A Few Ideas to Help You Declutter and Depersonalize Before an Open House
written by Alice Robertson of TidyHome.info
There are few things more exciting than the possibility of getting to move into a brand new house. Not only is it just a little bit enthralling to simply be in a novel living space, but a new home is an opportunity to truly make your mark. You and your family get to establish yourselves in a new space and make it your own, in a way that can truly be a rewarding experience.
Photo by Jean van der Meulen on Pexels
But first... you have to deal with the home you already have! Moving on, from one house to the next, is sometimes an incredible ordeal, with a ton of moving parts and a seemingly endless to-do list and home repairs that need to be addressed before the big day can be pulled off without a hitch.
And a big part of the process is the infamous “open house.” The open house is tremendously important, as it goes beyond a simple method by which you might attract potential buyers. It’s also the unofficial start to the packing-up process, and the first steps towards moving your belongings to a new space.
Properly setting up your home for an open house can be a bit of a process. There’s a lot to consider, but with the right strategies in place, it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. Here are a few helpful ideas to make the journey as painless as possible.
Aim for Neutrality
The key component to an open house is that it’s something of a blank slate. Your goal is to engineer your living space such that it becomes easy for another person to imagine it as their living space. Overly personal décor is one of the issues that can be off-putting to buyers, so neutralize the look. Ensure that you still have items around to indicate the purpose of each room but in a way that avoids being too personal.
Things like movie posters, collections and family photos, which might indicate your specific personality, life, or tastes, should be removed or replaced (when possible) with something more neutral, such as what you might find in a hotel. Also think in terms of quiet color schemes, since bold hues can not only be hard to get past mentally, they can be challenging for buyers to work with.
Strike a Balance
You want to avoid a ton of clutter, but without making the house look too sterile in the process. While it’s smart to remove things like photos of the entire family or your personal friends, it’s also smart to avoid making it look like nobody lives there. The key is to strike a balance — too busy and it’s hard to imagine a new person living in the space. Too barren and spartan, and the living space simply won’t attract any potential buyers.
Insist on Quality Pictures
Since house hunters often begin their search online, HGTV explains that photography is a key component to any open house. Make sure you’re not snapping low-quality photos with an old flip phone that you found in a junk drawer. Find a friend with a good camera or a top-of-the line smartphone so you can actually enjoy some decently attractive photography, showing your house in all its splendor and glory. Or you could hire a real estate photographer for the job, which usually costs $110 - $300 per shoot.
Bad photography robs potential buyers of the chance to actually get a good glimpse of the house, which can be hugely important when it comes to getting them through the door on the day of the open house. Before taking photos of your home, you may want to pay a professional to stage it. A two-hour consultation will typically cost $150 - $600, but if you need to rent furniture, expect to pay $2,000 on average.
It can be easy to underestimate how important the open house is to the home-selling process. Staging your house properly before the big day is a great way to make sure you’re taking advantage of your home’s full potential, and attracting house hunters in the most effective ways possible. With the right strategies in place, your new home’s moving day will be just around the corner!