CHAPTER 9 Prepping an Older Home for Sale Selling an inherited and now vacant house requires an extra bit of care to make sure the details are attended to, thus increasing the probability of getting a sale quicker and for the best price and initially to encourage buyers that there is every reason to consider 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 Having to empty the house could well be a blessing in disguise if the former owner left clutter or had outdated or flamboyant taste in decoration. Too much personalization can 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 as if it had been abandoned. A house needs to have the character drawn out to encourage a sale and there are ways to give a vacant home the appropriate bit of personality.
CLEAN! THEN CLEAN SOME MORE!
This sounds obvious—cleanliness accelerates a sale. Unfortunately, numerous sellers believe a quick vacuum once 63
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