Basic Rules of Thumb When Selling a Home

I thought it might be useful to go over a checklist of what I call "the minimums" when getting a house ready to show and sell.  We could always go far and above these minimums, but these are things I consider vital, whether the owner, the agent, or the staging consultant does it, they need to be done.

Curb Appeal

Curb appeal is the whole premise of my job as a staging consultant. But what does it mean?  Curb appeal refers to the attractiveness of a property before you even get out of the car. There are very simple ways to improve your curb appeal and then there are elaborate ways to do it. I will discuss both.

 

Air Conditioning Units

You could buy a nice car for what you would pay for two air conditioning units, which most houses over 1,500 sq. ft. have.  But just because they cost a small fortune doesn't mean people want to see them by the side of the house. Even if they are located behind your fence in the backyard and not visible from the street, they will be visible when the house gets shown. They should be accessible but not easily visible.

This can be done with simple shrubbery, or with a vine covered trellis like this one:

There are simple solutions:

To more elaborate ones:

A quick fix that a Staging Consultant can do is to buy (or build if you're a stud like me) a short piece of fence and paint it to match whatever is around it: either match it to the house color or to the stain on the main fence around the house. This can be done very inexpensively. You can even add mulch and a couple of plants in front of the fence barrier to further disguise it. You want it to disappear and not be noticed at all from the street.

Trash Cans

Many Home Owners Associations have rules about trash cans, but even if you don't have the HOA breathing down your neck you should never, I repeat NEVER leave your trash cans out where they can be seen from the street. Unless it is trash day, those nasty hunks of industrial plastic on wheels need to be parked behind SOMETHING. Same rule as with the A/C units. If you can't wheel them into the backyard, construct a barrier and add some simple landscaping to store your trashcans behind.

From simple:

To more elaborate:

Either will do. But you must.

I can't tell you how many listings I've seen where the primary photo of the house shows the trash cans in the picture. Tacky, tacky and detracting from the more attractive selling points of the house. Our trashcan has its place just inside our back gate and has its own little parking lot of pave stones we laid 1) to have a surface so that on rainy days the wheels wouldn't get stuck and 2) to make it look more like the space had a genuine purpose, which it does.  Same with our A/C units. We have paving stones as a border to match the rest of the flower beds, landscaping and mulch around the units. Luckily ours are not in view of the back door or patio.  They are in the same corner of the yard as the trashcans. HIDDEN!

Cleaning

I know we've discussed cleaning more than once. The home, especially when it's occupied, must stay in showing condition at all times. Most Agents can give you about an hour notice before bringing buyers by, so have a quick stash plan in case you are caught off guard with a mess. This can be done with baskets for kids' toys, cubby style storage for shoes or sports gear for older kids, hooks for backpacks during the school year, anything that will help you "stash and dash" so your house looks great when the potential buyers show up. When you sign with an Agent, specify that you do need a minimum of one hour before showing. This will buy you some time to wipe off the counter tops as well.

Photos

You know the saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Well, when listing a house, especially with today's Internet technology, great photographs can really increase the traffic of potential buyers. Listings with sub par photos get passed right over. It's a marketing thing, a psychological thing, a visual thing, but it's A THING. Stage your house to perfection and take great photos, a minimum of two per room. I know I've fallen in love with houses just based on the online photo tours; it's a fact that many potential buyers will have the same reaction. As a Staging Consultant, part of what I do after perfecting everything is take the photographs for the Agents to use in the listings. I take and edit the photos in high resolution, straightening, cropping, editing them to show off the most attractive selling points of the home. Good photographs also answer a lot of Buyer questions before they ever see the house, which also helps the Agent do his or her job more efficiently when showing it.

One Last Thing

For those of you with pets, it is very (very) VERY important to keep their... err.. waste, cleaned up.
1. If you have cats, you'll have at least one litter box. Clean it out daily, or twice daily and use some baking soda based deodorizer. People do NOT want a house that smells like a litter box. 2. Dogs. Dogs normally do their business in the back yard. Well, potential buyers are going to be walking the whole property, and poop on a Buyer's shoe is very bad luck. Poop on an Agent's shoe is even worse. Make the rounds with a pooper scooper at least once a day.

