MY HOUSE IS LISTED BUT I HAVE TO MOVE. SHOULD I LEAVE A VACANT HOUSE?
Written by Norm Werner
Answer – Not if you can avoid it. It’s just a lot harder to sell an empty house (here’s an article that tells you why). I know that it’s a real hassle, in addition to an extra expense to have two places, but if you can leave the house that we’re trying to sell here furnished it makes it easier to sell. It sounds cruel, but you are better off to rent an apartment in your new location and live by yourself; while your family stays behind until the place sells.
If you’ve already bought a new place in the new town, move all of that clutter junk out of the storage place into your new house – you’ll feel right at home and the clutter will still be out of the house that we’re trying to sell. Move any excess furniture to the new home, but leave the old place furnished if at all possible. You may click here if you need to rent a dumpster when moving out.
Buyers have difficulty “seeing” how the house would look with furniture. Even if they don’t like your stuff at least it helps them envision how the space is used. If you absolutely can’t avoid moving your stuff out, so be it. Try to leave at least a table and a few chairs so that your agent has someplace to sit with a buyer to discuss things and somewhere to sit if he/she holds and open house, of course you can also need to learn about maintenance for a house like the signs that your water heater is going out and how to keep everything in good condition. If you do vacate the house, use that opportunity of it being empty to get the carpets and floors cleaned and maybe getting some painting done as suggested by the top companies like residential painting for your painting needs and many more. An empty house really shows all the wear and tear spots and with nothing else to attract the eye, any dirt or scratches or picture nail holes or other defects stand out.
An empty house makes an inviting target for vandals and thieves. Copper thieves in particular like to find vacant houses that they can strip. Even if your house is in what you would consider to be a “busy neighborhood”, thieves are bold enough to go in, even in broad daylight. No one ever said that they were smart, just brazen. Nothing says “rob me” quite like a vacant home with a real estate sign out front. Even if they don’t succeed in breaking in, copper thieves have been known to just hack off air conditioner condenser units and haul them away for the copper tubing that’s in most of them.
Oh, and here’s one more thing to make your day, if you are in a foreclosure or short sale situation. The Homeowners Association (HOA) may place a lien on the property for unpaid HOA fees, if you have decided to stop paying that, too. That’s just one more thing to have to worry about. Even if you’re not involved in a distressed sale, the HOA can also get involved if you have not contracted for lawn care when you moved out. If the HOA determines that your lawn is in violation of the HOA By-Laws, they may hire someone to cut your lawn and charge you for that, too. If you don’t pay that bill; oh well, there’s another lien on the house.
John Marcotte
Marcotte Real Estate Group
720-771-9401
john@boulderhomes4u.com
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GET RID OF CLUTTER!The biggest thing that I see, both as a listing agent and when showing houses to a potential buyer, is unbelievable clutter in many houses. Junk everywhere. Clothes everywhere. Dishes and food lying around everywhere! Too much furniture in every room. Get rid of it! It is hard for most buyers to look beyond the clutter to see the underlying house for what it might be. Your stuff, no matter how much it might mean to you is just getting in the way. Get organized to attack this problem.
Clean the place up. Beyond clutter there is just common cleanliness. If your place smells bad or is excessively dirty, it’s a turn off that will sink the chances of anyone wanting to buy it or will cause them to low-ball the house, since they see a big clean up ahead. This is particularly true of anything that smells of mold or rot. Clean it up. Disinfect and get the smells out! Pay to have the carpets cleaned, so that the buyers won’t automatically be subtracting for replacing the carpets. Cobwebs, spider webs, dust bunnies, dirt tracked floors and other obvious signs of un-cleanliness are red flags to potential buyers that there may be other issues caused by the same slovenly behavior. If you have to, hire a cleaning crew to come in and give the place a good deep cleaning. 
Get on the “deferred maintenance” items. That’s a polite way of saying to do all of those little things that you’ve been meaning to get to or which you’ve just learned to live with; but, that need fixing. Put plug and switch covers on those open wiring boxes or replace the ones that broke. Replace that piece of shoe molding that the dog or cat crewed or clawed up or that door molding that got roughed up when you were moving something in or out. Replace those light bulbs that burned out and you never got around to replacing. Put up a new curtain rod to replace the one that pulled out of the wall when the cat got snagged on the curtain. Replace or fix that dripping faucet in the laundry room or in the bathroom. If you need help identifying these little projects, ask your Realtor to walk through the house and make recommendations. You know that those little maintenance jobs are there, but maybe you’ve been in denial so long that you just can’t see them anymore.
Be an informed seller. Get a professional home inspection done. Here is link to a
