People do look in your medicine cabinets and vanity drawers- make sure they have been emptied and wiped down. Lock up all medicine.

Ask an honest friend if the house smells fresh. If not, see if the friend can pinpoint the cause(s) of the trouble. Some old houses just smell old. Sometimes an old musty smell can be fixed with professional carpet and upholstery cleaning and new paint. Sometimes old clothes, curtains and upholstery hang onto smells and a decision has to be made to remove them or keep them elsewhere if they cannot be cleaned enough to make you happy with the results. Open windows before showings to air out the house if the weather is nice.

Yes, baking a small roll of Chocolate Chip Cookies in the oven....(not if it makes the house tooo warm)on the days when people come look, and serve them a cookie to go.....will help them feel like they too, could own your home! :) Or, find a way to bring a fresh clean scent into the house....just not a food scent in the bathroom and a pinesol in the kitchen..... LOL One home we looked at had a small electric... de-oderizer working in what must have been a musty odor lower area of the home..it was very pleasant to be in with that working...it was during a very rainy time in the area...

People will do everything during showings, turn on taps, look in closets, look in the fridge, open up the stove, open windows, any door not locked, even drawers I suspect. Don’t leave anything valuable laying around. If it’s wet and muddy where you are you might need mats or trays for shoes. Make sure everything is safe, no loose boards on steps, nails protuding, flagstones popping out, tiles peeling off, broken anything laying about. Air everything out thoroughly. Make sure windows are clean, and that there is a lot of light. I’ve gone to some house openings where they’ve got the fireplace going. Get some fresh flowers, you can get cheap ones and they still brighten up a room. If there is a front garden, I agree, sometimes a fresh layer of mulch can do a world of good re: tidying up the appearance. If shrubs or hedges are massively overgrown, get them pruned down or cleared out, your house should be easy to see, and look like someone cares. I’ve heard people don’t like to see a lot of very personal photos, so if you’ve got them, like those 3’ high wedding photos you sometimes see, it might make sense to get them off the walls. No weird cluttery collections, it goes without saying. Vinegar can help kill odors.

As above clean till it sparkles. Fresh fluffy towels and pretty soap dispensers in the bathroom. Put away toothbrushes, personal items. Edit down your furniture, but don't go too far. People want to see that night stands, dresser, and chest of drawers can fit in the bedrooms. That you can put a sofa and a couple chairs in the living room. Remove all personal pictures. Set your dining room table and include fresh flowers. Have the bare minimum on your kichen counters . Put out a pretty plate of cookies. Don't forget to clean inside the fridge and oven. Edit half of everything out of closets, cabinets and drawers. You want it to appear that there is plenty of storage. Neutral paint or light shades. If it is a home for a family, in what would be a kids rooms add something like a cute stuffed animal. You want the buyers to be able to picture their family in the home. Hide and/or lock up valuables and medicine. Pack away any religious items. Good luck. Living in a staged home is a real inconvenience.

Make sure you pick a killer real estate agent. We choose a real estate agent based on a friend's recommendation. We had an offer come in that was nearly our asking price. She advised us to counteroffer. They split and we were stuck with the house on the market for a year. A couple of price drops, two more agents later. It finally sold. Our mistake was choosing an agent that worked with buyers more than she ever did with sellers. The last agent got the job done. He was a real go getter and had sold many properties in a very soft market. Check their selling track record. Good luck!

PRICE IT to sell. Which means usually, less than YOU or the realtor think it is worth.

Regarding all the advice about cleaning your home to sell it--don't you clean it to LIVE in it??????

For one thing, not everybody wants to or has the time/energy to make their home look immaculate every single day, for another, it could have belonged to an elderly relative for ex.

We have sold two houses in the last two years... both sold in the first two days. We have also looked at countless homes over the last couple years. I think the biggest factor in selling was getting the photos right. Having pictures that honestly show the homes best features- but in a way that doesn’t disappoint when they actually see the home.

Our first house had multiple over asking price offers. I think there was a lot of interest because the photographer was Exceptionally good. Yet we left out photos of the entry so when people stepped into the home they had a Wow factor that they hadn’t expected.

Too many houses we looked at ourselves had great pictures but when we saw the home it didn’t live up to what the online photos had led us to expect.

Listen to Jan Moyer....

I had a friend who needed to sell quickly to buy his dream home. The realtor suggested he list at 429, and try to get 410-420. He listed it for 399 and sold it in less than 24 hours.

I agree with many a very clean, clutter free home sells well if it is priced right. We moved so much out of our home, cleaned all the windows and everything sparkled. We had fresh flowers on a table and zero clutter. Less is more. Good luck!

You only get one chance to price it right for when it hits the market. If it looks good, and you price it nicely under comps, it will sell, and might even have a bidding war. If it has not been updated, and the rest of the market has, that had to be reflected in the initial price. You can’t think that you can get the 800K that the house with the new kitchen and 4th bathroom has. Be brutally realistic about what the house is, and isn’t.

No I don't have young children now, but I used to! I guess I have very high standards of cleanliness and neatness, since even when my children were young, my house was neat, clean, and presentable.

