Its important to depersonalize your home before you list it for sale, but where do you start? This guide gives you six action steps to take.
6 Ways to Depersonalize Your Home Before You List it for Sale
If you're selling your home in Middle Tennessee, your real estate agent will most likely talk to you about the importance of depersonalizing it. Depersonalizing doesn't mean making it look like a museum that nobody lives in, but it does mean removing things that could inhibit a buyer's imagination.
Here are six ways to depersonalize your home before you list it for sale:
- Remove personal photos
- Take down collections and memorabilia
- Remove sayings from the walls
- Clear off the refrigerator
- Put away personal items in the bathrooms and bedrooms
- Say goodbye to anything potentially controversial
Depersonalization Tip #1: Remove Personal Photos
Take down your family photos before you list your home for sale. In addition to addressing privacy concerns, this step helps buyers envision their own belongings in your space; thats tough to do when your family members are smiling down at them from the walls.
Depersonalization Tip #2: Take Down Collections and Memorabilia
Regardless of how important your collections and memorabilia are to you, know that buyers may not be impressed by them. In fact, if they tell too much of your personal story, buyers may be put off and feel a little uncomfortable picturing themselves living in your space.
Related: 7 secrets to using plants in home staging
Depersonalization Tip #3: Remove Sayings From the Walls
Popular sayings such as Live, laugh, love can really add personality to a home, whether theyre on wall decals or hanging art, but thats not what you want when youre selling on your home. Buyers need to be able to imagine themselves living there not with your personality, but with theirs.
Depersonalization Tip #4: Clear Off the Refrigerator
Though its heartwarming to see kids drawings on the refrigerator, and despite the fact that its the perfect place to hang invitations and other important documents, everything needs to come down before you list your home. Privacy concerns aside, buyers can interpret things hanging on the fridge as clutter.
Related: 15 awesome home staging tricks most people dont know
Depersonalization Tip #5: Put Away Personal Items in Bathrooms and Bedrooms
Your toothbrush, scrubber and other personal effects shouldnt be on display in the bathroom. In fact, your bathroom should look like one in a model home no personal effects at all. (Put them in the cabinet!) The same is true for your bedroom; all your personal items should be put away and all surfaces should be clear before buyers come to see your home.
Depersonalization Tip #6: Say Goodbye to Anything Potentially Controversial
If you have anything that buyers could consider risqu or controversial such as political decor or overtly religious items - you should take them down. Again, your home should look a lot like a model in a new neighborhood; that way, buyers can imagine putting up the things that are important to them. Besides, you dont want to alienate an otherwise qualified buyer over a difference in opinion.
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