How2 detail Your Listings

According to agents I’ve spoken with, somewhere around 75-80% of the homes for sale in the region are in mediocre condition.  I don’t mean that they’re falling down, or that there are holes in the roof, or that they’re filthy pigsties. I just mean that they look lived in, just like the houses we live in ourselves: the closets are stuffed with clothes we don’t wear, the cabinets are full of old cleaning supplies, the pantries are overloaded with food we’re probably never going to eat, and we aren’t spending our weekends scrubbing our showers and sinks.

We don’t live in dumps, but we don’t live in model homes either. We live our normal lives, and our normal lives can be messy.  We try to keep things orderly and neat, but we don’t always have the time.  So our homes end up looking a little “lived in,” which is fine.

But we’re not trying to sell our houses, are we?  We don’t have a stream of strangers coming into our homes making a decision about whether to buy it.  If we were selling, we’d probably keep it looking a little nicer.  Particularly as real estate professionals, if we were selling our own homes, we’d spend a lot of time and energy making sure that our own homes looked great when buyers came to look at them.

So why are most of the homes for sale in the region in such poor condition?  It’s not our fault, we know what needs to be done.  The problem is that it’s tough to approach our sellers about getting their homes looking their best.  Why is that? First, because we’re sometimes afraid to insult our clients, who might take our suggestions as a criticism of the way that they live.  After all, no one likes to be thought of as a slob, which is how those suggestions are sometimes taken.

Second, sometimes the sellers, even if we do muster the courage to bring it up, still do not see the problem. They’re looking at the house through their own eyes, and they miss the imperfections and the distractions — my wife doesn’t have to wear makeup for me to think she’s beautiful, and my house doesn’t have to be picked up for me to think that it’s a gem.

And third, the sellers think that improving the condition of their homes is going to cost them money, and they don’t want to spend it. If we bring up “staging” the house and hiring a consultant, they think that they’re going to have to hire a contractor, re-paint the house, plant new shrubs, re-make kitchens, and so on.

Most agents are aware that their listings could use some sprucing up. That’s why the concept of “staging” has been a hot topic for the past few years, particularly because of all the television shows that do home makeovers that turn cluttered old dogs into beautiful model homes.  It looks good on television, but in the real world most sellers are resistant to the idea of spending money on a consultant or doing an extensive makeover of their house.  And most agents are reluctant to bring up the idea, because the idea of “staging” can be a little intimidating —  it sounds expensive, it’s a complicated subject, and you run the risk of insulting your client.  So even though the clients and the houses do need that kind of help, they rarely get it.

What is Detailing?

So how do we solve this problem?  I think the solution is to avoid talking about “staging,” and instead talk about “detailing.”  What do I mean by that?  Detailing is what you do when you’re getting ready to sell your car.  If you’re selling your car, do you just drive it one day into the dealership, or put an ad in the paper, and try to sell it looking like it looks when you’re driving it around every day?  With all those old “Realtor for Life” mailing in the trunk, and old newspapers in the back seat, and coffee cups on the floor? Of course not!

You get the car detailed.  You take the car to the car wash, and then you clean out the trunk of all the random stuff that’s accumulated inside it.  You throw all that stuff out.  Then you clean out the glove compartment, getting rid of all the tickets you haven’t paid, old insurance forms, and more random clutter. Then you clean out the inside of the car, getting rid of all the stuff that’s accumulated over the last year. Then you vacuum the interior, and wipe down all the surfaces.  Then you run it through the car wash, give it a good shine and wax.  And if you think you need it, you might even buff out any scratches.

Why do you do that?  Because you want to get the best price for your car, and you know that making it look nice will make the car more attractive to buyers, or even to a professional dealership. You don’t replace the engine or anything crazy like that, but you detail the car to clean it out and buff it up.

That’s all that most houses need.  They don’t need major home improvements — they don’t need a new kitchen, they don’t need to be repainted, they don’t need you to pull up the floors.  They just need detailing: get rid of the clutter, open the place up, and clean it.  If you can do that, you can get 80% of the value of staging – it may not look like a model home, it may not have classic feng shui, but it looks nice.

