Well... I am in the process of looking to purchase and successfully just sold. Funny, but the two houses I have fallen in love with were empty.

I hate when drapes/blinds are closed. I love walking into a bright room.

I hate when the owner has trinkets everywhere. I would rather the house be empty than have to deal with over decorated rooms.

Along with the trinkets, it bothers me to see peoples messiness. It makes me think that if they can't clean up for a showing, they probably didn't take care of the house very well.

I also hate it when there's an obvious problem that the seller tries to cover up. Ex: There was a hole in the wood floor, big enough to be able to see down to the basement... the seller put a stool over it. what???

I never knew how stressful and emotionally draining it was to sell and buy a home. I wish you all the luck. It really is great to have a community like this to support you during it.

Scents - CLEAN! Don't try to cover anything up with air fresheners or candles, etc. In addition to making people wonder what you are hiding, scents can be problematic for people with allergies. The best and only smell your house should have is clean.

Draperies open and the lights on regardless of how bright it may be outside when you have a scheduled viewing. You never know when the clouds may move in and you want your house to show light and bright.

Do the dishes and make the beds every morning before you leave. It will make your house seem show ready and clean even if it is not.

If your personal items are collections or pictures, pack them up. You want your prospective buyer to concentrate on your home's architectural features, not your Swarovski collection. To add to that, if your collections are valuable that is another reason to pack them up and get them out of the house; theft prevention. Get rid of the sneakers, shoes, boots, umbrellas, jackets and all the other "stuff" that block the home's entranceway. I prefer empty houses, so my personal advice would be to minimize furnishings, junk, bills, etc. People are going to open drawers, cabinets, medicine chest, so clear out anything that is expired, potentially embarrassing (do you really want to be known as the "Viagra House" or the house with the great outdoor patio?) and organize. This will help make it seem like you have more storage and that you really care about the condition of your house. One thing that really bugged me was viewing packed houses. I needed space to walk, and having a room crammed with furnishing and clutter was not inspiring.

We always open the blinds and drawback the curtains in the morning- it makes the day start much better.
I have "de-trinketized" everything- there a few pictures/wall decor just to keep the house from looking sterile.
I keep the house tidy-dishes and laundry are done before bed.

We have put together a suitcase with personal items such as documents, prescriptions, etc. It can be put in the car while the house is being shown. I really wish we could empty out the house- but we have to live here. The furniture is definitely minimal. I am wondering what to leave in the bedroom,hall, and linen closet? Also, the kitchen! ARgh, we have a tiny galley kitchen with little space. I have gotten rid of appliances we didn't use but it feels crowded to me- any suggestions?

groomingal do you have a picture of your kitchen? There may not be much help for it because it is a galley kitchen, but visuals may help.

I am wondering what to leave in the bedroom,hall, and linen closet?

Have the linens neatly folded and stacked. Pack up the 16 extra bars of soap, the 12 extra bottles of shampoo, etc. Make it seem neat and organized.

The bedroom closets should be neat and organized. It will make them seem larger than they truly are. Get rid of the boxes in the closet, pack away the clothing for next season, and generally make the closet room seem abundant. Closets are important to people.

How big is your hall? What do you have in there now?

As for your closets, when we've sold houses while living in them, I packed up everything except one spare of each - one extra towel per person, one change of sheets per bed, one replacement bottle of shampoo per bathroom, etc.

In the kitchen, the only thing left out on the counter was the coffeemaker for dh. The rest was stored neatly in cabinets or packed away. I packed the stand mixer and just used a hand mixer, and made similar choices for other items. For our family of four, I kept 8 ea. of dishes, glasses and flatware, then packed the rest. All of the seasonal serving dishes, trays, party items, etc. were packed away.

For some houses, I rented a small storage unit for the boxes and bins, as well as for "extra" furniture. In our dining room, I kept 4 or 6 chairs (depending on the room size) and stored the others. For us a big thing that agents commented on was our books, so I got used to packing away at least 3/4 of our books and storing the bookcases.

Good luck! BTW, I like your suitcase idea for papers and Rx meds. That's very clever!

Biggest problem I had was when the owners decided to stay around "just in case we had questions". Nothing turned us off quicker than having the owner following us from room to room. I hesitated to even open a closet or check out cabinets in the kitchen.

We did have a couple of houses that we looked where there were boxes (obviously being packed) in the living room and a bedroom. No problem with that, those things sometimes can't be helped.

