How Being In Between is a Blessing in Disguise
One of the biggest stresses of transitioning from one house to another is the selling process. Often times, the new home is purchased and the keys are in hand, but the old house is waiting to sell. Everyone knows that staged homes tend to sell faster and for more money, but no one likes living in that constrained environment. When staging your home, just think “Hotel”. Mostly impersonal, a little sparse, and pristine. This means removing many of the things that make your house feel like a home. But if you already have the new home purchased, you can move out of that staged environment and go ahead and start your life in your new home, saving yourself a lot of headache. Do you have 2 Houses? Here’s how to stage your move while you stage your old home:
1. Take the Things You Need
This means pack the shampoo, the medicine cabinet, all the food, the dishes, the clothes, the blender… To viewers of your house, these things read as clutter and interfere with their ability to picture themselves in the house.
If you are still living in your staged home, that can be downright inconvenient. Many people find themselves eating out of Chinese takeout cartons nightly while their pots and pans languish unused in a storage building, and their refrigerator sits empty. With two houses, you get to move all the essentials and avoid that sad image by hosting nightly family dinners in your new home.
2. Un-Decorate
As precious as it is to you, potential buyers do not want to see your child’s finger paintings of the complete series boxed set of friends that takes up 2 shelves on your built-in bookcase. Again, they need to picture themselves in the home, not you.
For people still living in their staged home, this is a strain all its own, because it is the little items like these that make an item a home. Go ahead and move these things to your new house, crack open that boxed set and admire those awesome finger paintings as the Friends theme song plays.
3. Move Half Your Furniture
Too much furniture or none at all can both make your house feel smaller than it is. By moving your oversized pieces early, you make life at the new home more comfortable, and give your old house that “hotel” feeling it needs to sell well.
Take the couch and big screen TV, but leave the love seat and a plant or two. Be sure that you indicate with the remaining furniture what the room is for. This means, unfortunately, that bedrooms will need beds, so this is a point where the two house situation can get a bit tricky. You may consider moving the mattresses but leaving the bedframes with a cheap air mattress on top to stage the room. Or, you can hit up craigslist, yard sales, clearance sales or Goodwill for a disposable bed in this move. Then again, if the beds are old, start fresh at the new home and dispose of the old beds when the house is sold. Your options are wide open.
4. Clean Up and Repair
It’s your old house, but it’s the buyer’s new, so make it feel shiny and clean.
Spackle the nail holes that used to hold those finger paintings, paint the walls, clean the carpet, and replace that broken light switch plate… You will find that these little fixes will cost you relatively little money, but will raise the selling price of your house. Better yet, it will be easier to see and do all of these little repairs if you don’t have all the furniture required for a comfy home, and if you don’t have to beware of touching fresh paint as you get ready for bed.
Having your new house purchased can definitely easy the stress of staging and selling your old home. Use these simple pointers and the knowledge of your realtor to properly stage your home, and be sure to contact us for any moving needs you may have along the way.
