People decide to sell their homes for many reasons. Sometimes it’s because they want to relocate for a job; other times, their home no longer satisfies their needs. Nevertheless, selling a home is not an easy process, and it’s best to seek help from California real estate professionals. But in any case, before you list your home on the market, there are some things you need to take care of. One of the most important steps is to depersonalize your home for sale. It might sound harsh, but this step is essential for finding a buyer.
Take your emotions out of the process
Selling the home you’ve lived in for a few or many years can be very emotional. This is because you’ve inevitably made lots of memories there. You must first accept that those memories will stay with you forever, regardless of where you live. The second step is to try and take your emotions out of the process. It’s hard to pack away all those family photos and memorabilia, but remember that it is only temporary. You’ll be able to display it all in your new home in no time.
Plan everything
Selling and buying a home are both time-consuming and stressful. Therefore, it’s imperative to have a good plan in place before you start.
Begin by researching to find experienced real estate agents in California who can give you good advice and help you sell your old home and buy your dream home. If you’re making a cross-state move, hiring professional CA movers is essential to make it stress-free. This will save you the headache of packing, lifting, and transporting everything yourself. Besides, due to their experience, professional movers will make sure your valuables don’t break during the move.
Start by decluttering your home
People tend to accumulate a lot of stuff in time. And usually, many of those things have no use or are damaged. So, to depersonalize your home for sale, you should begin by decluttering. This is important because if you have a full storage room or garage, the buyers won’t even be able to estimate their size. This is also very important for the moving process because you’ll have fewer items to pack and transport. So, go through every room and decide what to keep, donate or throw away.
Start by decluttering your home
Remove all the personal items
When potential buyers visit a home, they have to be able to imagine themselves living there. Therefore, they don’t want to see reminders of the family living there before them. Here are some personal items that you shouldn’t skip:
If you want to depersonalize your property for sale, you need to remove all personal items
- Family photos and portraits are the first things that need to go. These are usually the items that give a personal touch to a home.
- People like collecting all sorts of items and displaying them around the home. However, you must remove all the collections in preparation for the sale. First, they occupy a lot of space and can make a room feel cluttered. The potential buyers can get distracted by them and not see other beautiful elements of the room. Second, it’s not safe to leave them out with many strangers visiting your home.
- The artwork and home accessories are very representative of a person’s style and taste. The problem is that style and taste differ significantly from one person to another. And you wouldn’t want your interior design style to get in the way of the sale. Remove all religious icons, nudes, and items that might send political messages.
- Hide all the personal items before an open house. If you are still living there, hide any object that might say otherwise. For example, place all your toiletries in storage containers and hide them under the bed. Do the same thing with any everyday items you might have.
Get rid of most of the furniture
To depersonalize your home for sale, you have to get rid of most furniture. Again, it’s about the fact that your style and taste might not match that of the potential buyers. Moreover, large pieces of furniture will make rooms seem smaller and darker. What you have to consider here is whether you want to move while you’re selling your current home or not.
If you decide to move before the sale of your current home, you can simply pack the furniture and transport it to your new home. However, if this is not an option, you still have to remove some of those large items. In this case, the professionals at royalmovingco.com recommend renting a storage unit where you can keep all your belongings safe. And since these companies usually have both long-term and short-term storage options, it doesn’t matter how long the sale will take.
Make it as neutral as possible
As previously mentioned, your personal style and taste may differ significantly from the buyers’. And this doesn’t refer only to your furnishings and home accessories but also to the color palette. There’s nothing wrong with liking bright and bold colors, but the potential buyers might not feel the same way.
The cheapest and most effective option is to paint the walls white. This way, future buyers can choose to leave them like that or repaint only some walls. Or, if you feel that white alone is too impersonal, combine it with other neutral colors, like beige.
To depersonalize your home for sale, make it as neutral as possible.
And don’t forget about the wallpaper. Specialists suggest that home sellers remove wallpaper because it deteriorates in time and can give an old vibe. Moreover, if it has many patterns and colors, the potential buyers will probably not like it.
Don’t forget about the outdoors
If you’re selling a house, the exterior is as important as the interior. There are many tricks to enhance your home’s curb appeal, but you also have to depersonalize it. If you have kids, you should hide away all the children’s accessories, such as bicycles, kids’ pools, toys, etc. Maybe the potential buyers don’t have kids and won’t relate to this. Furthermore, if you’ve designed your backyard with lots of accessories, take them down and leave only a table with some chairs. It’s all about style and taste that appeals to the largest buyer pool.
Final thoughts
As emotional as it may be, it’s very important to depersonalize your home for sale. This is because the potential buyers need to imagine themselves, not you, living in that home. The idea is to make your home as neutral as possible. And don’t forget that your style and taste might not match that of the potential buyers.