So these are some basic Rules of Thumb. Thumbs. Why can't I get that to sound right?

If you have tips you want to share, please leave them in the comments and I will include them in a future post!

Next: My First House Flip (a true story!)

So What Does a Staging Consultant Do?

Selling a House

To sell a house, it needs to be listed with a real estate agent, or it can be sold "by owner." Either way, the house has to be shown to potential buyers.  When you are selling a house, you want it to look its very best. That's where the Staging Consultant comes in. He or she comes and looks over every room thoroughly, making a list of things to do to the house to make it show ready.

If the house is vacant, the Consultant works directly with the real estate agent and they agree on what needs to be done to the house to make it ready to list and show. This is mostly what I do.

If the house is occupied, but wants to be on the market for sale, then the Staging Consultant works with the home owners (and sometimes agent) to re-stage each room to its full potential using things that are already in the home. This could mean rearranging furniture, de-cluttering, cleaning, moving furniture out and into storage, and updating the landscaping.  Most of this can be done without spending a dime. It's all just a matter of looking at a room with a fresh set of eyes and setting it up so that the highlights of the room are spotlighted.

The following staging was done without spending any money. In this bedroom, the junk was removed and a bed was brought in from the garage. The blinds were raised all the way to show off that awesome window and a lamp, also from another part of the house was added in the corner to add some ambiance. Of course everything was cleaned. Cost: $0.00  

Next: the Kitchen
This kitchen had lots of potential, but all of its good points were missed because of all the clutter, on the counter tops, the stove and the fridge. All of that was removed and the wood cabinets were cleaned. The extra shelf was brought in from another room and holds a lot of the items that were cluttering up the counter space. Cost $0.00

This was perhaps the most dramatic change made in this house. All of the toys were moved to the kid's rooms; the white sofa was moved to storage, and the whole room was de-cluttered. The area rug was removed and WOW!

See, NOW we notice the nice chandelier fixture, the double glass doors, the marble counter top and the hardwood floors, whereas before all you saw was a mess of toys. A small table was moved from the kitchen area and topped with a nice centerpiece. The room took on a brand new air of sophistication. Again, $0.00.  This house was sold for the asking price within a week of the re-staging.

Here is another house that was occupied, that the owners actually had staging in their budget ($1,000) so there was money for a few small changes that made huge differences:

Most of the staging in this house was de-cluttering. In the bedroom, the outdated bedding and curtains were replaced and a large mirror was put over the bed.  Cost: $180, Target.com

In the kitchen, the clutter (oh my) was removed from the fridge and counter tops, and two new bar chairs were added at the right height to make that portion of the counter space useable in a whole new way. The owners wondered why they had never thought of that. It's perfect for a kid's eating area as well. Cost: $180, 2 chairs from Rooms To Go

This finished basement was definitely a diamond in the rough. It had been used as an extra TV room but had also been the dumping grounds for more clutter. The windows were cleaned, which improved the natural light in the room. Once the clutter was cleaned out, a side table, a second lamp and a piece of artwork was added. Even though there was furniture added to this room, it looks a whole lot bigger, and its purpose is known right away. Now when you look at it you can tell it's a media area (dare I say, "man cave?")! Cost: lamp, side table, poster $165 at a local consignment store.

So the total homeowner investment was $525, $475 under budget! (Win!). The house was re-photographed and the listing updated; they got two offers the first week and by the end of that month had sold their home for the asking price.

Selling No-No's

Here are a few things that definitely turn potential buyers away. I always make sure these are clean before I stage and photograph for my Agents. If you are selling, take note; this is unacceptable:

Here is a tile shower with a fully tiled bench; a real asset to a master bath, but NOT when it looks like it's never been cleaned. Here is before and after:

To clean moldy tile or discolored grout, usually my standby cleaner of choice is Clorox Cleanup. But if the tile is too far gone for that, I mix bleach with baking soda and put in some elbow grease to scrub it all down. If the house is occupied, I might suggest these things for the owners to do; however, if the house is vacant, that leaves one person (you guessed it, Me) the Staging Consultant with Cleaning Super Powers. I actually don't mind doing it, because I know how much of an impact it has when the agents are showing the house. They always appreciate it, too.

