As soon as my husband got his official orders, he contacted a realtor who was referred to us by friends and we started looking at listings online.
I really dread house hunting online because looks can be so deceiving. Photos can either make a break a house, in my opinion. The photos, when done right, can make a house look much larger than it really is at a glance. With a wide angle lens, you are able to see more of a room. If its not in focus or the lighting is bad, it reflects poorly on the house.
My husband does the online search, picks out houses he wants us to look at, and then I happily go along on the days we go look at them. I get too frustrated if I can’t figure out the layout online, or if I can’t figure out where that door leads to. Or what is that room? There isn’t a photo of that room?? Or… the killer, NO PHOTOS?!?! How do you expect to get interest if you don’t show a picture (the more the merrier) of your home!
House hunting.
In the Marine Corps, at least at this time, my husband is allowed 10 days of house hunting leave. So two weekends ago, we jumped in the car and drove 4 1/2 hours to North Carolina, all four children in tow, to look at a few houses we had found online. Why the last minute house hunting trip? Our top pick had just gone under contract and my husband went into a panic because he didn’t want to lose out on our 2nd pick.
We drove down Saturday afternoon and looked at houses all day Sunday, then drove home in time to tuck the kids in bed Sunday night. It was a whirl wind, but man did we get a lot of things accomplished.
We are also in the process of selling our home. Taking that weekend allowed us to get a little insight from a buyer’s perspective as to what is attractive and what is a turn off when going through a home you are interested in purchasing.
Because we took that last minute weekend trip, we were able to make some quick decisions and spent the entire next week putting fresh paint on the walls, decluttering, packing up extra ‘things’ around the house that could be eye sores, and made our home visually pleasing and ready to show.
Let’s be honest… which house would you be more interested in?
This past week, we went back down and looked at several more houses and finally decided on one we are very happy with.
House hunting absolutely gave us a little insight on how to prepare your home for selling.
We learned several things we needed to do, as well as many things we learned NOT to do:
10 Tips to Prepare your Home for Selling
- Declutter
- Pack up personal items- Box them up and stack them in your garage. People will not judge you or your home on your temporary storage set up.
- Take down family photos – People like to visualize their things in your home, and not have to look at your 80′s family photos.
- Clean your house… seems obvious, but apparently not all home owners got that memo.
- If you want to sell your home, you need to have it available to show. You might lose out on an offer if ‘it’s not a good day for you’ to show your home.
- Scrub your walls. No one wants to walk past finger prints, boogers and smudges. Icky.
- Kennel your pets (it’s kinda creepy being stared down by house cats)
- Don’t follow potential buyers around your home and tell them how amazing your house is… or when you painted those hideous colors on your children’s wall… because those will be the first walls I would have painted if we bought your home.
- When listing your home online, post as many pictures as you can. And make sure they represent your home well, and are of good quality.
- Start a routine with your family to have everyone help out with keeping the house ‘show ready’… pick up toys when you are done playing with them. Make your bed each morning. Pick up laundry. This will shorten the time it takes you to tidy up the house when you get that last minute call that someone wants to stop by and see your home.
In the comments below, share your tips on how you prepare your home for selling?
