Selling a Luxury Home - Part 8 - Living Through the Sale
This is Part 8 in a Series. You may wish to look at the other parts first:
Selling a Luxury Home - Part 1 - Defined
Selling a Luxury Home - Part 2 - A State of Mind
Selling a Luxury Home - Part 3 - Make a Plan
Selling a Luxury Home - Part 4 - The Team - Home Inspector
Selling a Luxury Home - Part 5 - The Team - The Termite Inspector
Selling a Luxury Home - Part 6 - The Team - The Stager
Selling a Luxury Home - Part 7 - The Team - Putting it together
We have all had those moments when our home looks less than ideal. If you have kids it has probably been more than a few moments. My top 10 examples:
- Your two year old decides he is an artist and the wall is his canvas.
- The cat brings you a present - it has just killed.
- The dog leaves you a present on the carpet.
- The kids decide to surprise you by cooking breakfast.
- The kids decide to make their own powdered drink mix, spill it on the carpet (why they were making it on the carpet I do not know), then take a sponge to it.
- You have a teenager - need I say more!
- After running a Hot Wheel Track down the stairs impromptu idea to go with something bigger. Tonka Truck leaves a hole in the wall.
- The two year old is proud of himself for learning how to undo child safetly locks on fridge. He wants to crack eggs just like mom, but on the carpet.
- Kids bathroom starts to smell like little boys need target practice then you find out they have been flushing Lego's.
- Two year old decides to surprise you by taking off his own diaper (dirty) and then going to the potty by himself.
We all have our own moments we can laugh about in retrospect about home messes or disasters. The reality is homes are for living in and often reflect that lived in look. When we go to sell the home we may or may not have to live in the home while it is for sale.
Finances or other circumstances may prevent a seller from moving before they put the home on the market. It may be more secure to live on the property while it is on the market and exposed (more on security latter).
However, if you have to live in it, it needs to be kept clean. Remember we are looking at Selling a Luxury Home; it is about uniqueness, status, and Luxury, the home needs to reflect this. This can be very hard with kids. Here are some suggestions that may help you manage the home when Selling a Luxury Home while living in the home.
- Consult first with your Realtor and Home Stager about how the home should look and what changes you need to make around the house.
- De-cluttering will probably be one of the things you will be working on with the stager. This will mean moving stuff, both furniture and smaller items out of the home. My personal recommendation is to get a container by one of those companies that does moves. Back it up at your current home and when you move have it brought to the new home. You will be moving it one way or the other, get it taken care of in advance. If you cannot do that put the items in traditional storage or at least store it in your garage. Although it looks nice if the garage is clean too, but if you have to clutter one room that one is probably it.
- Make the kids part of the team. Explain to them what needs to happen and try to get them on your team, provide an incentive. The incentive could be the new home they can expect, new toys when they get there, what ever works.
- Get most of the toys and mess makers out of the house. You cannot take a way all the kids toys, but do try and get the biggest mess makers out of the way while moving. Be on top of the kids to clean up when they play before they move onto the next toy. (Yes many of these rules can go for us adults with our toys too.)
- It is great if you have house cleaning help to work with, even if only temporary while selling the house. But remember for most of us help will not be around 24/7 or just before the buyer is coming buy to inspect.
- Keep life simple. When selling a home it is not a great time to plan a major dinner party, start a major sewing or home improvement project, or have the in laws in town for a couple of weeks. Try to eat our more, or cook simple foods that are easy to clean up.
- Clean as you go. The house should be ready to show at all times.
- Even though you clean as you go there needs remember to keep up with regular maintenance type cleaning; dusting, mowing the lawn, etc. . .
- When Selling a Luxury Home you can show by appointment only which gives you more time to get ready. There are upsides and downsides to limited showing times. We will cover those latter.
- Keep focused on your goal of selling the house. Although the cleaning is hard it is also a good time to assess your life and de-clutter in general. Most of us have more "stuff" than we need or should even hang onto.
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