More importantly, detailing is a concept that most sellers will get immediately, without feeling intimidated or insulted.  Most people have detailed their cars at some point, so they immediately grasp the idea that if you’re going to sell something you should spruce it up and make it look its best.  And if they’re going to do that when they’re selling a $20,000 car, shouldn’t they do it when they’re selling a $500,000 house?  Detailing a car can make you hundreds of dollars; detailing a house can make you thousands of dollars.

Most importantly, detailing does not require a lot of money.  For the most part, it just requires de-cluttering and cleaning.  It takes a little hard work, but not a lot of money. Essentially, detailing is the first step of most staging programs – you de-clutter the house, de-personalize it, clean it up, and then move on to staging the rooms for maximum effect.  You can’t stage unless you detail first.

Here’s how to explain detailing to your clients:

Bob, if we’re going to sell this house for the best price, you need to detail it. You know when you sell a car, you take it to the car wash, and clean it out?  You clear out the trunk of all your personal stuff, to make the trunk look bigger.  Then you vacuum the interior, and wipe down all the upholstery, so it looks like new.  And then you wash and wax the outside, and buff out all the scratches, so that it shines. Why do you do that? Because you want the car to look great when you go to sell it.  That’s how you get the best price for your car.

 We need to do the same thing with your house.  If we want to get it sold, and get it sold for a great price, we need to detail it the way we’d detail a car.  We need to get rid of all the clutter, so that it looks bigger.  We need  to clean out all the personal stuff.  We need to clean up the inside so that it shines. We want people coming into this house and talking about how great it looks.  We want them to be able to envision themselves living here.

 I’m not talking about spending a lot of money.  I’m talking about just doing some basic things.  When you’re selling your car, you don’t put in a new engine, but you do clean and wax it.  That’s what I’m talking about.

 There’s nothing wrong with this house, but the way you live in your homes is different from the way we market it, right? So if you’re going to be moving anyway in six months, we might as well start the process now and clear the place out a little.

What is the point of the dialogue?  To approach the client in a non-threatening and non-insulting way about doing fundamental things to improve the home’s condition.  When you’re talking to the client, you want to make three things perfectly clear:

• This is a great house, and there’s nothing wrong with the way you live.

• But the way we live in the home is different from the way we market it.

• And if you’re going to be moving in six months, you might as well start right now!

That’s really a great way of getting the point across.  The seller is going to be moving over the next six months. Instead of leaving everything until the last minute, why not take some time right now and do one-third of the move – move out all the stuff that you’re not going to use over the next six months, and get it out of the house?  Sell it, chuck it, or move it into storage.  You make the house look better, and you do a lot of the work that you’re going to have to do in six months, anyway.

This also has a subtle benefit to you, because the more the seller does to start moving out of her house, the more psychologically committed she is to moving.  Once half her stuff is gone, she might be more open to being flexible about the pricing of the home.  That first step of “starting the move” is a good first step to actually selling the house.

The Problem of Clutter

If you are able to do nothing else, you need to de-clutter the house.  Most houses are stuffed to the ceiling with too much stuff – too many clothes in the closet, too many knick-knacks on the shelves, too much food and cleaning supplies in the cabinet, and too much furniture stuffed into the rooms.  Just clearing the clutter will make the house seem bigger, more open, and allow buyers to visualize themselves living there.  As Barb Schwartz, the founder of the staging concept puts it – “clutter eats equity.”

So here are some guidelines you can give your sellers for getting rid of the clutter:

• Move out everything you don’t need for the next six months: all the clothes you’re not going to wear, food you’re not going to eat, supplies you’re not going to use.  Get rid of the skis that you won’t need this year, and the exercise equipment that you’ve never used.

• Make a decision about everything in the house: keep it, chuck it, store it, or sell it.  Keep only the stuff you need, chuck the stuff you can’t sell, sell the stuff that has value, and store the rest of it offsite for your next move.

• If you’re going to move it, move it out of the house. Get a storage facility – don’t just put all the stored stuff in the garage.

