You don’t
have to take on a full-fledged
renovation to get prospective buyers
interested in your house—in fact, that
may even turn some people away in a
challenging market. After all, every
penny that you’ve sunk into an obvious
upgrade is money that the seller is
mentally adding up as a factor in the
price—and may represent an aesthetic
choice the buyer would not have made.
(Cancel that appointment at the Sub-Zero
showroom, STAT.) There are simple ways,
however, to make your home seem
infinitely more appealing with very
little
investment—and very little
effort.
1. If you do only two things
before showing your house,
clean, and clean some more.
“People want to come into a space and
visualize themselves living there,” says
Manhattan-based Corcoran Group sales
broker Jeanine Schlifer. “If there are
spills on the table, toys on the floor,
and dog mess everywhere, people can’t
focus on the space.” It’s worth it to
hire a professional to come in for a
deep-clean, as they may find dirt in
places you can easily overlook, like
scuffs on walls and smudged light switch
plates. Nadia Geller of
the new TLC show Date My House
says that buyers pay most attention
to the entryway—the first-impression
spot for most visitors—as well as the
kitchen and the master bedroom; those
rooms in particular should be
immaculate. The same goes for any
architectural details (such as a
fireplace) that might be called out on a
spec sheet, Geller adds.
2. Accentuate the positive,
camouflage the negative. If you
have large windows or a great view, hang
long, simple curtains to accentuate
them. (Hanging curtains from just above
and outside the window frame will also
make ceilings feel higher and windows
more impressive.) If you have spacious
rooms, remove any too-bulky furniture or
unnecessary pieces that would make the
space feel cramped. Geller suggests
looking at furniture catalogs to get
ideas for pleasing furniture
proportions, arrangements, and an idea
of how many pieces to keep in a room. If
your
closets are tiny, pull out
some of the clothes and store them
elsewhere. “You don’t want it to look
like you couldn’t fit one more thing on
the rack if your life depended on it,”
Schlifer says. A kitchen counter top
cluttered with appliances can similarly
make a buyer feel there will be no place
to store their things; packing some of
that away in cabinets will create the
illusion of more space.
3. Appeal to the widest possible
audience. If you have a
hot-pink accent wall, paint over it with
a more neutral shade that matches the
other walls. Pack away that
collection of Star Wars
figurines. Stash kids’ toys or dog toys
in another room. “Remember that you’re
selling your home, not your
personality,” Schlifer says. And a
prospective buyer who hates dogs could
get hung up on your giant training crate
and pile of rawhide bones. (Be sure to
also take pets to a friend’s house or a
kennel and vacuum well before any
showings—a sneezing, fur-allergic buyer
is not a happy one.) Thin out your
collection of trophies, knickknacks, and
personal photos on bookshelves, and
replace them with more books—even books
from a secondhand store or thrift shop,
says Geller; they’ll have a more
universal appeal.
4. Create a welcoming
environment. “You want buyers
to make an emotional connection to your
home,” Schlifer says, and you can go a
long way toward achieving that by making
the space feel warm, bright, and fresh.
Replace dim light bulbs with new ones
and make sure there is a pleasant, but
not overpowering, smell in the house.
(Try
baking cookies or setting
out a scented-oil diffuser.) Place fresh
guest soaps in the bathroom, hang a new
shower curtain and neatly fold
matching bath towels.
Purchase fresh flowers—a
bunch of all one variety makes the
cleanest statement—and put them out in a
simple vase. Open the windows before
people come in to let some fresh air
blow through. The ultimate goal is to
make people feel so good in your house
or apartment, they won’t want to
leave—ever.
5. Develop a quick-clean plan
for last-minute showings. You
never know when a realtor may have an
interested client, so it’s important to
have a speedy cleaning plan for
spontaneous appointments. Invest in a
nice-looking storage trunk for stashing
day-to-day clutter in a hurry and make a
habit of kicking up your regular
cleaning routine a notch so there’s less
to do before a visit.