Home Selling: How to Keep Your Home Show-Ready

Gary Ashton: RE/MAX ADMIN

It takes weeks, sometimes months, to prepare a home for sale. Once you have it perfectly clean, you know it is practically impossible to keep it that way. Fortunately, there are ways to make it easier to maintain a home’s organization, and quickly get it back into order before a home showing. Use this checklist to get ideas for what you need to do.

1. Curb Appeal Check

Since the property’s exterior is the first thing buyers see as they arrive, it should be the first aspect you confirm is in great condition. You have already painted and revised the landscaping, so all you should have to do now is keep it in good shape.

Make sure that the lawn is trimmed properly and that the driveway and walkways are clear of cut grass and debris. A poorly maintained lawn can really turn away prospective buyers. Rake and remove leaves, if you are selling a home in fall. Hiring a weekly mowing service will help you to keep on top of this task, particularly if you have vacated the home while you sell it.

2. Systematic Organization

The trick to keeping your interior as spotlessly clean as it was the day you listed it is to avoid making messes as much as possible. When you complete your staging, take pictures on your phone so you know how it is supposed to look. Make checklists for every room so that each night, you can return the room to its original condition. Offer the kids incentives to clean up their toys or equipment as soon as they are done using them. This approach to systematic organization will stop clutter from creeping back into the space, and cut down on the panicked cleaning right before a showing.

3. Spot Cleaning

There will be a few things that are unavoidable, that you will have to clean up right before each individual showing. There might not be enough time for a thorough cleaning of each room, but hopefully each space is already clean enough that you only need to do the last-minute touches each time. Create a cleaning caddy that is easy to carry to every room for cleaning. Be sure to wipe down counters, mirrors and windows, especially areas that get a lot of hand or foot traffic. If you have pets, toss in a lint roller to pull pet hair off couches and other sitting areas. Sweep and vacuum the floors, and then put all cleaning products away.

4. Odor Inspection

One of the worst things you could forget about is the scents coming from the home. It might not be the stench of old fish, but even just a stuffy room can turn buyers away. Ask a friend to come through your home and point out weird smells in any room. If a room is not ventilated as well as the rest of the home, consider opening a window for a short time to allow fresh air to come in. Avoid cooking foods with heavy odors that linger, or using harsh cleansers that give off a lot of fumes. You can add a scent diffuser to cover up some odors, but you should keep it mild. Strong scents, even the good ones, tell buyers that there is something you are trying to hide.

No one wants to show a home that looked nothing like the listing pictures. If you want to impress buyers and demonstrate that you are true to your word, you will follow this checklist to keep your home ready for showings at any time. By preserving a generally clean home and doing a systematic inspection before each showing, you will present a tidier home.

The easiest way to keep your lawn show-ready? PLOWZ & MOWZ!

With PLOWZ & MOWZ on-demand lawn mowing service, you can keep your lawn looking great right up until the sale! There are no contracts, so whether the selling process happens quickly or takes a few months, you can start and stop at anytime.

Maybe you want to get fancy with garden sculptures, lawn ornaments and garden decor. While you add to your lawn decoration, let the Pros mow for you. It will save you a lot of time each week while you make sure your home is ready for sale!