• Once the home is listed, have a garage sale to sell all the stuff that you don’t want to just throw away.  It’s also a great way to create awareness that the house is for sale.

• Think of it as doing your spring cleaning early.

You should have (and we’ll try to provide) a list of storage facilities in the area, and try to work the best deal you can for your clients putting their things in storage. Maybe even have them contact a moving company in advance, and see if they can work a deal to get cheap storage if they commit to doing the move with the company.

Detailing Step-By-Step

Here are the step-by-step instructions for detailing a listing:

1.  Empty the closets of the non-seasonal clothes.

You absolutely have to clear out the closets.  In most homes, whether for sale or not, the closets are stuffed with clothes, and the closets end up looking small and insufficient.  A closet that is half-full looks a lot bigger, and sends the message that the home has ample storage space.

Tell your clients to come up with their “vacation-plus” wardrobe.  You know how when you go on vacation for a few weeks, you pack up your favorite clothes: the clothes you like, that look good on you, and that fit you?  You get your best shirts, pants, suits, underwear, socks, shoes, etc., and you take that with you.  That’s the wardrobe your clients should keep, plus some extras that they might need for special occasions.  Everything else should go in storage.  Why keep around a lot of clothes that you never wear?

You might even try getting your clients to buy new hangers, so that the empty hangers in the closet look nice and new.  That’s better than having a lot of mismatched hangers from the dry cleaners.

2.  Clear the shelves and the countertops

If you’re like me, you can’t pass a crafts festival without buying something new to put on the shelf, or the countertop, or the windowsill.  Over the years, those knick-knacks add up, until pretty much every open space in my home is filled with brickabrack.

Ninety percent of that stuff has to go.  You want the shelves and countertops to be clean and neat, not stuffed with mementos from 10 years of vacations.  Box up the knick-knacks, get rid of old magazines that no one is going to read, box up the books that you’ve already read.

You want to leave a lot of empty space, so people can imagine their own stuff filling the shelves and countertops.  Moreover, it’s a lot easier to clean the counters if there’s less stuff filling them up.

3.  Clear out the kitchen and bathroom cabinets

My kitchen cabinets are full to the point that I can’t even go out and buy new food.  If you look at my cabinets, you’d think I was preparing for Armageddon and wanted to be sure to have enough tuna fish to last me through eternity.

Your clients might be like me, collecting food that they don’t really eat.  Does anyone really need four boxes of instant pudding from two years ago?  Are they trying to make sure that just in case they have some friends over, they’re covered if someone says, “hey, let’s make a lot of pudding!”?  Clear that stuff out, donate it to a charity, feel good about yourself. Leave the cabinets looking half-empty and ample, and eat up the food that’s left.

Your clients probably also have a lot of cleaning supplies.  They had a stain on the counter a few years ago, so they bought a special solvent to clean the stain.  They used 1/3 of the bottle, but they still keep it around.  They have paint cans from when they painted the kitchen, just in case they need to do touch up.  They probably also have a surplus of dirty rags. Well, now’s a great time to clear those under-sink cabinets out, use up the supplies, and leave the cabinets clear and neat.

Finally, your clients probably have a lot of plates, pots and cups, just in case they need mismatched service for 20 people — everyone will get their own plate and mug, just not a matching one.  Now’s a great time to downsize the kitchen, and get rid of all the kitchenware that they’re probably not going to use.  They’re not having any big parties anytime soon, and if they do they can buy some paper plates.

4.  Clear out the garage and any storage area

Your clients have a two-car garage that hasn’t seen a car in three years because it’s stuffed with boxes, bicycles, gardening equipment, and other bulky objects.  No one buys a house for the garage, but it is indeed helpful to demonstrate that the garage can hold two cars by actually parking two cars in it.

Don’t let the garage become the dumping ground for all the junk that’s moved from the rest of the house.  Whatever is stored should go offsite.  The garage should be cleared out, cleaned, and left neat and tidy. Think of it like the trunk of the car.

5.  Get rid of non-essential furniture

Most people have too much furniture.  I know I do.  I started with a house full of furniture, bought a few new things, and never threw anything out.  So now I have a bunch of extra end-tables, more throw pillows than I’ve ever had people in my house, and enough folding chairs for a Elks Club meeting.  I don’t need all that stuff, and neither do your clients.

