realtyreport
The Trouble With Clutter
Often invisible to homeowners, clutter can be a deal breaker for buyers. To understand why it's so important to rid your home of clutter before it goes on the market, it helps to know its effects on buyers.
- A cluttered space feels smaller, darker, and more cramped than one that isn't stuffed wall-to-wall with knickknacks and furniture. And small and dark are absolute turnoffs for buyers, who want the most space and light their money can buy.
- It's your home buyers are interested in, not your personal belongings. But if there's too much clutter, the buyers will see the clutter and not the home — and which buyers would purchase a home they can't properly see?
- Buyers need to be able to picture themselves and their belongings in a home they're thinking about buying. But if everywhere they look they see your personal belongings — your life — on display, visualizing their own life in the home becomes onerous.
- For many buyers, a cluttered décor is a neglected décor — prompting buyers to speculate on what other aspects of the property have been neglected. They might perceive your home as needing more maintenance than those that are clutter free, and that perception, whether or not correct, can be off-putting.
Ridding your living space of clutter will not only make it more appealing to buyers, it will also help you to emotionally detach from your home and start seeing it as a product to be marketed and sold. So, start purging!