Landscaping

Landscaping is such an important part of your curb appeal, which is essential to sell a house. But in these two examples, all that was done to vastly improve it was (Surprise!) cleaning:

This house has a gorgeous flagstone walkway leading up to their front door. But who would notice it under all that dirt?  Cost: $24 at Sears for the Outdoor Windex Cleaner and hose attachment.

 

This house was an older home that at first glance we thought we would have to repaint. As it turns out, window cleaner and spraying with a garden hose was all it needed!  Cost: $24 at Sears for Windex Outdoor Cleaner and high pressure garden hose attachment.

This is what I use for outdoor surfaces, with a high pressure attachment on a regular garden hose. It works on windows, porches, walkways, siding, patios, driveways, garage doors, brick, anything on the exterior of the house that gets dirty:

Here is an example of an easy and inexpensive way to brighten up an otherwise neglected looking spot outside. There's my Spider plant in the middle, with some flowering annuals I got on sale at Home Depot. Plus I freshened up the mulch. Cost: $14 for a flat of annuals and a bag of mulch:

Here's a corner of my own yard that was in desperate need of some love:

See how much better it looks? But also how it *feels. You want potential buyers to see your landscaping and get the feeling that the house and yard has been loved and well taken care of. 

Not all Staging Consultants are willing to get down on their hands and knees to clean moldy grout in a tiled shower, nor are they prepared to clean out landscaping or do windows. I actually enjoy doing these things because of the dramatic difference it can make to the appeal of the home. Agents hire me because I don't mind getting my hands dirty if that's what it takes to get a house ready for them to show, and more importantly, SELL.

A typical job goes something like this:

1. An agent calls me and we arrange to meet at the house.
2. We do a walk thru, inside and out, while we make a list together of things that need to be done.
3. I give her a time estimate as to how long I think it will take me to finish everything on the list and we agree on a price per square foot (that's how I bill, see below) for my time (I charge more for heavy cleaning and less if the house is already fairly clean) and materials (mulch, annual plants, cleaning supplies, touch up paint, etc.).
4. The agent gives me the code to the key box and I get to work. I try to remember to take "before" pictures but I'm so bad at forgetting that!  After the work is done, I do take professional grade photos, at least two to three shots of every room, highlighting the best selling points and architectural details in the photos. I then edit the photos to make sure they look professional and in high definition. Photos are so important when listing a house!
5. I get the photos to my Agent and she composes the listing. Sometimes she includes all the improvements I've made in my staging process such as "updated landscaping" or "super clean inside and out!"  I love that. And Yes, I would be guilty of going to the MLS listing to admire my own work. :)

More About My Pricing

For example, a 2500 sq. ft. house, *unoccupied* with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths with showers, tile, carpet and wood flooring:

• Medium-high degree of interior cleaning (kitchen, all baths, toilets, blinds, vacuum and steam clean the floors, garage interior, ceiling fans, fireplace) and exterior cleaning (pick up trash, rake out flower beds, wash off walkways) and landscaping (adding mulch and annual flowers) and then taking and editing the photos, I charge .25/sq ft or $625 for time and materials such as cleaning supplies, mulch and annual flowers. 
• For the same size house, unoccupied, for a light cleaning and photographing I charge .15/sq ft or $375. 
• For a major overhaul that includes heavy cleaning, painting interior rooms, cleaning out junk or furniture left behind by previous owners or renters, trimming outside hedges and/or trees, mowing and edging the yards, deep cleaning of stained or damaged carpeting, or heavily stained tile and grout, I charge .40/sq ft or $1000 for a 2500 sq. ft. house which includes time and materials such as heavy duty cleaning supplies, spackle, Behr premium paint, mulch, annuals. 
• For a house that is show-ready but just needs good photographs I charge a flat fee of $125.

Note: I prefer to be paid after the work gets done rather than waiting for the house to close. The number one reason for this is that houses for sale often are not sold by the original Agent that listed it (and hired me). A change in Agent most likely means I would not be paid. Another reason for being paid upfront is that it could take 6 months or more to sell the house, which would mean I would be waiting that long to be paid. I can't stay in business without getting paid, so these are my stipulations. There are always exceptions, though, so I do try to remain flexible.

