Selling Houses with Kids – Maybe Even Gracefully?

My living room stays clean for maybe 1 day, if I am lucky. There is almost always dishes in the sink, there is always dirty laundry. There are odors, stains, splatter and stickers. Sound familiar? You must be a parent!

My oldest is 5, and my twins are 3. The thought of having to stage my house to look good for a sale is…. Intimidating? How about terrifying? Yes, terrifying is better.

From a real estate “expert” and parent here is some advice.

1. Breathe – Take a deep breath, it’s going to be OK
2. First impressions matter a lot. If you feel like you can’t keep your whole house clean and tidy when a buyer will be coming through focus on the first impression areas most.

Make sure the front of the home is tidy and free of random things. It’s OK to have toys or personal items on the front porch or in the yard, just try to make them look ‘in place” rather than strewn about.

Make sure when a buyer walks into the home that they have a good first view. Really try to keep the living room (or whatever room they enter into) clean and uncluttered. This segways into my next point…

3. Clutter is your enemy! You know what I am a big fan of? Storage bins! If you have a lot of “stuff” go buy some storage bins and just keep your stuff in there. Clean, simple spaces, with only a few select personal affects make for a calm room where buyers can see past you, to your home itself.

It’s much better to walk in to a room with 3 plastic storage bins pushed against a wall than an epic Star Wars lego battle scene or the leftovers of the stuffed animal tea party. If an agent calls and says they will be there in 15 minutes to show the house, just start throwing stuff in those bins. The house will clean up in a snap.

Garage it! If you have a garage, use it for more than parking! I have never once showed a house where the buyer was turned off by walking into a garage with boxes floor to ceiling. I have had plenty of buyers check out upon seeing a messy living room in an otherwise nice home.

4. Use the kids to your advantage. Odds are if this house was appealing to you with the idea of raising a family there, it will also attract buyers that want to have kids there to. Make the back yard look like the prefect play area. Make sure things like tree houses, playground equipment, water toys or sports equipment is staged and in good working order. Help them to see the potential.

5. The little things matter. Before your home goes up for sale spend a little money to fix the easy stuff. Kids are hard on the cosmetics of a house. While all your major systems are probably working great, it can be the small things that make buyers nervous. Fix broken outlet covers, small holes in the dry wall, damaged bedroom doors, missing grout in tile floors, crayons on the wall, stains on the carpet etc.

The list goes on…. And on and on and on. There are plenty of good blogs that can give you more specific ideas to stage and prep your home for sale. I’m no expert in that, but in my 10 years in real estate I have showed hundreds, maybe thousands, of homes to buyers and I have seen them fall in love and/or run away from many homes for the exact reasons listed above! Good luck you hard working parents, persevere and you will succeed in your real estate goals.

Contact me anytime to find a good agent in your area that can tell you the best way to prepare your home for a quick sale.