If you are selling your Lake Martin home this fall or winter season, it’s time to prep your home for a sale! This means decluttering, deep cleaning, organizing, neutralizing and staging to sell. As your Lake Martin real estate team, we can offer you an explanation and tips for each of these steps!

While each preparation step will take time and effort, the hardest step may be to keep your house clean once it’s ready to go. After the photos are taken and the home is listed, you will need to keep your home clean and organized for showings and open houses. Unless you’re an avid cleaner now, this may be new to you!

Here are some great cleaning tips to keep your Lake Martin looking ready for buyers all the time:

1.  Clean from top to bottom, left to right. When going over each room, start with the ceiling fans, top shelves, etc. so that the dust falls downward. Finish with the floors. Work from left to right, or right to left, which helps keep a flow and reminds you what you’ve already cleaned.

2.  Focus on focal points. You won’t always have time, or sanity, to clean everything before every showing. Focus on cleaning what potential buyers will most likely notice in each room, such as clean counters in the kitchen and bathroom, made beds in the bedrooms, and clean windows to see Lake Martin!

3.  Pack away what you don’t need. The easiest way to keep your Lake Martin home clean is to rent a storage unit for everything that isn’t a necessity, or to pack clutter into boxes or bins before a showing, and then stack these in the garage or basement. It’s hard to stage a home to sell, or for buyers to imagine themselves living there, if it’s packed with clutter. Make it look like a model home!

4.  Fake it till you make it. Even if you’re not a professional cleaner, you can fake it until your house sells. Start incorporating daily habits, such as cleaning up in the great room or kids’ rooms each night, wiping down the counters and sinks each day, and unloading the dishwasher so it’s ready to reload.

5.  Stage to sell. There are ways to make your Lake Martin home look more presentable, such as displaying white towels in a basket in the bathroom, creating sitting areas and intimate spaces in the living room, family room and master bedroom if space permits, setting the table, stacking wood in the fireplace or displaying a centerpiece on the dining room table.

Every little bit helps when staging your Lake Martin home to sell! If you have questions, or would like our professional guidance, contact us, the Haynie Team! We are here and ready to make your home-selling dreams a reality this fall or winter season. Don’t hesitate to call!

Becky Haynie, Associate Broker / Realtor
Lake Martin Realty
www.HomeOnLakeMartin.com