Tips for Landscaping on a Budget

Money Doesn't Grow on Trees... Or does it?

I've talked a lot about how important it is to have great curb appeal, and that empty flower beds are sooo ugly and depressing. The solution is to put something in those beds, but that costs money. And we're just in the staging process, the house hasn't even been seen much less been sold yet! So I have a few tricks up my sleeve to help with that expense that would otherwise be out of your pocket.

Propagation

To propagate a plant means to grow one from another one. Some plants are propagated very easily; others take professional horticulturists and since I'm assuming there are few horticulturists in my audience, I'll just stick to the easy ones. :)

If you have a flower bed at home that you can sacrifice for this, or a sunny window sill in your garage, you can propagate a variety of plants yourself for your staging projects. It takes a little space where you can work with potting soil and fertilizer, so if you don't have a work bench in the garage or a garden shed, then just do it on the back porch.

Suggested Starter Plants

One of my favorite kind of plant is the succulents. They come in a variety of shapes and colors, and look great in potted arrangements in window boxes, pots on the porch, and also in the ground. Here is an arrangement I have and love:

Don't ask me to name all the varieties... there are too many to remember. But the reason I bring them up is that no matter what kind it is, it propagates the same!  To propagate a succulent, you start by snapping off a leaf. It has to be a clean break from the stem:

Succulents usually grow tall and leggy, it's just what they do and it's not as pretty. When this happens, I snap the leaves off the lower part of the stem and lay them out so they can callous over. It's important to let the leaves callous over where they once were attached to the stem. They won't root properly if you skip this step. Let them "dry" for about a week. I do the same things with the tops:

I just snip the tops off with a pair of scissors or garden snippers and let them callous over as well. Tops are the easiest to regrow. You just stick them in some nice nutrient rich topsoil and water them with a spray bottle 2-3 times per week. Once they are strong enough you can move them outside. That's when they will really take off!  Here's a top that I restarted this week:

This start lost a leaf already. Chances are, if I just leave it alone it will sprout a baby on its own. This is what the babies look like after a few weeks in indirect light, being watered only with a spray bottle:

Aren't they cute!  Notice how the "Mother" leaf is withering. It is best to let it wither and fall off on its own. That way you won't damage the baby when you transfer it and its new little roots to a pot.

After you have stripped off the leaves and decapitated the stem, leave the original stem in its pot and keep on watering it. New babies will grow where the original leaves once were and you'll have a nicely shaped succulent once again!

 

Spider Plants!

Spider plants are one of my favorite staging plants. They are a beautiful shade of green, they require little to no maintenance other than watering a few times per week, and they look fantastic without any pruning whatsoever. You can put them in pots on the front porch or in the kitchen window (if they're small) and they are SO EASY to propagate!  Spider plants when they mature grow offshoots. These are stem-like growths that come out from among the leaves and attached to the stem are usually several baby spider plants.  I use my snippers to cut the whole baby plus a bit of the stem right off and put them in fertilized water until I see white roots. White roots mean they're ready for the dirt!

Now, I said fertilized water. It can just be tap water, but fertilized water makes the roots come out in just one or two days whereas regular water it can take up to a week or more. My daughter has a planted fish tank that has the BEST WATER oh my goodness, it is FULL of growth enhancing fertilizers so when she changes the tank water once a week I save it and use it to water all my plants! Smart? Mhmm. :D Regular fish tank water is good for plants also, as the nitrate content of the water is very high. I used it for a long time before she got the planted tank. It's like fish water on steroids!
Here is a spider plant I just started (there's a succulent start there, too but the light washed it out):

It was nice and healthy so I moved it outside. I will water it with fish water 2-3 times per week until it needs a bigger pot. Here is one that I put a spider plant and some rose moss together in a small pot:

The rose moss will bloom with small colorful flowers in a few days. Here is what a full grown rose moss looks like (this one is in my garden):

I think it will look good with the spider plant next to it. Now here's a spider plant I started three weeks ago and it has absolutely exploded!  It already needs a bigger pot AND it has offshoots!  I couldn't believe my eyes! (It's that fish tank water, I'm telling you!)

