Do you want to sell a home but can’t get started? Today we’ll share some tips to get you moving on this big project. Help is available!
Many people wanting to move feel overwhelmed at first, and that can be a little paralyzing. We understand that it’s hard to get started when the job is so enormous. I’ve helped many people who felt the same way get to the other side with a successful sale and move. Today I’ll share some tips so that you can do it, too.
5 Tips for those who want to sell a home but can’t get started
1) Break it down to a list of smaller jobs
If you want to sell a home but can’t get started, the easiest place to begin may be on paper. A little strategizing can go a long way!
Big projects can be extremely difficult for some people to tackle. For those who are able to scale the intimidatingly large projects, a well known secret is this: break it into small pieces. That was an important lesson I learned as a freshman in college facing my first, terrifying round of final exams.
By breaking it into many smaller tasks, it’s far less scary and becomes, in reality, more doable.
I have found that eliminating clutter can be a big stress reducer. My suggestion on where to start is to find a few things in the home, perhaps just in one room, which can be donated or tossed, and also finding documents that can be shred.
Next, figure out what needs to be kept, but isn’t needed right now. Those items can get stored via a POD or storage locker.
With a little more “space”, it’s easier to move on to the next couple of items: what needs fixing and what needs cleaning. At this point you aren’t cleaning or fixing, but you can then create a list and prioritize and time them.
2) Tackle the jobs one at a time. (Or at least only a few at a time!)
Each time you complete a task, you will get a sense of accomplishment and relief. If instead you do 5% of each item per week, you’ll feel like you’re getting nowhere!
For some people, this is best accomplished by doing one room or part of the home or yard at a time. For others, it might be by topic, such as décor or linens.
3) Get help if you want to sell a home but can’t get started.
There are professionals to help you for every step of the journey. You can hire people to help you to declutter (what to save, keep, give away, sell, etc.). There are others who will assist you with shaping up the house: repairs, painting, cleaning. Hire your Realtor EARLY on in the process and you’ll be amazed at how much good advice you’ll get that will streamline the job at hand. Your Realtor can probably suggest a staging consultant to help you, too.
4) Track your progress.
Moving, and all that leads up to it, can be the kind of job that grows as you work on it. But if you go into it knowing that it’s a bit of a cha-cha, with some steps forward and some steps backward, you’ll be able to see the overall trend of advancing to your goals.
5) Not going fast enough? Consider moving first.
If you are really not going fast enough, and have a hard deadline (say a relocation move), it may be best to move first and do everything else later. It can be easier to sell a vacant house (it helps a ton of it is staged) and to get repairs and improvements done if the workers don’t need to worry about bothering you, allowing pets to get out, etc.
If you hire a really good Realtor to be your listing agent early in the process, you will find that the tasks at hand can be helped to be more manageable. Professionals who can get you out of the rut that you may find yourself in will make things move faster and easier.
A few years ago, I had friends who wanted to sell a home but couldn’t get started. In that case my friends were the trustees and the condo was quite full, it was a little overwhelming. They had chipped away at the task for about a half year when they called me to list the unit. Within a couple of weeks, things were moving immensely faster, and it was to their amazement. Sometimes just hiring someone to help sell the home may make it all more concrete, and the mental shift follows suit.
Do you want to sell a home but can’t get started? Contact Mary Pope-Handy to get moving!
Thinking of selling your home in Silicon Valley? Home selling conditions have never been better! Please give me a call, or send me an email, and we can get you on the right path soon! (Need more info? You can learn a little about me / us on this site at the “about” page or on my Valley Of Heart’s Delight blog “about” page, too.
