4 min read
Cleaning a home before you sell it, and what buyers actually notice
Deep clean a home a few days before the listing photos, not before the first showing, because the camera and the first buyers notice the same things. Kitchens, bathrooms, glass, baseboards and the smell of the home matter most. Buyers open the refrigerator, the oven, the cabinets under the sinks and the closets, so clean inside those. Then a lighter clean before each open house keeps it there.
Most sellers clean for the first showing. The photographer comes first, and the photos are the showing for nearly every buyer who never makes it to the door, so that is the date to plan back from.
The order that works
Decluttering and repairs first, because there is no point cleaning around boxes or behind a contractor. Then a deep clean two or three days before the photographer, so it is fresh but nothing has been lived on. Then a lighter clean the morning of each open house. If your agent has a photo date, send it to me and I will plan from that.
The five places buyers open
Most buyers walk through the same way. They open the refrigerator, look inside the oven, open the cabinet under the kitchen sink, open the cabinet under a bathroom sink, and look into at least one closet. None of those are in a listing photo and all of them get opened at a showing, which is why a pre-listing clean goes inside them.
Smell, glass and light
A buyer forms an opinion in the first minute, mostly from smell and light. A home that smells of pets, cooking or a strong air freshener reads as something to fix, so the fix is clean and air out, not cover. Clean glass doubles the light in the photos, and in a Northwest Indiana spring, after a winter of furnace dust and road film, the windows are usually the cheapest improvement in the home.
What is not worth paying for
A full carpet replacement when a deep clean would do, a scented candle in every room, and cleaning the garage to showroom standard. Buyers forgive a working garage. They do not forgive a bathroom with grime in the grout.
Agents and timing
I work with agents across Porter and Lake counties on pre-listing and move-out cleans, with a confirmed date and photos of the finished rooms the same day. Spring is the busy listing season here, so an early date is easier to hold if you ask in January or February.