When looking at a house for the first time I want to be able to walk thru it without having to trip over stuff. I don't want to have to walk over or around toys or pets. I want to be able to see the walls and the floor without having to guess what is hiding behind a pile of stuff.
I want to see clean. I want to smell that the place is clean, no animal odors, no oddball smells.
I want to be able to see every nook and cranny. I want the inside to be clean as well as the outside. When I walk around the property I don't want to have to watch were the I walk because of animal pooh.
I want to see the house has been cared for, that means the roof looks good, the paint isn't peeling, the mailbox is in good shape, the windows aren't broken, the screens are in good repair.
I want to be able to see what the mechanics in the basement look like, I want to be able to see not just that there is a garage but what condition the floor is in.
Most of all I want the owner gone or at the very least not there looking over my shoulder while I look at the house.

Clean smelling and not heavy candle or perfume scents or cigarette smoke or cooking odors. Baking smells are ok with me. Best thing would be no particular odor at all. Last time we house hunted I was pregnant and there were a couple of houses I almost threw up in due to the smells. I held my nose walking through it.

Owners there is a big problem for me and I hate when they follow around or want to point out things. I'm perfectly capable of seeing things myself and things they pointed out were things I could care less about.

As for personal items, it is nice when feminine products are put away for the guys to not see (DH has issues with this for some reason) and keep the countertops clean in the baths and not full of make-up, brushes full of hair, multiple toothpaste tubes and several used band-aids etc. We saw this in one house and it just grossed us out.

As for family pictures I think some are fine. I think this is often mentioned because people tend to have lots of them out and as with anything too much is overwhelming and focuses the buyer elsewhere.

I don't want the owners looking over my shoulder either, but I don't mind if they are available to answer questions out of earshot of the listing agent! I've learned many interesting things about the neighborhood this way.

A house doesn't have to be empty, but it should be clean and clutter free. I think most sellers would benefit from putting excess furniture and personal items into storage.

So folks are proud to display their family photos, etc. This is ok if you aren't selling, but it makes it that much harder for me to imagine what my OWN pictures will look like on the wall, etc.

The whole point of staging a house is to get the buyer to feel comfortable enough to want to live here. If I think your Uncle Charlie has a funny haircut, I will probably have that distraction floating around in the back of my mind while trying to remember the more positive features of your home!

Keep the pets confined or better yet, keep them someplace else. Especially cats! Cat spray is one of the hardest smells to get rid of. I knew someone who bought a house and had to tear out the baseboards and hardwood floors in order to get rid of the stench. It was not cheap. No one wants to spend any more than they have to when they are already forking over a huge amount of money to buy a new home.

I want to buy able to walk through rooms comfortably. Remove any obstacles that someone might trip over or have to squeeze around.

Remove clutter. Personally, family photos don't bother me, but a junky house does and I'll take one look and turn around.

No candles, room deodorizers, etc., please! A lot of people are allergic to strong scents. Watch litter boxes too.

Make sure every room has a purpose. Don't have junk rooms. Turn them into exercise rooms, sitting rooms, whatever.

Remove the pets. My in-laws temporarily took in our cat while our house was on the market. We took the dog with us every time we left for a showing or open house.

Make sure everything is clean and tidy. It's easier to imagine my stuff in a house if it's neat. Clutter and messiness overwhelms me and makes me want to run for the hills.

Make sure your closets and cupboards are not stuffed full so people can open them. They will.

Leave. I avoid FSBOs because I don't like the owners hanging around. I feel like I have to compliment everything even if I hate the house.

Don't require people to remove their shoes if your carpet or flooring is obviously dated and worn. I had to laugh at one house we saw where there was a neat sign sitting on the steps asking us to remove our shoes and the carpet was horribly worn! Come to think of it, that house is still on the market after more than a year.

Well we have a clear walking path and no extra stuff in the rooms and each room has a purpose.
We do have just a few photos of our children-1 of each of them and 1 of them together.
We do have dogs- they will come with us during a showing. I bathe them weekly so no doggy smells from them. I am going to collapse their crates and put away the doggy evidence during showing. I scoop the meadow muffins as soon the dogs make them so no need to worry about those.
I have been going room to room today and trying to declutter the cabinets, drawers, etc. We have also decided to zip tie the entertainment center doors and DS entertainment armoire in his room to prevent any missing electronics, games, or dvds.
I did put a sign up last year for people to remove their shoes- we have hardwoods that I keep polished- last year some kid decided the squeaky noise his shoes made was great because he scooted through the downstairs and left black marks all over the floor. I will always remove my shoes in another persons homes- unless it looks safer to leave my shoes on :)

Linked below are a few shoe threads. If you are in a buyers market, I would definitely rethink the shoes off position. I actually refused to view any houses with these signs. Some people feel very strongly one way or the other about shoes (see heated threads I linked), but think of it as a possible impediment to viewing your house. If you can live with people possibly walking away due to a shoe-off sign, it still may be worth it to you to have that rule. Do understand that some people will refuse to view your house if they need to take off their shoes.