Too much furniture makes a room seem small. Get rid of all the extra end tables, folding chairs, bridge tables, throw pillows, and everything else that’s taking up space.  You don’t want to leave a room empty (empty rooms look really, really small), but you don’t want seating for eight in each room, either. And get rid of the patio furniture in the back yard that your clients bought fifteen years ago, and is now rusted out and dangerous-looking.

6. De-Personalize the entire home.

Over the years, we collect photos and personal items that we proudly display  on every shelf and wall of the house.  Indeed, it’s this “personalization” that turns a house into a home.  Well, now that the sellers are moving, it’s time to turn the home back into a house.

Your sellers need to stop thinking of their house as their home, but rather a product that they’re trying to sell.  If they were selling their car, they’d probably get rid of the fuzzy dice or whatever else they used to personalize the car.  Now that they’re selling their home, they need to de-personalize the house.  They need to box up all their intensely personal items: family pictures, trophies, personal papers, photo albums, diplomas, etc.  These will definitely be stored for the new home, and your sellers can live without them for the next six months.

Also, your clients should consider boxing up items that are intensely religious or political, because they don’t want their own personal beliefs to be a distraction to the buyer.  This is a sensitive subject, so follow a rule of reason.

7.  Clean the Entire house and property

Finally, your clients need to clean the house, just like they’d clean the car.  The house needs to be spotlessly clean and odor-free from top to bottom.  Do NOT volunteer to help out with this work; instead, give them a checklist that sets out the fundamental things that they need to do to make the home sparkle.  If they’re not the type to do it themselves, recommend a cleaning service.

One specific note – pay careful attention to the front door entrance. Most homeowners don’t even notice their front door, because they usually enter through the garage or a side door to the house.  So the front entrance tends to get grimy over time, collecting cobwebs, old newspapers that landed in the shrubs, and the like.  But the front entrance is the way that every buyer is going to come into the house.  Moreover, the buyer is going to spend a lot of time there, waiting while the broker fumbles with the lockbox.  So pay special attention to making the front entrance look great, and set a fantastic first impression with potential buyers.

Some specific cleaning suggestions:

• Clean and deoderize all the carpets
• Clean the windows
• Scrub all bathrooms.
• Scrub the kitchen.
• Wipe down all countertops.
• Wipe down all railings.
• Clean the inside of all light fixtures
• Clear and clean throroughly the front entrance
• Clean all light switches.
• Clean all scratches and marks on walls, or use touch-up paint.
• Clean the oven.
• Clear out the refrigerator and clean it out.
• Wipe all countertops.
• Clean out all cabinets and then re-organize.

And for the outside of the house:

• Pull the weeds.
• Cut back on plants so they don’t block the house or the view.
• Cut the grass regularly
• Get rid of rusty swingsets that should be banned by the Department of Child Services.
• Get rid of dead plants, fertilizer bags, unused pots that are stored under the porch.
• Store or chuck gardening equipment.

Keeping it Up

Once you have the home properly detailed, it’s important to keep it that way. Make sure your sellers understand that they’re now living in the house they’re trying to sell, and it’s their responsibility to keep it looking great.  It’s definitely painful, because no one wants to live in a house where you can’t leave dishes in the sink at least once in a while.  But if you’re trying to sell your house, you have to make a sacrifice.

Check in with your sellers regularly to make sure that they’re keeping the place clean, maybe even give them a checklist to go over every day or every week.  A great dialogue someone told me is this:

• Bob, every morning, wake up expecting that the person who is going to buy your house is coming to see it that day for the first time.   Again, it’s just like detailing a car. If you’re selling your car, and you have a sign in the window telling people it’s for sale, then you’re always going to keep it clean.  You never know when your buyer is going to be parked next to you at the supermarket, and ask to see it.   It’s the same thing with a house – you never know when your buyer is going to show up, so you need to keep it looking clean and neat all the time.

Hopefully, your seller will be as interested in selling her home as YOU are!