How Come Your House Did Not Sell?

When preparing your home for sale, you are told “beige is best.” But you think beige is boring, don’t you? For living, you may be right. Beige may not fit your personal style. But, that’s actually the point. When selling a home, it’s all about DE-personalizing and beige really IS what works.

Bigger Audience = Better Odds of Selling

When staging your home, making it look its best to the greatest number of people is the goal. Beige is called “neutral” for a reason. People don’t have strong feelings about it — either positive or negative. It’s easy to mentally “overlay” any decorator scheme of the potential buyer’s liking over a beige palette. That’s harder to accomplish when walking into a dark green or red or blue room.

Beige also opens up the space, making your rooms look bigger, lighter and more welcoming. Washing your windows inside and out can improve the incoming light by 30%, which also improves the impact of your interior space. Installing higher wattage bulbs and replacing any that have burned out will also “open up” the interior.

No Color At All?

Color is great and should be used, but not on your walls. Bring in color with fresh items: Consider a bowl of fresh lemons or green apples in the kitchen, a single red rose in a crystal vase, a bouquet of fresh flowers, a healthy and full-bodied plant. The bright colors should be in things that are temporary by their nature. Not walls, not couches, not rugs and curtains. Pales, beiges, and neutrals rule the successful sale.

Beige is a Philosophy

When painting your walls varying shades of beige, remember to patch the holes from personal photos, since those won’t be returning to the walls while you are trying to sell. Likewise, any other personal items need to disappear. Pack them up and store them offsite during the showing and selling process. If it’s smaller than a breadbox, house-showing wisdom says it should be gone.

Clutter is “Bad” Color

Remove it. Clean off the refrigerator. Clear the counters in the kitchen and bathrooms. Unload the stuff from the garage and basement and attic. De-stuff the closets. Pack away unnecessary items from the cabinets throughout the house, leaving only what is essential while you are showing the house. The rest can be packed up and made ready for the pending move to your new location.

Getting rid of the clutter makes the house, the storage space, the counterspace appear ample — even in the smallest house. Ample space adds a cushion of luxury to any home of any size in any price range. Beige, decluttered, open spaces welcome buyers, they entice them. These spaces sell.

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Take a hard look at your home for sale. Walk through each room, paying particular attention to cords. Yep. Cords.

After all, is there anything uglier than cords stringing this way and that?

You may not be able to eliminate all the cords, but you should take steps to minimize and camouflage the essential ones. I can show you how.

Eliminate the Superfluous

When preparing your house to sell, you probably already eliminated all the clutter you could. You probably already streamlined most of your rooms. But now, you need to remove any unnecessary appliances — along with their cords.

Cords are one of those things that you quit seeing in your own house after awhile. But you always see other people’s cords, don’t you? Potential buyers will see all of yours. Every one of them.

Extension Cords

Eliminate ALL of these. If you must use them, make sure they are hidden. Nothing screams “inadequate wiring” like clumps of extension cords and/or power strips.

Go Wireless

If you have the money and the inclination, you can upgrade many of your existing gear to wireless options… phones, speakers, printers, cordless charger stations, etc. Multi-function devices will also help minimize cord clutter.

Extra cords are trip hazards and fire-hazards… they are also a serious eyesore. If you want to show your home in the best possible light, clear the cords.

Slow Moving Sale? Make Lemonade!

One of the good things about a little waiting while your house sells is the opportunity to thoughtfully plan your move. You can declutter your stuff, organize the packing, get cheaper or more useful packing materials and make the transition smoother for you and your family.

Get Packing Materials

The best places to find free boxes? Try furniture stores for larger boxes. Liquor stores are a great place for smaller, stronger boxes — and some of them will have bottle dividers you can use to pack glassware and other delicate items. Craigslist often has boxes and packing materials offered for free (or at a low cost) from people who have just completed their own move.

If you want new supplies, you can order them online and have them delivered from places such as ULine. Consider using pallet wrapping plastic to strengthen and seal boxes. It can also be used to secure and protect furniture. For instance, a couple layers of wrap around a desk can secure drawers in place, protect surfaces, and make moving the piece easier.

A Greener, Re-Useable Option

If you want a more expensive (but a more long-term and useful option) consider purchasing totes. If selected carefully, totes not only create easy-to-handle, securely stacking and excellent storage units for your move. They are also useful long after the move if you select a single size of tote and make sure they stack inside one another (so they will take up little room when not in use).

During my last move, I bought 40 totes of the same type. They nest beautifully and lids (which store inside the top tote) are interchangeable. Storing them when they aren’t in use takes very little room.

The bonus? Once the move was complete, I still use the totes — for organizing attic storage, basement storage and out-of-season clothes, blankets and linens. I pull from the stack, as needed, for hauling things in easy-to-handle sized boxes. I also use them to store bulk purchases and sale items for the pantry, laundry and cleaning cabinet until I need those items. It helps me save money.

And, when family and friends are moving, I (temporarily) loan them the totes I’m not using.

Starting Early Helps Your House Show Better

The less you have “sitting around” in your house, the better it will show. When your house is full of your stuff, there’s no psychological “room” for a potential buyer to imagine their stuff in the house. Remember the “hotel philosophy” when you determine what to pack away early and what really needs to stay in your house until the papers are all signed.

Declutter Your Life

There has never been a better time to evaluate the things you need now, the things that can safely be packed away long-term, and those things you don’t need at all. Donate what you don’t need (and get a receipt for tax purposes), organize the items that can safely be packed away long term, and pack them securely.

Why postpone the cleansing? If you do, you will be double-handling all that stuff… packing it up now, storing it, unpacking it, finding a place to put it in he new house… and eventually (maybe) evaluating it later for elimination. Or, it may become permanent. Forever.

Cut the steps, don’t procrastinate. Do it now.