Haha I wouldn't buy a house as dirty as my house!

You mention its an older home- older homes tend to have smaller closets, allot of rooms etc. If you feel there are issues that buyers may have when comparing to other competitive homes get some estimates for how much it would cost to improve these issues. Dont do the work- just be prepared to present potential buyers with a vision and cost. Many bidders will try to bid you down and give you a list of fixes to justify the low bid- by having your own estimates you can better negotiate and possibly give you a better baseline for the value of your home vs the comps. In some sales situations we have provided the vision to potential buyers who needed some "prodding" as they lacked vision or were scared of cost.

Some example scenarios-- how much and what would it look like to open the kitchen to the dining room for a open concept/larger kitchen? How much to update a bathroom? Can one to create more closet space and how much? Are there hardwoods under the carpets-how much to remove and finish floors? If you have older windows how much to replace.

I have personally done stuff like hiring an architect to do a concept only rendering of what an addition could look like, I have had kitchen cabinet people do a rendering, I have placed little notes in areas of the house to provide some ideas (ie this space could be closed off to be used for an additional closet). While the architect may cost you a little most estimates are free.

A royal shame to wait to enjoy the sparkle of a really clean and clutter free home until you are ready TO LEAVE that home...............just sayin. : (

As others have already said, not everybody is OCD about cleaning to the last finest detail for everyday living, because they might be doing OTHER things like spending time with their kids in a park, or they might not have even lived in the house. It might have belonged to an elderly person who has now moved into a nursing home, we just have no idea of their personal circumstances. If cleaning windows in the middle of winter floats your boat, then so be it. Also we have no idea what “old” means, are we talking 1800s, are we talking 70’s tract house? A 200 year old house can have a lot of issues.

Though the editing and cleaning is a pain, it's keeping it that way till your house sells is the real challenge. Every time anyone uses the bath /shower, use a sink you have to wipe it down to keep it sparkling. Having to get your toothbrush out of a cabinet every time you want to use it, then put it back. Same for blow dryers, etc. Switching out your used towels for the staging towels every day. Making sure the kitchen looks like it is never used and there is not a toy laying around. Running out as soon as the garbage man comes to put the cans away. Plus more. All of this before you leave for work in the morning! I was one of the lucky ones and was under contract the first day with my last two homes. Can you imagine having to do it for weeks while juggling a job, animals and kids. Exasperation

Ok I get it

But I am tired of people making blanket judging statements about housekeeping. I find some people take housecleaning so far it is like a disorder, they don’t get enough sleep, they don’t eat properly, they badger everyone around them to keep everything orderly at the expense of everything else around them. If keeping every single square inch of your home under control is your thing, it’s your thing, not everyone wants, needs, or can do that. I’ve known people who are so controlling they disturb the hapiness of people around them, even tho technically, cleanliness is highly extolled and is considered a virtue. I had a friend whose mom would not allow us to enter any part of the house except the (unfinished) basement. Everything upstairs had to remain exactly as it was undisturbed. My inlaws like to judge me every time they come over, tsking here and there. At their house everything is so restrained, you sometimes can’t even find extra toilet paper to use (I get judged about much I have to use the washroom)and they have put all dishes and glasses out of reach of their child, they will recycle the newspaper you are currently reading. I admire the impulse to keep things orderly and clean, but sometimes it does get to the point it seems disordered.

A clean and clutter free home FREES you for more time for all the things you love to do. Don't believe it? Try it.

This has not one thing to do with being compulsive in any way. It has to do with routine. No different than you accept the fact that your own body requires some daily maintenance, or you will repel people.

Nobody who looks at your home, is flipping over a sofa for a dust bunny inspection. They WILL notice filmy windows, grunge in your bath. There are miles between obsessive attention to a home, and that which makes it a joy for you, and for others.

Once I bought a house FSBO off of Craigslist. The sellers had put together a few binders with every bit of information they had on the house. All the manuals for everything, dates of services, receipts and warranties for improvements, copies of permits, paint colors used (and what room), business cards for contractors and vendors used, everything. They also had a homeowner's inspection already done which apparently was a thing people did during the Silicon Valley real estate bubble.

That was nice and made a good impression. I'm not saying do the inspection ahead of time (I thought it was weird but my Realtor said it was fine and I have come to believe those aren't worth much anyway), but having all the stuff you can about the house in a organized lump on the kitchen counter looks good.

Also try here for the Houzz real estate forum: https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/realestate

Good luck!

Have a house inspection done before you list it. Then you can take care of any issues before hand and they don't become a bargaining point.

following...

The scent of your cat could be worse than an urn. Change your vacuumm bag, change your litter almost daily. If you can't smell it? Someone else can. Dog hair scent clings to a vacuum. Even that canister with no bag. Wash it, and rotate the filters. Open your windows. The scent is as important as the LOOK of the clean.....

Jmint, that is funny. A cat shrine. People can be weird. It wouldn't of deterred me from concidering the house, but I would hope the shrine moved with them. It would be a fun conversation on the ride home from looking at the house though.

