I remember the flight back to NC when we were 'coming home', all I could think about was what the house would be like after having tenants for over 2 years. I feel like we were quite lucky. There were things that needed to be done, maintenance and such, but no real damage. I think the most work we needed to do was outside taming the jungle, which I already posted about. But this weekend was an action packed one. I didn't leave the house but to get paint and supplies. You can declutter and deep clean your house, then stage, get a great photographer and you are ready to sell. If however, you want to do more and fix, fill and paint - you must do it properly! It is easy to get paint and touch up, but if you don't plan and prepare, you can leave yourself with more work and a house that looks no better than before you started.
My Personal Tips:
Our house is a BIG family home. Children live here. There are marks on the walls. From furniture moving in and moving out, there are a couple of dings. Everyone hangs pictures, TV brackets. But people who are buying a new house for their family, don't want marks and dings, they want to hang pictures where they want to. So I filled, fixed and painted. Then the hard part - tidy and declutter and deep clean. But it is therapeutic and cleansing to the soul, but also leaves you with only one last thing to do - the real fun - Staging! When I left for the school run this morning, a member of the realtor team were digging a hole ready for our posh new sign. Earlier than expected, but exciting! There are signs going up and getting adorned with their "Under Contract" and "Sold" signs. We have an Open House planned for 30th. Who knows - we might already be under contract, stranger things have happened! Mike Rose - Triangle Real Estate Group
"I'm software not hardware" - Matt Selling a house is not fun - until you complete I suppose! Buying/building is very exciting so I am motivated to sell and ensure everything goes smoothly. Matt's famous saying is "I'm software not hardware". So he takes care of the background software stuff, like bills and finances and all the technology. I take care of the hardware. So fixing the door and dealing with carpenter ees, refurbishing the porch and the best part - using all the power tools! For the "sell this house" project I have invested in some new toys;. Hedge cutter to tame the jungle. Chainsaw to speed up the taming! Pressure washer to clean the decks. Sander to strip the dining furniture for refinishing - request denied as not helping sell :| Mower - need to maintain the lawn for viewers. Would love to have a compressor and paint sprayer but the house prep budget doesn't stretch that far! Good job I can get 'er done with a brush and roller! BackgroundWe have moved a few times and usually we don't do things small. First big move was from North Wales where I was born and raised, to Wiltshire, England where Matt is from. Only 200 miles but at the time, that meant no more popping in to see my family. Then we left the UK for our jobs in 2011 and came to America. Matt lost his job in 2013, which turned out to be the best thing ever as his dream job landed in his lap, with one minor flaw - it was in California. Now THAT was a tough decision. California was great but our 5 bedroom house was 2000 sq ft home with 3 sq ft yard was costing more than double our beautiful home in NC... what were we doing!? By then, we were both working for the same company (again, I know, stalker, can't help it) and both our bosses were in support of us working remote. So we did it - came back and this time for good! Sounds simple, but... we had had tenants in our home for over 2 years. There were kids scribbles and ink and sticky hand prints on the walls and stairs and in cupboards. The loo seats and light switches were changed, cookies down the air vents and the garden was a jungle. The house was not our home and we could never change it back from being an investment to being a home. There was no really damage, they had been great tenants - I wish they had been able to buy the house so we never had to move back in! List to SellSo let's get sold. We decided not to rent the house out again, to prevent a situation where we end up living here again! The house is amazing, but - its just not ours - it's like wearing a dress that looks better on the hanger or anyone else but you.
Timing is everything. The toughest sell for me was the timing when building new. It doesn't help that I want everything now now now! But signing now means 8 months pushes us in to January... in California we sold our house in less than a week and closed in a month thanks to an amazing Realtor - Adam Shoop. But the market in NC is not quite as hot yet. So what do we do after selling before closing? Make a plan. Consider everything is my quality and flaw. I have to weigh up all the what-ifs - it drives Matt mad, but have a plan and a back-up. Always have a best-case and worst-case, then you don't have icky blindsiding issues. We will sell the house as soon as we do, then move in to a 3 bedroom apartment for the 3-6 months. Close to schools and our new house, to keep things as consistent as we can for the kids. Prepare the house. Ergh, staging... basically, we need to make this house a show home and keep it that way, when the house is our work and we have four kids. Hmmmm, I wish I was supermom or a dream housewife - but I am not. This is going to be hard.
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