Whether you’ve listed your home or are thinking about selling if you want your property to sell for more money, start Spring cleaning. To inspire you to get organized, in today’s guide, a leading real estate broker shares 3 reasons why a clutter-free home sells for more money. Plus, learn the secrets to instantly increase your home’s value just by cleaning up and getting organized.
Sissy Lappin is a real estate veteran with 25-years experience who loves helping clients navigate the ins-and-outs of the real estate business. As a top real estate broker in Houston, Texas, she’s handled over $500 million in real estate transactions, earning her firm the #1 ranking in “Most Expensive Homes Sold” by the Houston Business Journal.
She’s also an Author of an Amazon bestselling book entitled, Simple and Sold – How to Sell Your Home Fast, as well as the founder of ListingDoor – referred to as “The Uber of Real Estate” by Forbes magazine. With her impressive list of accomplishments, she’s not only a go-to gal for real estate tips, she’s also an inspiring #GirlBoss to boot! Definitely a woman worth taking notes from.
A clutter-free home is perceived as more spacious by potential buyers
“Clutter is one of the most overlooked, most important factors that will affect whether you get your asking price or not. For some reason, buyers think clutter is contagious! If you have too much stuff in your house, they will subconsciously doubt that all their stuff will fit.”
A clutter-free home retains its value more
“Clutter can actually take off 5 to 15 percent of a home’s value, just because buyers are less inclined to make a high offer for a house that looks messy. In early 2011, two identical apartments in New York City went on sale at exactly the same time; one was cluttered and the other was cleaned out. The clean apartment sold quickly. The messy one stayed on the market for a year and sold for 15 percent less than the clean one. Trust me, this applies to any house in any town.”
“Clutter didn’t appear overnight; so don’t think that it’s going to disappear overnight, either. Take big measures to empty your home of extraneous things. This is a perfect time to purge your home of stuff you don’t need and save yourself the cost of moving that stuff to your next place.”
Reap the financial benefits of having a clutter-free home
“You can make some money while you’re at this if you use eBay or Craigslist—one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Or you can donate your excess things. If your kids’ rooms look like a toy store, tell them they can keep their favorite ten toys and the rest are going to go to kids who don’t have any toys. It’s a valuable life lesson
and a good de-cluttering strategy.”
“If you have stuff that’s non-essential but you still want to keep it, put as much as you can into storage. If you have an overcrowded room, put a chair or two in storage. Buyers will see more space and be willing to pay for it. They’ll perceive your organization—and people believe that organization is contagious, too! If you have a spacious and perfectly organized home, they’ll believe that they will live in a perfectly organized home once they move in.”
For more home organization tips, check out the Home Organization section on Inspirations & Celebrations.
[Image credits: Shutterstock]