Rose moss also propagates very easily. You can take a stem right off the plant and stick it in dirt, water it and it will grow. Seriously, it's that easy. You'll never have to pay for rose moss again! It makes a nice ground cover, or border, or in a potted arrangement with other plants.

Ok, so I haven't done the math, but I know that one small to medium succulent arrangement costs about $10-$15 depending on your florist. Think of all the plants you could have with a little propagation!  And the spider plants!  I see them at the Home and Garden store and laugh at how many people still buy a cart load of them, when really all you need is one to start with and they will be coming out your ears!

So now you have some tips on how to get plants on the cheap for your house staging projects, or just for use in your own home. I will do another post with more propagating tips because there are a ton of them!  Did you know you can stick a long stem rose in a potato, plant it, and grow a whole new rose bush??  I haven't done it myself yet but I sure am going to try!  I will definitely post about that! If you have other plants that are easily propagated that I haven't mentioned here, leave them for me in the comments and I'll include them in a future post!

Ps. If you stage a lot of houses, more than you can keep up with by planting what you propagate, use nice planters that you can put the plants in, improve your curb appeal and then take the planter with you for another staging. Here is a beautiful plan for a container garden I found at www.bhg.com:

And here is another one you could stage and then take away for your next staging project:

I keep my nice containers on my own front porch when they're not in use at one of my project houses. Sometimes my porch gets quite crowded, but people always say it looks nice! Some days the mail lady can hardly get to the door! lol

If you're going the container route, be sure you still mulch the beds tho, at the very least! Ok, bye for now!

Next: The Painted Door

Room Makeovers: A Little TLC is All You Need

Room Makeovers

Sometimes when you have a house to sell, there is that one room... You know the room I'm talking about. Sticks out like a sore thumb?  This is a real shame when the rest of the house is cute because most people want the house to be completely move-in ready when they purchase it.  That one room can ruin a sale.  Take this room for instance:

I mean, oh my goodness. Look how neutral everything else is, and then THAT PAINT! Now is a great time to talk about paint. Ahem.

My paint of choice is Behr Premium Plus, Paint and Primer in one. Yes, it's a little pricier than say, Glidden. A can of Behr will run you about $35.  But when you have a job like this, you are going to need the good stuff.  I can't even imagine a reason to paint a room this color. The rest of the house was cute!

Tips for Sellers: If you are selling your house, paint the walls a neutral color. Even white would be better than bright orange. But there are beautiful shades of grey or taupe that would have looked nice with the carpet in the photo above. You never want potential buyers to be making a mental list of things to change or fix when they are looking at your house. You want them to be imagining their own furniture in your house as if it were theirs already.  NO ORANGE.

My house is not on the market, but I do have some pretty dramatic before and after pics of room makeovers I did on my own.  Here is one of Alex's room we did last year:

The lime green was fun when she was younger, but when she turned 14 she decided she wanted something a little more sophisticated. The color we covered the green with is Behr Grey Squirrel. It is a grey with brown undertones, which goes great with the neutral carpeting in my house. I was quite relieved to get rid of the green. ;)

This is the master bedroom. As you can see, I nearly forgot to take a before pic! But look how much warmer the room gets when we replaced the stark white with a neutral taupe. But buyers can be fickle... some want every room to be white, and I've heard that painting everything white helps a house sell more quickly.  When we bought this house in 2001, every square inch was white. As an artist, I could not WAIT to get some color on the walls!  Ok, one more to show you:

This is our breakfast area. We painted the entire downstairs in Behr Grey Squirrel and one other lighter shade of the same color (can't remember the name). The breakfast area is the lighter grey and I just love it. Same furniture, only the light fixture is different; it was ugly brass before and I spray painted it black:

I used a high temperature spray paint in black which also happened to be matte (surprise!) but I really love how it updated that 1990's brass with a more modern feel to it.  I did the same thing with the light in the formal dining room:

Black spray paint to the rescue!  Now IF I were to show my house (which I'm not- my husband says we are never, ever, ever moving...) then potential buyers would see the black light fixtures and think we paid to update the lighting. Nope, underneath is still the builder's grade brass from 1996 when the house was built. (Shh!  It'll be our little secret!)