One compromise suggested many years on this forum was a box of surgical booties to go over the shoes at the entrance. Most folks are willing to do that. Have a trash can near the exit so they can be disposed of on the way out.

Please remove your shoes?

Tips for Selling...What do you wish someone had told you?

I have thought about the shoes off- but I am pretty firm with it. The kid that left the black marks required me to spend about 2 hours cleaning marks and having to polish my floors- again. I had one buyer that walked through my red mulched flower bed before entering- only way I knew was he ruined my rug when the mulch stuck in the grooves of his shoes and he attempted to wipe his feet. BTW, I still can't figure out why he was traipsing through my flower bed.
Lets say for example- I had back to back showings- 1st group tracks in dirt- leaves the floors dirty. What do you think the second potential buyers would think?
I have two young children and 3 dogs- all of them wear shoes outside and they come off at the door- dogs included. My schedule is hectic enough- not to mention keeping a spotless house for potential buyers- without having to backtrack because someone refuses to remove their shoes.
I will look at purchasing some booties with the grip on the bottom to prevent slips.

Another question- What to do to spruce up the exterior? We are in the south and it might be 65 one day and snow the next so I know flowers are out of the question. I have a fresh mat out front but my flowerbed is -blah- Any suggestions?

Ahhh -- the dreaded shoe topic.

When I was looking at homes here in the Twin Cities, almost every single home had a sign to please remove shoes. My realtor even told me beforehand that removing them is expected. I had no problem with it because I grew up in an area where shoes off is the norm.

I was looking at homes in the middle of winter, salt is used to melt snow and ice and most homes here are carpeted. In AZ, I had tile everywhere except for carpet in the bedrooms. Even though we didn't wear shoes in the house, I did not ask potential buyers to remove their shoes because it isn't the norm there and like xamsx said, it could hinder a sale.

It's regional. OP - if it's the norm in your area, then go ahead and ask for shoes to be removed without worrying about people being offended. If it's not and you still want to have the shoes off rule, then be prepared for some people to refuse to look at your house.

I completely understand your reasoning and I even agree with you. However, people will balk and be offended if you go ahead in an area where it is not common.

Regarding the landscaping issue, I think it depends where you live. I'm in Colorado and we're about to put our house on the market. The best I can do right now is clean up all winter debris and freshly mulch everything in preparation for spring. No one here expects anything to be popping and the beds look dormant but neat and clean. We also powerwashed the outside of the house on a day when it was warm enough to do so.

As you're in the south, maybe there is more you can do. Perhaps you could go to a nursery for some advice? (I'm not talking the garden center at a big box store, but a nursery with knowledgeable people.) Are you greening up at all there? I do know that pansies can take some cold and perhaps you could place a few pots of them by your front door?

Some folks will not take a step without shoes on. My spouse is like this. I am fully convinced that if there was a fire that my spouse would first put shoes on before running out of the home. Then again, that wouldn't be much of a problem because the only time spouse removes shoes is prior to getting into bed or the shower (or changing clothes) and then the shoes are waiting right there to be stepped into once out of bed or the shower. I always take my shoes off before entering the house but my spouse is the complete opposite. Spouse's underside of feet are as soft as a baby's foot.

janea- No signs of spring here yet (hopefully soon!) I love this one nursery that is a local family but they shut down their store in the off season. I put some pansies in pots at around October and they have some color- they don't look fantastic but they made it.
We have a bay window at the front with a flower bed around it and then our front stoop (we have a townhouse) and our neighbors and I share a flower area between our stoops- they let me have it because I keep it up. I have 4 new shrubs that I planted around the bay window last year- but most of my flowers are mums and of course they are gone now (one of the few I can't kill :)

Maybe I will wait a couple of weeks and see if the weather turns a little warmer.

Groomingal, in what area are you selling? Are flowers expected at this time of year?

If nobody else has color then I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you can find some pansies, though, I'd buy them and replace the ones that are struggling after the winter. In fact, I'd think it would be better to have nothing than have ratty looking plants in a pot. Good luck!

I'm one of those who cannot walk without shoes--orthonics in my shoes allow me to walk with no pain. I was greatly embarrassed in Canada last fall. It was the first time I've been around people who do not allow shoes inside. I failed to bring "inside shoes" and had to go out to purchase new tennies so I could conform to a friend's standards. They want us to return, but I don't think so.

Janea- I was wondering if pansies were still "in season" I really don't know much about plants except the ones I don't kill. I had planted several cold weather plants/flowers at fall and the pansies survived but they do need to be replaced.

