The Safari Guide to Listing Your Home

This is the third installment in our weekly blog series to help you prepare your home for listing in today’s market – THE PURGE!  If you follow this 8-week guide, you’ll be able to break up all those to-do’s into manageable steps that will leave you in the position to present your home in the best light!  Check out the previous blogs in the series here and here.

Week 3: The Purge

It’s time to roll up your sleeves and start purging! 

During our property visit in week 2, we offered advice on preparing your home for sale and potential staging.  At Safari Properties we aim to present our homes to the market in what we refer to as “hotel clean” and “hotel feel” condition.  Everyone lives differently, and though some folks live “hotel style” whether or not their home is for sale, the other 99% of us need to de-clutter and depersonalize!  Sometimes this means hiring a dumpster or “bagster” and throwing out items like old and worn furniture, broken lawnmowers, and piles of books that’ve been gathering dust.

Take this week to assign the whole family a room, and start three piles: throw away, donate, and keep.  This is a difficult for most folks. If you can’t decide whether to keep something sentimental that takes up space, a good tip is to take a photo of the item.  The photo becomes a digital memory, taking up much less space!  This is the week you might find yourself driving back and forth to Goodwill every day. The amount of “stuff” we hang on to is truly staggering.  We have resources for donation items that Goodwill will not accept. Call us!

The Comparative Property Analysis

Also, after seeing your property in person, we’ll  prepare and submit your custom CMA (Comparative Property Analysis).  Don’t confuse this with a Zestimate or County Value Analysis, as neither of these entities have ever seen your house.  Nor do they calculate ‘apples-to-apples’ based on similar properties.  We’re happy to show you how this works when we meet!   In association with your CMA, we calculate a Seller Estimate Net Sheet reflecting estimates of your proceeds at the closing table.

So, while we’re busy with our calculator, your job this week is making another trip to Goodwill!