Palos Verdes Lifestyle - Norma Toering's Palos Verdes Homes Blog

Great analogy comparing it to how you prepare your car for sale. You wouldn't leave your favorite knick knacks laying around your car. People are not as emotionally attached to their cars as they are a home though. I will definitely use this comparison from now on.

Blunt, and true! I'm in the process of cleaning up a rental house, and that thought keeps going through my head. How extreme am I about cleaning up our rental properties? I try to eliminate every speck of previous tenant's dirt. How much more does this apply to home buyers? Immeasurable.

Norma, love the analogy.  I agree, sellers to cleanup the house before putting on the market will make a huge difference, even if buyers don't like the carpet, or paint colors, they'll see it's at least clean.

Great comments and I agree with them 100%...

Tell them this:

There are only 3 kinds of Dirt: Dark colored Dirt attracted to Light colored objects, Light colored Dirt attracted to Dark colored objects, and YOUR Dirt. I can live with the first two but will pass on the third!

I encourage my sellers to get their home immaculate. Paint, have carpets cleaned, remove everything possible to have a very stream lined appearance, trim bushes, have house power washed, etc. There is so much inventory if you do not shine, it becomes very difficult to sell. Great analogy using a car sale!

Kristi - Time spent "detailing" is never wasted.

Joetta - No doubt about it--clean sells!

Pamela - A buyer can often overcome an objection to color, but dirty is always a turn-off.

Mike - Love your three kinds of dirt rule--I'll remember that one.

Carol - Sounds like you do a great job of "detailing" your listings.

Norma, so true...........and easily misunderstood by sellers wearing their emotions on their sleeve.  I had one nurse that was such a slob that I refused to put his home on the market.  A $400,000 home which would have sold for $200,000 because of the chaos.

Elizabeth - That's why I decided to use the car analogy--it removes the emotions and adds a dash of reason.

So true! Should not be so difficult for the seller to understand but it is at times. De-clutter and cleaning are non-negotiable things that need to be done BEFORE you list your house and maintenance of the house should be done DURING the listing. I tell me sellers to start packing up the stuff they know that they are done with now and either donate or put in storage.

Such good advice for sellers!  And whether it is fair or not, resale sellers are competing with new construction, so need to make it sparkle for those buyers who want to make sure they choose the best available house in their price range.  (And that would be pretty much all buyers!)

K.C. - If staging is beyond a seller's budget clean and clutter-free will present the property in its best available light.

Norma, I agree with your comment above!  There's nothing more distracting than clutter and dirt!

In these tough times, sellers have to use every "secret weapon" up their sleeves to compete with short sales, foreclosures and new-builds.

I'd like to re-blog!

Nancy - Yes, it is competitive out there and every seller needs to hit the market with their best game in place. 

Kathleen - Many buyers are looking for the exit door as soon as they enter a cluttered, dirty house--that's a potential sale walking away.

Great blog Norma! I had just blogged earlier about getting ready to sell your home and of course de-cluttering is at the top of the list! Thank you and I would like to re-blog this.

Jodi - Be my guest!

Soooo true. Very recently I showed a house that I thought was one of the best buys in the area. The male buyer loved it.  It was a fairly new home, granite counters, great basement, great floor plan, great neighborhood.  The home had no curb appeal because there was no landscaping.  And even though the house wasn't trashed, the walls, doors, cabinets, etc were dirty and the woman buyer would have nothing to do with the house.

Smoke, Pets, Cooking Odors, Carpet stains, Granpa's old chair... your correct, price it right and make it shine!

It really is discouraging to walk in to a home that is filthy. What makes it worse is that the photos must have been photo shopped because they don't look like the house I and my buyers are standing in!

It is in the best interest of all that the listing agent be upfront with the sellers about the need for clean and the difference is will make in getting an offer! Thanks for the post

Dawn -  I always encourage buyers to look beyond the dirt, but sometimes it is difficult to convince them to do so.

Pafford Homes -  It will put money in the seller's wallet.