Not many people in our neighborhood go to great extents to beautify- I do though. Maybe I will get some type of ivy and pansies and put them in small urn type planters at the front entry way.

I went through and decluttered and donated items (which felt great!) but I need to reorganize to make the closets look larger. It seems like a never ending task!

1) Remove photos and trinkets

2) LEAVE! :) Seriously, get outta there and let us look.

3) Clean, and that doesn't mean (as someone said upthread) scenty sprays or units. Buyers can figure out that you're hiding something.

4) We saw a home where the owners weren't there but they did leave their big DOG in the living room, behind a [small] barrier! Are you kidding??

5) If you smoke (and I hope you don't, because I'm not buying a home that reeks of smoke), don't leave the cigarette butt disposal around, and certainly not, say, right in front of the front door (yes, we saw that too)

6) Again, something we saw: Do not have juveniles hanging around on your front porch, who glare at us when we pull up in the car.

6) Watch those staging shows on HGTV and A&E. They have great tips and info. Good luck!

Well everything is clean and tidy. We have been trying to get into a routine before putting the house on the market of having everything ready to go the night before and tidy up morning messes.
About leaving- well DH works two jobs and we recently sold our second vehicle to eliminate debt. As long as it isn't raining I will be more than happy to take a walk. We purchased large wagon so I could quickly get our toddler and two little furkids loaded and out the door. DS likes to skateboard so he won't mind either. If it is raining I won't have much option but to stay home (I feel awkward but we would definitely let them look as if we weren't there)- do people go to showings much when it rains?

Herbivore- My favorite is when I look at listings- I scrutinize pictures for ashtrays and cats. I won't even look at a house with evidence of the two. No kids on the porch we are one of the few on our street w/kids.

I did go through the house today and took pics to look at with a fresh eye and see what could be changed. WE have a painter coming this week to touch up the exterior of the house and hopefully the roofers will be by next week, new carpet will be installed on our stairs this Sunday. Keep your fingers crossed everything falls on schedule!

beachlily - I'm one of those who cannot walk without shoes--orthonics in my shoes allow me to walk with no pain. I was greatly embarrassed in Canada last fall. It was the first time I've been around people who do not allow shoes inside. I failed to bring "inside shoes" and had to go out to purchase new tennies so I could conform to a friend's standards. They want us to return, but I don't think so.

Even though I'm in the shoes off camp (I'm from Canada, but I live in the US), I wouldn't have expected you to go out and buy indoor shoes! Because you have a medical condition, I would have told you to leave them on. I just would have asked you to wipe them on the mat the best you could.

Honestly, I bet your hostess has no idea she offended you. If you choose to visit again, I'm sure if you tell her you have a foot medical condition, she most likely will tell you to leave them on.

I haven't actually looked at any homes yet (just on the internet). But... I tend to get very distracted by nicknacks. One house I like had a large brass sculpture of a man skating in the picture -- I just could not get past that sculpture and can't believe the REA did not tell them to put it away.

I agree with blinds and curtains wide open - I want to see what the views are from each room.

No barking dogs left at home please.

"Neutralize" the kid's bedrooms. People without kids might have a hard time seeing past cutezy wallpaper and pink and blue walls.

Well we started interviewing agents and oh what a task. We had one come meet us over the weekend and she just didn't seem very motivated.
She showed us one house in the area for a comp and said it was the only house in our area for sale and she felt we would be way overpriced. Our homes are totally different and it would be like comparing apples and oranges. Not to mention there are 7 houses for sale in our neighborhood- with 4 of them similar to ours.
She also wants us to wait until May to list because that is the busy season. We made it very clear to hear from the beginning we are trying to get another house and it is based on the contingency of our home selling.
She did say everything looked great and we seemed very prepared.
Needless to say she is off the list and we have two more coming out this week to meet us. Cross your fingers!

I thought comps were houses recently sold, not those currently for sale

Just a quick update- we finally listed last Wednesday and had our first showing today. Yay! Even better we received an offer of asking price- wish us luck!

Wow GG! Good for you! Where are you located?

Sparksals- Thanks! We are in a major city in Tennessee and the market seems to be pretty stable here. We countered back today just with some specifics regarding loans/closing. It didn't change anything just clarified, so hopefully we will have the ball rolling in the next few days!

That's really great news!

Wonderful news groomingal! Best wishes for a fast and painless close. :-)

Good for you GG. That's great!

Thanks so much everyone! Now it is on to house shopping!

We just received a notice letting us know that we have a home inspection in one week! Cross your fingers for us that all goes well!