First Bites....Getting your home ready to sell in 12 weeks

Getting ready to put your house on the market

or Eating a elephant one bite at a time;-)

Week One - First Bites of the Elephant.

What you will need: Boxes (You can usually get free boxes at stores where you shop), packing tape, marker, camera,  

1. Photos (camera on your phone is fine)

1.     Take some casual photos of your home from the curb.

2.     Take similar photos of the other exterior areas of your home

3.  Take photos of interior areas. (usually from the doorway is good.

4. Put these aside for a bit.

2. Get boxes and label them:

1.    Trash 

2.    Donate/Sell/Yard sale etc….

3.    Pack away to keep  (always label boxes)

You have started!  Yay!  High Five!

3. Purge your Kitchen

          1. Take ONE cabinet at a time.

Take all non-essential kitchen items and sort them into your waiting boxes.  Be ruthless. Think about what you really use. Toss things that are no longer in good shape. Be Ruthless. Be Ruthless.  Ask yourself, “What would happen if I no longer had this item?”

Arrange the items you keep in your cabinets in a pleasing way.  Think HGTV meets REAL life. It doesn't need to be perfect, just make it look less crowded. No perfectionism! We will re-visit this area briefly before you put your home on the market.

4. Find a place to put your boxes

1. Go ahead and take your donate box to the drive-thru donation collection center today or tomorrow.  (Get a receipt ;-)

3. Get the trash box out, dump it so you can re-fill ;-)

2. Find a place for your packed items.  Ideally this should be a place like a corner of the garage, a storage building or a POD. It can just be your least used room.

Congratulate yourself on the steps you have taken! Catch your breath.

5. Load photos to a larger screen.

Note 3 things you can do to improve how your home looks from the curb.

Note other things you could do to the rest of your exterior. These can be as simple as putting your trash cans in a better place, sowing grass seed, trimming bushes, planting flowers, painting shutters, pressure washing. Remember, you are just making the list at this point.

If you draw a blank with this, I can give you a MLS account so you can see how houses in your price range look from the exterior) (Email me at AllenMarketingx2@gmail.com)

          Save the interior photos for a later time.

Congratulations!  You have taken the first bites of the elephant! You have done most of the work for this week!  Have your favorite beverage and relax… 

The next post will be on Sunday night.

From this point on I will post on Wednesdays and Sunday nights for 12 weeks.

The Sunday night posts will be small things you can do during the week. The Wednesday night posts will help you get ready for weekend projects.

Post your comments, let me know what you find helpful..... share this information with others.

“Eating the elephant” with you – one bite at a time ;-),

Mary

*While I have great confidence in my subject matter, I do not have great confidence in my writing, grammar or spelling.  (I should have paid more attention in English class.)  Please be gentle if you feel the need to correct me ;-)

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