as appealing as it can be.
But you can obviously do whatever you want. It’s your money!
I still had little kids when we sold our house and was perpetually late for work, at least at the start of the process. It was not a sellers market and it took me a lot of time each day to make sure the house looked just right. As time dragged on, my realtor did get better at giving me notice before bringing someone over so I did not have to do this every day.
I like the idea of throwing stuff in the trunk of the car. I definitely used containers, but it would certainly be even easier to stick them in the car. Where are the dogs during day? I would be less concerned about dog bowls, but definitely think the counters need to be cleaned, floors vacuumed, and things as tidy as possible. Good luck.
If a house is dirty, cluttered or smelled I would think the owner doesn’t care about home maintenance and I would wonder what else wasn’t taken care of . Both of our Ds recently bought new houses. D1 said they looked at a newer house in a great neighborhood that had dirty laundry out, unflushed toilets, cluttered countertops and strong doggy smell. The house finally sold after a year on the market for less than market value. If you want top dollar you should declutter.
I say get rid of it all asap. You can do an amazing amount in 1 weekend. Get Goodwill lined up for Monday, get dumpster sized garbage bags and dig in.
We just went through this and had our house looking like a luxury hotel for every showing. It was worth the effort. Prolonging the agony of being on the market only lowers you selling price and tortures you. Good luck. It is stressful and upsetting and time consuming.
I’d get rid of the stuff. What have you got to lose?
I agree with getting rid of all the stuff. I won’t look at/buy a house that has pets. This has limited us to building or buying new or fairly new where we knew the house history.
Cinnamon, vanilla and fresh bread or cookies baking can be inviting smells to attract buyers.
^I know that works for most people but I would be unhappy and insist another
viewing without anything that could mask odors. I just want to smell “clean” which means
fresh air.
I would definitely take all signs of pets out. We have had them when showing and just put everything in
the trunk.
Good Luck!
Soothing music on or off? Candles (unscented) ?
I live in an area where well-priced homes disappear off the market in a matter of days, if not hours.
Our home sold for full asking in an hour and forty-five minutes; the home we ended up buying was on the market 1 day. Both were de-cluttered and clean. OTOH, we did put in an above-asking offer – it was a backup offer – on a home that belonged to a hoarder, that hadn’t been cleaned out. We didn’t get the house, yet would have purchased it had we had the chance.
When it comes to this sort of thing, it’s all about the market you’re in, and what buyers are willing to put up with.
We have also passed on homes that have had dogs and cats.
We always sell our properties as is, never did anything for showing but to keep it clean. To be fair, all four of my homes were in good school districts and we are minimalist and don’t like clutter ourselves so our place always looks tidy.
Make them want the house. Scents may make them feel like grandma’s baking a pie, but they want to envision themselves there, not be overwhelmed by who’s living there now.
We bought ours as a cosmetic rehab. You should have seen it- and that was after estate folks had been through and taken nearly everything out. While we were there, another couple came in, walked upstairs and out, maybe 45 seconds. Good for us, not the seller.
We got ours for an absolute steal. Maybe less than 3/4 of market value, had they put some effort in. A month later, the house across the street, a bit less attractive bones, sold for market value.
“keep it clean”- means clearing the counters of junk and putting away all sorts of stuff along with the kind of cleaning you also do routinely. I agree with those who would wonder about overall maintenance issues. If you can’t even take away the ugly- drain boards and bathroom counter clutter, what else have you never had time for???
Remember, in a way it is no longer your house once you put it on the market. You really want the potential buyers to imagine it is THEIR house, with their stuff, not yours. Yes, you may keep the Kleenex box handy but that indicates someone will be using it in that room- ewh (we downsized to a single story and I keep one box in the master bath and one in the kitchen away from the food prep areas; seeing one in a living/family room would be convenient for some but…).
The dog stuff- some people do not like animals and you do not want them to be reminded you have them. You want them to like the house and then decide that is a detail they can live with- the previous owners had pets. The idea is that the first look will be remembered. People see the dog toys and dishes and start to imagine dirt/hair/messes they would not otherwise. First impressions.