I will leave you with this photo. On the left is my sitting room, painted taupe. We decided a few years ago we were tired of the formal cherry wood furniture and jewel tones and completely redid everything in shades of grey.  This one room is the single transformation I'm not all that excited about. Not sure why, but the grey in here looks cold.  What does it need? Side tables? Black and white photos instead of that mirror? Leave your suggestions in my comments, if you have any ideas, and I will post pictures of the changes!

Update 7/30/14 I added end tables and some more pops of that turquoise color on the right hand side. Plus I took the photo with my new wide angle zoom lens, so let's compare!

I also changed out the rug. I like this one much better. Now it feels more balanced in there. I'm still working on the black and white photos to replace that mirror.  Stay tuned!


Next post: Trash to Treasure

Landscaping vs. Blandscaping: What Sells

Blandscaping

Blandscaping is when you see a house and it has nothing, I mean zero landscaping. Basically, in the spots where landscaping is supposed to be?  Is nothing but dirt, or overgrown with grass and weeds. If there is one thing I hate to see, it's a listing that shows pictures of blandscaping. That is not going to attract anyone!

Landscaping

Landscaping a property that you own and are going to be in for a long time takes time, lots of effort, planning and maintenance. That's not what I am talking about in this article. The focus of this article is to talk about the very simple and inexpensive ways to improve your property with easy, DIY landscaping tricks.

When the property has flower beds, but nothing but dirt in them, invest in a couple of pots of monkey grass and some mulch.  Clean out any debris in and around the bed, including grass and/or weeds, using round up if you need to. Plant the monkey grass strategically so that it looks neat and symmetrical. Then mulch. We are only talking about a couple of dollars here and we're not putting any high maintenance plants in for the new tenants to stress over. You can even put gravel or landscaping stone instead of mulch if it is a really dry climate.

Take this house, for instance. To the right is a raised bed that runs the length of the porch. There is nothing but dirt in it. That's a real shame because it is a focal point when looking at the house from the street. Imagine a row of monkey grass and mulch. So simple, yet it makes the property look less "abandoned."  Speaking of the porch, there are so many cool treatments for cement, I don't even know where to begin. At least a coat of neutral colored paint, like grey. It would look cleaner, and better kept.  Now if this was MY house, I would break out the colors and paint a mandala or a Persian rug onto the concrete, like this:

or like THIS:

Do you see why I am just dying to learn how to flip houses?  I see so much potential in these poor little properties that are just begging to be bought and fixed up!  And the work to me isn't hard. I actually enjoy it.  One day, when I have the capital, I will buy a house and rescue it from a life of misery, bringing it to its full potential and let it bask in its own glorified spectacularness. Ok, that's not a word. But I think you know what I mean. :)

Here is my own back yard before and after. Blandscaping to Landscaping 101:

and my favorite corner:

See how much it adds?  Look at the before pics. So blank and lonely looking. Like no one cares. Then you see the after pics and it's totally happy and inviting! This took more elbow grease than anything. Many of the plants used we already had in other locations, we just moved them around after we extended the flower bed to follow the length of the back fence. We did spend some money on plants for this: 6 rose bushes, 2 hydrangeas, 2 flats of ivy, 4 hostas, 2 elephant ears, a crepe myrtle, some brown eye susans, rose moss and monkey grass, my favorite border plant. And MULCH so much mulch. But it was completely worth it. I actually enjoy going out into my back yard now, whereas before I avoided it. Our next project for the backyard is installing a pergola over the back porch and adding outdoor furniture for entertaining. I will, of course be posting that when we do it!

Next Post: Room Makeovers!

My PhD is in Cleaning

Cleaning Basics

When staging a house for sale, the number one priority is to make sure it is CLEAN.  Especially prone to dirtiness are the sinks, toilets, blinds and around the door handles.  To do a basic but thorough cleaning of these areas, you'll need these:

By no means is this my entire arsenal of cleaners, but with these basics you can pretty much clean the most visible parts of any house. They are: Windex, Clorox Cleanup with Bleach, Clorox Wipes, Wood polish, Febreeze and Microfiber cloths.  I would also add a feather duster, a vacuum and a steam mop but they wouldn't all fit in the picture.  Do you know about Spot Shot?

