Now that the buying season is supposedly officially over, it is time time to prep your house for next year’s market…which begins in three months! No kidding. Expect a bit of a slow down in the last quarter almost upon us, but there is still a market in the year’s last three months. I had my best best month ever one November about three years ago. Man, the number 3 is figuring prominently in this post, so let’s stick with it. If you are really thinking about selling next year, er uh, I mean in three months, you need to prepare now. Don’t wait. Holidays will be here shortly and Jan 1 is a blink away. There are plenty of things you can be doing that you will be glad you did come crunch time, that dreaded week before the listing when you are working on the long list of things you still need to do before the photographer arrives.

Here are three things you can do right away, without even thinking about it. Well, four, actually, if you do the right thing and call a realtor after step three. That is a given. So many listings appointments I go to have faded FSBO signs in the garage. Some of us are actually pretty good at what we do ;^)

1. De-Clutter – Remove everything in your house that you know deep down that you really don’t use that much. Get rid of the rowing machine (do they still exist?). Box up the 2000 pounds of books. All the stuff in room corners, get rid of it. Closets! Clean ‘em out. Box and store off property, donate it, or throw it out, vowing to never again acquire so much crap! Also? De-Stage if you are the type who likes wall after wall of little tables that look nice but just make your otherwise larger house feel tiny. Anything that is not functional, seriously consider removing before deciding to keep it. And here’s a tip: If you are even remotely considering removing something, remove it! My clients ask WWJS: What would Joe say? Get it gone! And tackle the Laundry Room!

2. Clean – Nothing makes a buyer walk out of a house like grime. Nothing makes a place look sharp and crisp like no grime. Buyers rarely comment on how clean a house is (they expect it to be clean), but when they see inexplicably grimy floor trim, soiled light switches, fan blades caked with years of dust and grease, they get really skeeved really quickly. Do this deep cleaning now and then simply maintain it. And tackle the Laundry Room! Can’t do it alone? PAY SOMEONE TO HELP YOU! Admit you suck at cleaning, vow to change, and get it done. You will like the results so much, you may not want to move. Careful! Pride is a dangerous thing.

3. Yard Work and Garage – Remember that person you fancied yourself when you first bought your house? You know, the happy homeowner who was going to garden every weekend, do wood working in your spacious garage (Honey, we could have a party in here!). Then the kids came and while they demanded so much attention, your house did something really weird: It became your home. You actually lived in it! God forbid! And playing with the kids at the baseball field, face it, is way more fun (and more important) than staying on top of things domestically speaking. Well, now’s the time.
First: The Garage. If you have one, that is, of you don’t, you win! Declutter the hell out of it! All the scraps of wood, the myriad projects started and stopped, the Christmas tree laying in the corner like a mob hit. GO TO THE DUMP, and vow to never be this way again. Organize for the umpteenth time, but this time, keep it this way…at least until you see the place, right! Go in on a dumpster with a neighbor or two and agree to have it located in your driveway for 5 days. Fill it, and curse yourself for have too much stuff…we’ve all been there. Whatever. Again, if it is daunting, pay someone to help you. I can give you three names today of reliable and inexpensive helpers to ease your burden and still get you on the couch for the game, so no excuses.
Second: The Yard: Engage in some improvements using what I call Addition by Subtraction. Piece of cake. You need hand pruners, loppers, pruning saw, rake, maybe a shovel. You would not believe the drastic change you can make to your curb appeal simply by limbing up trees, hacking back shrubs (or removing them altogether), Debulking all the biomass from last year’s fall that you just kept blowing to the sides, clean the gutters and roof, pull weeds and cut /dig out volunteer plants that are turing into trees and growing at your foundation. Hose stuff down. That’s it. I didn’t even suggest planting some color by the front door! But you already know that, and that can wait for closer to listing day and for another blog post…