These days most home sellers do realize that staging their home, at least to a certain extent, is one of the ways to help them get the quicker home sale – and asking price – they are hoping for.
Doing so can be tricky enough if the household consists of all adults, but what are home sellers supposed to do if they have young kids. How can messy, unpredictable kids and staging possibly go together?
Staging a home for sale that is occupied by children as well as adults does present extra challenges, but it is not impossible. Here are a few tips:
Pack the Toys Away
Telling your children that you need to pack all of their toys away while you are trying to sell your home is unlikely to be met with a great deal of enthusiasm by the kids themselves. In fact such a declaration is only likely to end in tearful protests and sulks. The fact is though, kids tend to play with only a few of their toys, the rest kind of gather dust on the shelves (or on the floor)
Allow your child to pick out ten toys that they want to keep out while you are trying to sell your home, and then pack the rest away. It may not be a popular move at first, but it will minimize the clutter in your home as well as actually give you a head start on the packing.
If the ten toy thing really is not going to fly at least gather toys into baskets and make sure that they are all put away when playtime is over (hopefully by the kids who were playing with them.)
Keep it Tidy
No reasonable potential buyer is going to expect that room occupied by a six-year old is going to look like a showroom, but basic tidiness is expected.
In an ideal situation, older kids could be relied on to keep their own rooms in order, in the spirit of helping out so that they can get to their exciting new home that bit quicker. The chances of that happening all the time are, as most parents know, slim, however much they nag.
Basically if you can find the time every day to clear of the floor in your kids room, make the bed and ensure that the closets are tidy (buyers love to open closets) you should be in good shape.
Kids and Home Showings
As far as possible, kids should not be around when your home is being shown to potential buyers (and actually neither should you, ideally)Â No one is saying that they should be packed off for the duration of the time your home is on the market but if you can arrange for everyone to head out when your real estate agent and potential buyers are due to show up your life will be a lot easier.
Nothing worse than a ‘helpful’ four year old pointing out the stains on the carpet that you had been hiding with a rug until you find time to get the professional carpet cleaners in. And by ensuring that everyone is out the space home buyers will feel more comfortable. So let your agent do their thing and take the kids to the park, the store or out for a meal. You may even find that they start looking forward to their home being shown as that leads to fun, and agree to work harder at keeping their spaces tidy!