Alright, so assuming you’ve listed your home for sale and just put a nice sign in your yard it’s now time for your home to take center stage. Hopefully, you’ll receive lots of requests from agents looking to show your home to potential buyers.

 

While I’ll go into detail in just a minute, there are three rules that we stick by when it comes to showing your home:

 

Number one, less is more. Get rid of the clutter. The best way is to get a storage unit and clear out as much as possible to highlight the amount of available and usable space in your home.

 

Number two, cleanliness is next to godliness. Clean, scrub, wash, wipe and sanitize the house from top to bottom. Extra credit if you have kids because I know first hand how hard it can be to sell a house with little ones. Maybe put them in the storage unit? Nevermind, forget I said that,

 

Number three, work on your magic act and disappear! Don’t be home and hover around potential buyers. It’s awkward.

 

Now, all eyes will be on your home and it’s important to make a good impression.

 

As its been said in regards to people, you don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression. Same thing goes with your home.

 

Since any first impression is usually made within the first 5 seconds, this means that a potential buyer will get an immediate feel before they ever step foot through the front door. Curb appeal is important.

 

Peeling paint, dead shrubs, trees in need of pruning, fresh mulch, oil-stained driveways and Christmas lights still hanging in July all tell a story about how the home and property is maintained.

 

And yes, these items should be taken care of BEFORE actually listing your home for sale.

 

And now the potential buyer steps inside. What do they witness? What do they see and perhaps more importantly, what don’t they see?

 

Allow me to sidetrack just for a second.

 

I don’t hide the fact that I’m a big Disney nerd. There’s so much that I love about Disney but one of the things I love most is their attention to detail. Disney is in the story-telling business and one of the ways they incorporate stories into their theme parks revolves around touching on every emotion and sense.

 

Imagine walking down Main Street U.S.A. in Disney World. If you’ve never been, let me set the mood for you…

 

Visually, there are fresh flowers planted everywhere. There’s joyful, upbeat music playing. You can catch a glimpse of the beaming castle.  (In fact, I can do a whole video on just that). In the heat of the day, you can catch a blast of the freezing AC as you walk past the shops and you can almost taste the fresh baked goods, as their addicting scents emanate from the bakery.

 

This isn’t by accident. Speakers are hidden in the flower pots so they can be heard but not seen. Fans purposefully blow the bakery scents out of the bakeries and onto the streets. The shops get smaller as they get taller to make them appear larger than they really are.

 

Disney has made a fortune on setting a scene that plays to your senses…perhaps in an effort to make you forget how much you just paid to get in!

 

In all seriousness, you can set a similar stage for guests coming into your home.  For instance,

 

-Turn on all the lights to highlight the beauty of your home.

 

-Set a comfortable temperature (in Florida where it’s 100 degrees every day, we like walking into a nicely air-conditioned place).

 

-Create a mood (use the fireplace, turn on soft music).

 

-Ensure a fresh fragrance (try to avoid sensitive or allergy inducing sprays).

 

Ok? I’ve got a bunch more ideas on how to make your home show ready and I’m ready to share them with you. Head over to my website, warrelhomes.com, and on the resources page you’ll find all sorts of helpful tips.