Steps in selling your home

So we have finally decided to sell our house. The two bedroom townhouse that my husband and I bought before we were a family of three is getting a little tight. Its not a great time to sell, however, it is a great time to buy, so with that in mind we decided to try our luck on the market.

Step one- find a real estate agent whom we thought would best represent us. We interviewed three agents in the process asking all of them to do a market analysis for us. The staggering conclusion?! There was over $100,000 difference between the lowest estimate and the highest! We ultimately selected the agent that had the best strategy for our home and has an excellent track record in the area.

Step two- get the house ready to list! This is the stage we’re in now and there’s a lot to be done to take a home that’s lived in to a home that’s show ready. We hired a stager to come in and tell us what she thought we should do. Although our house doesn’t need a lot of work there were a number of items we now have on a list to complete before the photographers can show up. One thing that really surprised me is she asked us to remove all of our area rugs in order to make the space feel larger and not break it up as distinctly. Since we have all tile floors and no carpet, this is going to be a less than fun feature, especially for the toddler who adores carpet. He sees carpet and dive bombs it- especially gross in public places! We also pulled out a couple pieces of furniture to make it feel more open.

Staging a lived in house is completely different from how we decorate model homes. In a model home we try to personalize the space, theme it for the imaginary residents. In a used home, however, you try to remove as much personalization as possible so that your future buyer can really see the house, not the decorating. Funny to have such different approaches to the same idea of selling a home huh?