After all your research, you have decided you definitely want to sell your home. You've also decided you want to buy that cute little condo on the beach or maybe in the city close to the area where the theater and restaurants are. You'll notice, that from here on out, I start to refer to your home as your house and you should too. Your home is you and you are moving. The sooner you can detach from the place you've called home all these years the better it is for you. It helps with the emotional part of this, trust me. Anyway, you are looking for a new home so keep that in mind. So, step one? Follow your Realtor®'s advice. There are people to help declutter and help you pack up. There are handymen that can help get your house into shape if need be. You'll want to deep clean, patch any holes, and repair anything that is broken. If you've marked up a door frame with the dates and heights of your kids, take a picture of it but do paint over it. Leave a fresh start for the next family. One cute idea I saw was to take an old tape measure and mark the heights and dates on it so you always have it with you just in a rolled-up space. Your Realtor® more than likely also has a professional stager. Have you ever been in a department store and seen the salespeople literally in the storefront windows putting clothes on the mannequins and dressing up the window? They are staging the clothes so they entice buyers to buy the more expensive outfits. Now, we use the same process when selling houses. A good stager will recommend a variety of options from emptying out the house and putting model furniture in instead, to working with your things. There is also an option to virtually stage your house. The downside there though is when the buyers get there they may experience a letdown to what they saw online. But it can still be a better option in some cases. Don't forget the outside! Exterior maintenance is crucial. Does the house need painting, are there lightbulbs burnt out, are your shutters in bad condition or missing? Landscaping or the lack
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