When selling a home, keep it clean

Before Debra Attman would put her sister’s house on the market, she insisted that hundreds of items from three giant walk-in closets be purged. Otherwise, she feared the property would seem too crowded to appeal to buyers.

“My sister’s house was meticulous, but there was vastly too much volume. The place was bursting,” recalled Attman, a 20year real estate agent affiliated with the Council of Residential Specialists (https://crs.com/).

Attman’s sister initially resisted her coaxing. Because of that, the preselling involved a lot of yelling between the two siblings.

Besides her accumulated apparel, Attman’s sister’s closets included a large number of items left behind by her three grown children, all of whom had moved out years before.

It took three agonizing months for the woman to cull through the collections and prepare her property for market. But in the end, her place — located on a verdant, fullacre lot in a coveted neighborhood — sold well.

For many longtime homeowners, an excess volume of clothing is a major barrier to a successful home sale.

“Many women — but also lots of men and teenagers — own way too much clothing. And because clothing has an emotional element — we remember where we wore it — it’s tough to give away,” Attman said.

In an attempt to make the process of purging excess clothing as smooth as possible, she advises her home-selling clients to adhere to what she calls “the two-year rule.” Any item of clothing or shoes not worn in two years should be let go.

Attman also recommends that rather than simply throwing out excess clothing, many people find it easier to let go of it if they do so purposefully.

She tells the true story of the 16year-old son of one of her clients who spent his summer vacation selling clothing and other excess household items on eBay, thereby helping ease his parents’ quest to sell the family home.

“He made enough money for a down payment on a car. Selling your stuff on the Internet or through consignment stores is a good plan for home sellers with the time and inclination to do so,” Attman said.

Here are a few other pointers for sellers:

Sid Davis, a real estate broker and author of “A Survival Guide to Selling a Home,” said many sellers have items on display that could hurt a sale unless they’re removed. For example, he cites sports trophies, fancy kitchen gadgets and family photos.

“By renting a storage unit, you’ll be less tempted to start retrieving items from your boxes. It’s a lot harder to go back and pull out that cappuccino maker if you have to drive over to your storage unit to retrieve it,” he said.

Given that cleaning is so critical, he said that hiring a service to do an in-depth job is well worth the $100 to $200 you’ll likely need to spend. And you’re unlikely to need to repeat the process for another two to three months.

“While your house is in the showing stage, you will, of course, still need to mow your lawn, wash your dishes and make your beds. But for a while you won’t have to hire anyone to scrub away the mold embedded in your bathroom tile,” Davis said.

“People in the house start leaving unwashed clothes in the laundry room. Bills and papers stack up in the home office. And the teenagers start depositing sports equipment and shoes all over the place,” Davis said. “I recommend a family meeting during which you lay down some rules to keep everybody on track. That way you can establish norms for the household.”