I remember house hunting and one couple apparently was downsizing and selling it themselves- we opened secondary bedroom closet doors and they were jam packed with shirts et al, so much so you could not have removed any. Plus all the horrendous clutter and wallpaper. We ended up buying a different house (nicer, better yard) that we knew we would renovate and did (it was PINK- cabinets, counters, mauve carpet, striped wallpaper…). But the house was well cared for (elderly lady who needed to move in with family), it looked well maintained.
One last thing- put the lids down. For the toilets. Gross to keep them up.
I have just put my late mother’s house on the market. I had a lovely renter in there for the past year, and she was a pretty good tenant, very clean, but she did have a big old Labrador, and parts of the house (most notably the living room) smells “doggy”. Like a faint kennel odor. Ew. The house is totally empty. Floors are hardwood (no apparent stains/accidents), there’s no carpeting at all in the house, and I tossed out the area rugs tenant had left behind. If anyone has a suggestion for getting rid of that smell, please let me know! (Most people don’t even notice it, but I have a sensitive sniffer, and I’m betting some potential buyers do too!)
Yes, I have a sensitive sniffer and hate dog smell, too. Many people have an overly active imagination and imagine dog smell upon seeing the dog toys and food/ water bowls.
People need reasons to choose one house over another; if your place doesn’t have obvious instrinsic charm beyond the others on the market, the cluttered ( which nay reas as ramshackle) appearance may be enough for them to pass your place by.
Most people can IMAGINE what a place will look like without the clutter, but why require them to use their imaginations in that way? And having to engage the imagination could retard the visceral “I love it!” reaction.
We listed our house just about a year ago, but had already done some pretty serious de-cluttering before; but after looking at a lot of places for open houses, I knew any little extra thing we could do could escalate our house above others that were not so meticulous in our community. So yes, we did do all those things, and it paid off… 22 showings in 17 days, and most of those 17 days were the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas - a time when the market is supposedly slow. We had four offers, one was above asking price. The feedback we kept getting over and over from the other realtors was that our house showed incredibly well, and that it stood out above other homes in the area on the market. So I guess the takeaway is that you only have to do enough to make your place more attractive than whatever else is on the market in your community.
We have a dog (duh, from my avatar) and removed his water and food bowl/toys every time we left the home for a showing, as well as always put away the kitchen sink dish rack. As far as music goes, because we also had a whole house stereo system with speakers in many rooms, we always left the stereo turned on to a mostly neutral XM station, or after Thanksgiving, to holiday music. I tend to go all out when it comes to decorating for Christmas (gonna cut back this year, though), and even with all our decorations out, we were told the place was staged and showed very well. I really do credit all those little things we did (also wiped down the stainless appliances before walking out the door) to helping it sell quickly. Also, all the things we’d typically leave out on the bathroom counter, were put under the sinks (which now had more room because we had decluttered). I also laid towels across the bathroom counter and bathtub, as well as a decorative blanket across the foot of our bed. Because we had showings almost every day, I tried to burn a subtle-scented candle each day for about an hour, so if we got the call, I didn’t have to try to force an aroma into the air as we were leaving… it was usually already there - of course having Christmas decorations out helped because people sort of expected wintery aroma.
@cameo43 - I would hire someone to come in and do a deep cleaning of the hardwoods. They will have professional products they use that will be more effective than what you’d probably use.
It is helpful to clear out some space in a lower cabinet in the kitchen or bathroom for a bin or box for quick clean offs of the counter tops.
How about getting a POD and putting things in it you just don’t use often, really aren’t sure you need…or boxes of clutter you can’t seem to part with?
When we put our house on the market, it was “show ready”" every single day. All the clutter was boxed up, and stored. Extra furniture…stored…
If you really want to sell your house…listen to your agent. She will tell you how best get this done.
Are you sure you are ready to go…given that you haven’t really purged things?
And yes…when we were looking at homes, we DID walk away from homes with clutter. We wanted to be able to envision our things in the place…and some places were just a big mess.