CHAPTER 9 Prepping an Older Home for Sale Selling an inherited and now vacant house requires taking that extra bit of care to make sure the details are attended to, such that there is a high probability of getting a sale and to encourage the buyer that there is no reason to be hesitant about considering your property. One advantage to selling an unoccupied and mostly empty house is that it allows the potential buyer’s imagination to run wild during the home viewing. Without the distractions of furniture and homey touches, prospective buyers can imagine their own things in every room and start mentally placing their own lives in the vacant spaces. Having to empty the house could well be a blessing in disguise if the former owner was the type of homeowner to leave clutter everywhere or who had outdated or flamboyant taste in decoration. Too much personalization will leave potential buyers unable to picture themselves there, as they will be distracted by the clutter. There are ways to make an empty house feel homey. The impression you want to give is that it is a home eagerly awaiting a new family to start creating memories. You do not want it to look neglected and sorry for itself, as if it had been abandoned. A house needs to have character to encourage a sale and there are ways to give a vacant home the appropriate bit of personality.
CLEAN! THEN CLEAN MORE!
This sounds obvious—cleanliness is next to salesmanship. 55
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