The 2 schools of thought when selling your beloved home:
- “I’m selling my home – YAY!!!”
- “I’m selling my home – Oh $hit this is gonna suck.”
Here are 5 reasons why moving out BEFORE you list your house why you will keep you in school #1 & will be the best decision you’ll ever make:
1. A vacant home sells faster – why?
Let me put it this way: Do YOU want to move into someone else’s home that smells, looks, & feels like someone else’s home? I don’t know about you, but that is not appealing to me & I’m pretty sure not appealing to most people.
2. You/we are able to stage it to sell WAY way easier for potential buyers coming into the house & to get that money shot.
Whether you decide to stage it or not is up to you & your budget. Sometimes the cost of staging is worth it depending on how competitive the market is. With how hot it is as of now, there probably isn’t a need to go crazy with staging. A few plants, good lighting, & scented candles can go a long way. Staged or not, getting good photos are incredibly important & are best if vacant or staged. Bottom-line.
3. Showing a home to potential buyers while living in it is a pain in the @$$.
The other very obvious & logistical reason is, do you really want to have to keep leaving your house when a showing is scheduled while also having to keep it perfectly orderly & clean all day, every day till the house is sold? I knew with 2 girls, a grown woman & man, a dog, a cat, & 2 guinea pigs – there was no way in hell that was gonna happen😂. I also wanted agents & their clients to have full access 24/7 without having to always schedule an appointment. This is great as it really widens your audience.
4. You may need the $$ for your next home.
Another big reason in my case & possibly in yours, I needed the $$$ I’d make off this house to put a down payment on my next house. SO, please consider how you may benefit in the big picture by vacating before-hand if at all possible. There are many options for temporary housing for something in between. Or maybe you want to move into your new house before moving forward. Whatever the case is, I strongly suggest you vacate the premises.
5. You’re gonna move out of there anyway.
May as well move out now & leave that headache behind. Yeah, you may be stuck with a mortgage payment in addition to renting a temporary residence, but it’s better than paying several more months of a mortgage payment because you couldn’t sell your house because you lived in it the entire time.
Short story long: Move Out. You won’t regret it.