Spot Shot is the Holy Grail of carpet cleaning!  With Spot Shot and a scrub brush there is no stain or spot that can't be removed I SWEAR BY IT.  You spray it on the spot and can watch it start to dissipate; at that point you step on the spot with a pad of paper towels to soak it out of the carpet fibers, then use your scrubber to scrub the carpet back into shape. I wish all cleaning products were this amazing!  Wait till it dries and then you can vacuum (NEVER vac wet!)

Speaking of rugs: My neighbor had a bulldog with a bladder problem and had hauled this rug out to the curb thinking it was ruined. I said "You throwing that away?" He thought I had lost my mind when I drug it across the street to my back yard. Long story short, I totally rescued this rug AND IT IS BEAUTIFUL!  I would have had to pay a fortune for this new!

Ok, so blinds. Hardest thing to clean, like, ever, especially if they've been dirty for a long time. I take the blinds down (you unhinge the things at the top of the window and they slide right out) and set them in a bathtub of warm soapy water. The grime comes off with a sponge. Yes, you have to wipe down each slat, but you will be glad you did it. Rinse them off, pat dry and rehang. Another way to do it is to put a couple of nails on the top of your fence out back and spray them with a hose. You still have to use the sponge, but some people think it's easier than hauling them to the tub. I will admit, the slats don't move around as much with the hanging technique, but I use the bath tub method for the ones that are extra grimy. They just get cleaner.  If you use the fence technique at a property that isn't yours, be sure to carefully remove the nails when you're done!  :)

Floors

Vacuum: I have a Dyson and I love it.

It's bagless, and it truly never loses suction (unless it's completely and overly full. Don't do this, as it gets hot and is really bad for the motor). It's also very easy to clean the brush head which catches a lot of hair, strings, fibers, etc. You just flip it open and clean it off. I typically do the vacuuming very last if I can. I know it seems crazy but I like to see the lines in freshly vacuumed carpets! LOL! My kids grew up going around rooms that I had just vacuumed so as not to leave footprints in THE LINES.  Besides, you want potential buyers to feel like they are looking at a brand new house and that they are the first to see it. I don't know why this psychology works, but it does. And agents always appreciate it.

Steam Mopping: I can't say enough about my Steam Mop. It is so much better than traditional mop and bucket mopping, you will wonder how you ever lived without it. It cleans hardwoods, tile, laminate flooring, concrete floors, any hard surface floor can be steamed and it uses no cleaner! The steam does the work. My steam mop has three settings, low medium and high. Most of the time I use it on low, and medium in the bathrooms. I have used it on high on some tile in my daughter's rental house that I thought would NEVER come clean, and sure enough, it did! I had to go over it twice (it had once flooded and not ever been cleaned. Can you believe a landlord would leave a floor like that?)  But we left it looking spotless.

Febreeze:  I know the realtors usually like to light a candle before they show a house (some agents bake bread or cookies!) because let's face it, nice smells put us in a positive mood and people in a good mood are likely to feel positively about the house you're showing.  But I leave the candles to the agents. After I have cleaned a property, I give every room a couple of spritzes of Febreeze.  It's fresh, not over powering at all and leaves a nice clean smell in the house, like you've opened a window on a fresh spring day.  Personally, I like the smell of bleach; it means I GOT STUFF CLEAN! But it can be kinda harsh, so Febreeze is my friend.

Clorox Cleanup Spray: great in sinks, on counters, inside showers, toilets, just know that it does have bleach in it so use care not to get it on carpets, curtains, etc.

Clorox Wipes: these contain NO BLEACH and clean grime off of just about every surface, especially around door knobs, window sills, baseboards, banisters (you don't realize just how nasty banisters can get until you clean one)!  I couldn't do without my Clorox wipes. My husband bought a store brand (see photo) but I protested. Clorox Wipes smell nice, they are thick enough and they truly get stuff clean!

A clean house is more likely to get higher offers, plain and simple. A grimy house is going to make potential buyers wonder what else is wrong with it that they can't see.  Never show a dirty house again!  Call me!  :D

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