San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Decluttering when the kids are home.
Moving a family is never easy. Preparing your family’s home for sale can be a challenge as well, especially if you have children.
Preparing a home for sale involves plenty of prep work and cleaning, and tending to the children’s room requires extra effort and care.
Those who stage their homes need not worry, as the majority of stagers insist a house be vacant. But for those who intend to live in their home while it’s on the market, making it showable while raising kids can be a challenge.
According to Bay Area Realtors, creativity is key in this situation.
“Gather all the toys together, and ask the child to select today’s nine most favorite ones. Then, divide the selected ones in groups of three and just leave three out the first day, to be replaced by another group on subsequent days,” said Astrid Lacitis of Vanguard Properties. “Turn it into a game so the child has to guess what ‘surprise’ they will get each day.”
Jeannie Anderson of Compass says sellers should also get creative with their storage spaces.
“I’ve watched many sellers scramble tossing things under the bed, shoving things into a closet, using the shower and tub as storage, dragging things over to the neighbors house for a few hours, and that parking space in a condo building can come in real handy as storage during showings, open houses and broker’s tours,” she said. “Sometimes parents have a set limit as to how many toys can come out on a given day, making pickup and move that much easier.”
There’s also the potential for deemphasizing a child’s bedroom while listing, according to Matt Heafey of Compass.
“Sometimes, if the home is really big, we might leave a couple of bedrooms unstaged because the formal bedrooms will give you the level of detail you need to get a good feel for the home,” he said.
Finally, you can always use reward systems to incentivize a child to keep their room clean for showing.
“One of the things that I have done is to offer the children a reward for working with me on removing or packing away items while the home is on the market,” said Jeff LaMont of Coldwell Banker. “And find out what the kids like and offer to provide that to them if they work with you on this. Often that is a pizza dinner or a gift card. Call it a bribe if you like.”