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How to Prepare Your Home and Yourself for a Move in South Florida

Moving is never easy. Especially when it means selling the house you’ve grown to love. When you’re getting ready to move, you want people who buy your house to love it as much as you have so you know your old home will be in good hands.

There are several steps you can take to attract the right buyers and help the selling process go smoothly. Here’s how to get yourself and your house ready for this exciting new chapter of life.

How to Prepare Your House

When potential home buyers look at your house, they want to immediately feel comfortable. Buyers need to be able to imagine themselves living in this house and calling in home. Here’s what you can do to make them feel at home right away:

De-Clutter

You’ll be amazed at how much junk you have hiding in the closets and corners. Everyone holds onto things they don’t need, but when you’re moving it’s time to get rid of it.

Start with the top rooms of your house and do a downward sweep. Get rid of anything you haven’t used in over a year and don’t really need. Potential buyers want to see clean, minimalist rooms so they can imagine their own possessions filling the space. Getting rid of all of your clutter will also make packing easier.

Organize Your Closets

Potential buyers will want to take a peek in your closets and cupboards to see what kind of storage space the house has, and how they can organize their things if they move in.

Closets are often the catch-all for random items you don’t want to find a real place for. When you’re trying to sell your house, make sure your closets and cupboards are spotless and well organized.

Deep Clean

When you have potential buyers coming over, you can’t just vacuum the rug and dust the mantel. It’s time to either call in the professionals, or commit yourself to giving your house a top-to-bottom scrub.

Remember, buyers are going to be looking in every crevice and corner they can find. You don’t want them to see dirty, neglected spaces. Now is the time to do those things you usually avoid, such as washing your windows, and polishing the fixtures in your bathroom.

A cleaning company can take care of this for you if you don’t want to do it yourself.

Take Care of Minor Repairs

If there are small repairs you’ve been avoiding, now is the time to do them. Even minor broken things can put off potential buyers. Fix leaky faucets, patch any holes in your walls, and replace any cracked tile or counters.

Create a Homey Atmosphere

Realtors use buyers’ noses to make them feel more comfortable. You don’t necessarily have to bake homemade bread the day you have buyers coming over, but make sure your house smells nice. Try burning a fresh-scented candle.

Get a friend or family member’s opinion to make sure there aren’t any negative smells you haven’t noticed.

Check Your Curb Appeal

How does your yard look? Are all your flower beds properly weeded? Is your shrubbery trimmed? Some minor landscaping can give potential buyers a better first impression.

It doesn’t hurt to plant some flowers or add extra little touches, such as painting window trim and cleaning your sidewalks.

Paint

A fresh coat of paint can really freshen up an old room. If the paint in your house is damaged, or just outdated, put on a new coat. Don’t go too trendy with the colors, but you also don’t have to go with plain white. Choose classic, complementary shades.

How to Prepare Yourself

Once your house is ready to go, you have to get yourself ready too. Whether you’ve been in your house for decades or it’s a starter home you bought with your spouse, it’s always hard to say goodbye to a familiar place.

There are some things you can do help the process go smoothly.

Take a Tour

Before you start to pack away all your things and move out, take a tour of your home. Walking through the rooms while all your things are still there is a great way to make final memories.

You can make a video recording of the tour and keep it to remember your house by. This can also help later if you’re feeling homesick.

Take Down Personal Items

Pack away all your personal possessions. Take down pictures and knick knacks that bring back memories and put them away to move to the new house. This will help you separate yourself from your house.

Potential buyers will also feel more comfortable in the house if they don’t feel like they’re in someone else’s space.

Visualize Your New Home

Before you move, start imagining yourself in your new house. Think of all the people you’ll meet and how good you’ll feel there. It will be much easier to adjust if you create positive connotations with your new place even before you live there.

Change is hard, but selling your home doesn’t have to be. If you take steps to prepare yourself and your house, you can make it through the moving process with ease.

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