real estate agent. A professional agent will spend a significant amount of time weeding out prospects and vetting interested buyers, ensuring you show your home only to qualified home shoppers.
Mistake #7. NOT PREPARING YOUR HOME
You are definitely going to lose money on the sale of your home if you aren’t prepared to improve it enough for showings. This includes decluttering, cleaning, repairing/upgrading, and staging. • Declutter: Experts say clutter is the culprit that eats at the equity and kills deals. Decluttering is necessary for any home-selling situation, but it’s even more important when you’re downsizing because you’re switching from living in a larger home to a smaller one. In previous chapters, we’ve talked about decluttering while downsizing because you can’t take all your belongings with you. But decluttering is also important to the actual sale of your home. Clutter distracts buyers and might put them off from making an offer. Clearing your clutter is time-consuming, but it’s not expensive, and it can create the sense of a spacious, welcoming home. Take the time you need to declutter so you can get rid of what you don’t need, yet keep the items most important to you. If you have grown children, see if they would like to help you go through your possessions. • Clean: A dirty house will not sell, plain and simple. Before you list your home, clean it thoroughly. Make sure to give yourself enough time to get this done. Plan ahead. If it seems overwhelming, tackle one room at a time, and enlist some help—from your children, if appropriate—to 56
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