Staging your Closet
advice, Home selling tips, listings, Real Estate, Sellers, Selling, selling tips, Staging, tricks and tips
Home sellers usually do one of two things; they either spend absolutely no time and money staging their home to sell or they go absolutely overboard. There is a middle ground, and that’s where you need to be in order to sell for the most profit. Let’s talk about tackling a hidden menace; the lowly closet!
Here are five tips and a bonus for decluttering and pre-packing your closets!
1. Remove everything!
2. Clean and paint the closet.
That’s right; removing everything is just your first step. Replace any bent shelves and clothes racks. Paint the inner walls to remove scuffs. Make the doors and their hardware shine!
3. Sort those clothes!
I recommend creating three piles; a pile to keep, off-season clothes to pre-pack, and a final pile for consignment stores or donations. Box that off-season clothing and get it out of the closet. Those boxes either need to go into your packing area or into your storage unit. Get rid of the to-go clothes immediately. Whether it’s a trip to the consignment store or to the donation center, don’t let these clothes hang around very long. Clothing to be removed tends to make its way back onto racks and into off-season boxes!
4. Clean out the bottom.
Closets have bottoms too. Closet floors are storage for extra shoes, suitcases, random junk, and even excess clothing! Pull everything out and go back to your three pile system. Box and remove off-season items, and remove the consignment and donation pile.
This is the time to remove boxes, bags, and envelopes of receipts. Some agents and buyers will use these to gauge your financial health, including looking for evidence of past due bills or late fees! Past due bills and late fees mean desperate sellers, which means that it’s time to lowball!
5. Be careful of how you replace things.
Return clothing neatly to the closet. This means using the same type/style of non-wire hangers as much as possible. Not only must hangars and clothing face the same way, but clothing should be organized by color and size. Neatly replace the other items you intend to keep. Absolutely nothing should be on the floor, including shoes! If you must have shoes on the floor, invest in some good-looking shoe racks.
Now step back and look at your closet. If it’s more than 2/3 full, take a second look. Remember that a filled closet looks smaller. Your goal is to show your buyers that there’s plenty of room! A crammed closet signals to buyers that your house is small; if it doesn’t have enough room for you, it won’t have enough room for your buyers!
Bonus:
Bad things happen to good sellers. If you are going through a divorce, be sure to leave both his and hers clothes in the master closet! Only one gender of clothing, unless it’s ab obviously single person’s property, makes buyers suspect a divorce. Divorces mean that lowball offers are acceptable!
Thinking of selling your home? Let’s talk closets—and more! Email or call Mike Kwiatkowski of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage of Brookfield, WI. Mike’s email is mike.k@cbexchange.com and his phone number is (414) 207-2938.