Thanks for the advice everyone! It's all been very helpful and has added some important things onto our checklist.
I would have someone staying at your house, even if not a foreclosure, just to play it safe.
We have a superfriendly always-at-home neighbor next door and since it's a townhouse, she's right there and she sees everything. I think she's part of some neighborhood watch, actually. We also have a friend that lives across the street and both sets of parents live in town, so they'll be stopping by on occasion to air the place out if we can't get home to do that. Thanks for the word of caution though!
^ Unfortunately that's true. But you'd think that anyone who'd go to the trouble of house hunting in the first place, would not be so lazy as to not want to do the work required to get it up to their standards.
I think it's not just a question of being lazy, but that many people simply cannot see beyond paint colors or the furniture that is in the house. I have no problem visualizing transformations, but my husband can't even picture things when I'm holding a paint sample up to the wall.
... so make sure at least the bathroom is in good shape and appearence.
Check!
Take down family photos, collectibles, and knick-knacks. De-personalize the house so people can imagine it as THEIR place. Move the furniture around so that the most floor space is showing. Angle things. It makes the house seem bigger. Only leave the bare minimum of stuff--so you can see the purpose of the room (dinning room, living room, office, etc). I would take down wall-borders or re-paint, only if it seems really out-dated or makes the room dark.
Leave the closets EMPTY. It makes them seem bigger.
All of your advice is terrific, but these two items are both very important, I think. I hadn't considered that the closets might look bigger when empty! Thank you.
Make sure the outside of the house -the landscaping- also looks nice.
The association takes care of the outside so it's well-kept and we actually have nice flowers, but I'm not sure what to do right outside our door. Welcome, mat, but what else? Plants maybe?
We just sold our 1 bedroom co-op and move into a house, so I can understand where your coming from. I think the biggest hint I could give is to de-cluter.
It sounds so simple yet it's been so ridiculously difficult to de-clutter everything. I feel like I've been donating, packing up, or throwing everything away yet there's still so much!
One thing I did..take down the screens on the windows facing the street..makes your home look much nicer and that makes the 1st impression a good one.
Also was told to remove any window coverings on that side as well...(keep any framing curtains..but loose the miniblinds.thick curtains etc.)
So I should do something about that place where I melted a triangle shaped hole in the blinds with an iron?
Declutter, depersonalise, deodorise.
Get out of my thread, you preposterously concise man!
You want the house to be scrubbed spotless. Don't forget wood trim and clean the floors.
Thanks for the note about the wood trim! I hadn't thought about that, but it could definitely do with a washing.
Another good thing to do is to get the carpets (if wall-to-wall) steam-cleaned beforehand -- you'd be surprised how brighter the room will look afterward.
Yeah, we definitely need to get the carpets cleaned and stretched as well. They're probably the only thing about the house that are in bad shape, but I think they'll look much better after a cleaning.