H W G A, I had to stay home during the showing of our last home. I worked from home. It was uncomfortable for me also as the seller.

I’ve definitely seen some very strange and disturbing things while looking at homes for sale. I think one of the most alarming was a guy “squatting” a semi derelict house that was supposed to be vaccant, I can’t recall what the explanation for that was. Children who looked neglected/weird living arrangements. Animals being kept in a windowless garage. A chest freezer full of flies in the middle of the kitchen, in an otherwise completely empty building. Rat infested matresses and an outdoor TV antenna in a top floor room next to a cabinet TV. Backyards and garages so covered by overgrown foliage you could no longer see them. Taxidermy. Rooms so full of crap you could barely open the door/soft porn on the wall. The first place we got was like a white elephant sale, you could not actually see the rooms properly as there was a literal actual sea of crap from one side to the other. I think other people were scared to touch it.

We were at a viewing when potential buyers came by, we had a small child, it was getting late, they were warned we would be home, where were we supposed to go? It was very awkward.

If you feel the need to use manufactured scents please be aware that there are lots of folks sensitive to them and that will override any 'pleastantness' you are trying to achieve. So go light. As well, if you are using scents, pick one for everywhere. We looked at an older home a few years ago and there were at least 6 different scents in the house, some just unlit candles but they were strong (I was guessing they had been bought new for the showings!) and each scent was different. Lemon in the kitchen, lavender in the bathroom, etc. I could hardly wait to get out of there.

I went to look at a house with the owners there (different from previous one where of course they were there because it was FSBO). Their terrible realtor gave us the wrong date for the open house. The owner showed us around anyway and told us all kinds of things she probably shouldn't have. It was nice. We bought it.

Good point about the pets. If you have pets, have someone honest who doesn't have any pets come to smell your house for you. You might be surprised...

We are currently under contract for full asking price (all cash) after 4 days of showings and two offers, so I (smugly) feel qualified to answer this question. This is our third time selling and the second time with a quick sell in a buyer's market.

Here's what we did:

• Interviewed three real estate agents. They all came up with the same selling price, so we chose a flat fee agency and are saving $12,000 in commissions. This agent was very good, took professional pictures, wrote the listing, posted to MLS, dealt with contract negotiations, the whole shebang minus open houses which we didn't want anyway. Super happy with this company. I did research the agent on Realtor.com before choosing him.
• Took our agent's advice on pricing. We were not in a hurry to sell, looked at the comps, and agreed that our agent had us solidly in the middle of what we could reasonably expect to sell our house for.
• Through the 9 years we have owned the house, we have updated everything, including having our very small Florida yard professionally landscaped.
• Fixed everything that was broken
• Cleaned everything
• Repainted where we couldn't clean the walls or trim adequately
• Decluttered, put a bunch of stuff in storage
• Staged the house nicely
• Put everything personal away for showings
• The only things on counters were decorative
• Bowl of green apples on kitchen counter for a pop of color against the granite
• Hung fresh white towels that we don't use in the bathrooms
• Used tasteful artificial flower arrangements in most rooms
• Fresh mulch in garden beds
• Refreshed flowers in front borders
• Trimmed hedges and trees
• Turned on all of the lights before showings
• House was spotless for showings (we don't normally live this way, but it's worth it to get top dollar for our house and not prolong the painful selling process)
• Turned on our Sonos to soft jazz music
• Got ourselves, our cats, and the litter box out of the house for showings

Here's what we didn't do:

• Neutralize all of the colors in the house. We have earthy tones of blue, green, rust, and aqua in our house, but everything is not beige, white, or gray..
• Get rid of curtains (I posted several months ago about this, ultimately decided to keep them)
• Hire a professional stager
• Set the table with plates
• Scent the house with anything

We met our buyers on Saturday for the home inspection and asked them what made them want the house. They said:

• Loved the landscaping
• Looked professionally staged
• Clean and inviting
• Didn't need to do anything to the house
• Looked well taken care of

We are super happy with our experience selling this time, love our buyers, and are looking forward to the May 8 closing!

We also recently sold a house for full price, cash. We had two offers, in fact. Our house went on the market very quickly when we fell into a by owner deal that wasn’t even on the market yet. I have a large dog, cleaned up the never ending hair and the rest of the house within a very short time period. Fixed nothing. Got us and the dog out of the house.

Had so many showings in two days that it was ridiculous. Somewhere between 20 and 30. The main reason we had immediate offers was location. And we were fairly priced. But location is the one thing you can’t change. If your location is great, just clean well. If your location isn’t great, price accordingly. Don’t change anything you don’t have to change(unless it’s truly falling apart). The people we bought from replaced a few things, like the master bath vanity, and I hate it. They were all set to put in a new kitchen countertop, until I begged them not to. We gutted the kitchen almost immediately.

Good luck!

I think some of that is local, too, here as long as it’s clean and functional in the right area, it will sell. Obviously if its derelict it will take longer but people will still put in multiple offers if it has potential, I see very few fixer uppers come on the market at a good enough price to make sense, it really is crazy.

After 3 years I'm guessing your house sold. Can you tell us how quickly it sold once it was on the market?