Dave - I'm encountering some buyer objections to over-the-top photo shopped photos--but that's another post...

Norma....it's common courtesy to sell your home clean and "detailed" ..... I sold my home two years ago and it was professionally cleaned inside and $1,500 worth of "landscaping detail" was done outside too.....none of this was in the agreement....I would have been embarrassed to have someone say I did not leave it in mint condition in AND OUT....

This has been said before, but never said better! Your analogy should be easy for even the most stubborn seller to understand!

Every seller should have their home professionally cleaned before it goes on the market and after they move out.

Detail, de-clutter = extra money$$$$$

Any time and money spent cleaning and de-cluttering with be well spent.  Note to sellers: Dirt does not equal "lived in" and clutter does not infer "homey".  I understand it could be an overwhelming task to clear it out and clean it up--but if your goal is to sell your  house --and isn't that why it's listed?--you will have to do it eventually to move, so why not do it upfront and get the true benefit it can bring to the sales price?

It is amazing how many people think it's ok to show a dirty house! And, that other people should be able to envision their belongings in a home that doesn't have any space because of all the clutter. 

On the other end of the spectrum, are calls I receive from folks who think they are terribly disorganized and they're NOT!

Good advice, Norma. A thoroughly cleaned home will help potential buyers focus on the details that make it a winner. Dirt and clutter only distract from that.

Hi Norma~  I have found it pretty amazing to see the differences in the way some people live, and more surprising to see that common sense is not so common when it comes to selling! 

Hi Norma -- Great analogy.  I use this analogy all the time with good results with my sellers.  As an ASP, I see first-hand the huge difference a properly prepared home can make in a seller's net financial bottom line.

Absolutely LOVE your style of writing!! Cracked up laughing at the "DNA". LOL

The dirty car analogy is what I use. Works great. If you look in someones car and it's trashed their house usually is also.

Norma, great point used but not abused, model like never hurts either with staging and decluttering.

I also love the car analogy. And the suggestion to watch Hoarders!

Julia - Thanks for the kind words.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments.  Hoarders is one scary show---unfortunately, I've seen a few homes that could be applicants...

Great analogy and advice Julia. Home stagers like me, would love to work with agents like you, we have the same values. 

I'm putting my own mom's condo, in Vancouver, B.C., on the market. It has been a hard process, since I live in Seattle and I have to travel on the weekends to get all of the work done. One of the agents that I interviewed, told me that I should sell my mom's condo as is. I was horrified at the thought and of course didn't take the advice.

All the collections are packed, the extra items purged, the condo got painted and cleaned, and this weekend I'm going to stage it and make it ready for the buyers.

Shirin - Sounds like your mom's condo will be market ready--and I'm sure a sale will soon be coming your way.

Norma.....You are so right on with this.  I love the title to this post!

I find that most buyers cannot visualize green shag carpeting removed and hardwood floors refinished, wallpaper gone and walls painted but they will never get to these issues if the property is not clean.  Great post and thanks for sharing.

Great post!  Your right that the sellers' idea of everyday clean is not good enough to sell their home.  They need to be squeaky clean including behind their ears!  LOL

Carra - Funny, I debated whether to use that title--but went with it--glad you like it.

Michael - I recently listed one of those homes--we removed the 40 year old shag carpet and the living room is now gorgeous--no imagination necessary!

Karen - We dress one way to hang out at home and another way when we need to impress--same rule applies when it is time to sell---clean it up and dress it up!

Excellent post!  These are very good tips for ALL home sellers!

This is so true.  Sellers need to remember that buyers like to purchase homes that don't look like they've been lived in.

Norma, Great point!  I've shown a few like this and wonder why they would ever let anyone see their home like that.

Make your Sellers watch HGTV for several hours.

Take them to several Builder's New Construction Model Homes.

Show your Sellers a few nicely Staged re-sale houses.

After seeing this, maybe they will understand the Choices that Buyers have available.

Norma, you know this is the first thing a seller should be told, but then again, should know.  

Hi Norma, sound advice for home sellers to hear.