Preparing for an Open House: How to Deep Clean Your Home

Nothing makes an open house more successful than creating a clean space to welcome potential buyers into.

You can’t have your house looking like a mess and expect to sell it. It’s much easier for buyers to see themselves moving in and creating their own home if you give them a clean canvas to work with. This makes it natural for them to start imaging where they’d like all their things to go.

But first, you have to get your mess out of the way! Here are 5 tips to always use when preparing for an open house.

Do Something About All the Clutter

Clutter is one of the biggest turn-offs to homebuyers. It says that you haven’t taken very good care of the home, even if you actually have!

This is because clutter is a sign of negligence. If you’re careless enough to leave clothes all over the house and let dishes pile up in the sink, there’s no telling what home renovations and projects you’ve put off longer than was necessary.

Not to mention, it’s a lot harder to start picturing a new setup if the current one has too much clutter to work with.

Prioritize the Big Cleaning Tasks

Clutter can be a pretty big cleaning task of its own, but it’s not the only thing you need to take care of when preparing for an open house. You also need to vacuum and/or mop all the floors, depending on what kind of flooring you have.

If your house has wood flooring, it might be a good idea to get them treated before you put the property on the market. Other big cleaning tasks include cleaning the furniture and wiping the windows.

Wipe Everything Down

Speaking of wiping the windows, make sure you do a thorough job of dusting the whole house. Dust the fans, the shelves, and the wall decor. Wipe down the coffee table in the living room and the end tables in the bedrooms.

You want your home to be as spotless as possible. The worst thing that a buyer can experience is to walk in and feel like the place needs a crime scene cleaner!

Remove Personal Belongings

It’s one thing to walk into a huge mess of a house and another to view a property that still feels like someone’s home. You have to put your personal belongings out of sight.

This means taking down all the family photos and doing something about your kids’ trophies on the shelves. You want the home to feel neutral in the same way that a hotel would. This encourages potential buyers to start seeing themselves in your space.

Stage, Stage, Stage

The final piece of the open house prep puzzle is to stage.

Staging makes the entire house feel move-in ready. It’s welcoming, glamorous, and exciting. Good staging is pulled off when you make sure every room in the house is perfect. “Perfect” implies that all the beds are made, there’s a blanket folded on the couch, and everything in the kitchen is in its place.

Maybe you even make a fresh batch of cookies or light a candle to create a more “homey’ feel for buyers.

Preparing for an Open House and Closing the Sale

Keep in mind that preparing for an open house is only the first step in selling.

From there, you have to follow up with buyers who seemed interested and keep reaching out to more potential buyers. This is the best way to move the process along. It helps you identify who’s a serious buyer and who’s not really interested.

When you think you have one or two potential deals, work on closing the sale.

Here are some tips to help you do just that!