6 Reasons Decluttering Helps Your House Sell Faster
If you ask any realtor what you can do to make your house more sellable, most will always list decluttering as a suggestion. But what are the reasons decluttering helps your house sell faster? It turns out there are several reasons, and we are here to clear this up for you!
Here are 6 reasons decluttering helps your house sell faster:
- Helps buyers imagine themselves in your house
- Creates an illusion of space
- More photogenic
- Draws focus to the house
- Buyers trust well-maintained houses
- Makes the move easier
1. Helps buyers imagine themselves in your house
One of the most important reasons decluttering helps your house sell faster is that it helps potential buyers imagine themselves living in your home.
People will buy a home when they can imagine themselves and their things living there and fitting perfectly. And it’s more difficult to imagine that if there is too much of…you cluttering up the space.
As much as you love seeing your family photos all over the walls and having access to your train collection, that’s a lot of very personal stuff. It makes buyers feel like they are intruding in someone else’s house instead of being open to feeling like they are walking into their future home. Leave them a cleaner slate to imagine what your house would look like if it were theirs.
2. Creates an illusion of space
Creating the appearance of a larger space is one of the more practical reasons decluttering helps your house sell faster.
In the years of living in your home, you’ve probably collected more stuff than you realize. If there is too much stuff cluttering up your home, it makes the space seem congested, cramped, and smaller than it really is.
Clear out any nonessential decorations, toys, home gym equipment, extra furniture, etc. to help create a sense of openness and space. This will make your house feel bigger, which is important because spacious houses are easier to sell.
Bring this concept into the kitchen as well. The kitchen is one of the rooms in a house that gets the most traffic, so it gets cluttered pretty quickly. The key is to keep the counter as clear as possible. Try to keep all appliances stored in cabinets. Free and clear counters make kitchens seem larger.
3. More photogenic
Just as you look better in pictures with a clean and put-together appearance, a well-maintained and manicured home is more photogenic.
Your house needs to look its best in pictures because lots of people look for home listings online these days. They shop through pictures before they decide to go take a look in person. Therefore, if your house is cluttered and over-filled with all of your stuff it won’t look good in the pictures on the listing, and fewer people will even want to take the time to go view it. So making sure your house photographs well is one of the most significant reasons decluttering helps your house sell faster.
4. Draws focus to the house
Another one of the reasons decluttering helps your house sell faster is that clutter draws focus to the “stuff” and away from the features of the home.
Potential buyers taking a walk through your house might get distracted with noticing that train collection and observing all the family decorations on the wall. While their attention is averted elsewhere, they might miss important aspects about the house itself and leave with an incomplete picture. This could mean it won’t stand out from others and they will choose a different home.
So give your house a chance to show itself off by decluttering away all the distractions. Build a canvas in which others can paint their own picture of the future!
5. Buyers trust well-maintained houses
Earning potential buyers’ trust is one of the most critical reasons decluttering helps your house sell faster. Oftentimes, a cluttered home sends a message that the house has not been taken care of very well. If the housekeeping and organization of the house make it seem unkempt, it hints that other problems around the house have arisen due to lack of proper maintenance and care. This can create an underlying feeling of distrust about the house and its quality.
6. Makes the move easier
In addition to the reasons decluttering helps your house sell faster, it also makes the moving process easier when the time comes. Most people aren’t fully aware of how much stuff they really have, especially if they’ve been living in one house for several years. So when it comes time to move, they might underestimate the actual scope of the job and get overwhelmed.
But if you take the time to go through your belongings ahead of time to keep only the things you really need, you will have a more accurate understanding of your actual inventory. Therefore, decluttering is a task that will make your home sell faster and your moving process more efficient and successful.
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