Ask a Realtor: What’s the Most Important Thing to Do to Prep My House for the Market?

Welcome to Ask a Realtor, an advice column about the ins and outs of home finding, renting, buying, and selling from expert real estate agent Nicole Reber. Have a question? Submit it here.

Q: What is the #1 most important thing when showing a house to sell?

A: When you decide to sell, there needs to be acceptance that your relationship with your home is entering a new phase. There’s a distinct psychological and physical difference between the house that you live in and the house that you sell. The personal photos come down, and depending on taste there may be an infusion or detox of throw pillows and coffee table books. The faster you can resolve that change is coming, the better your chances of a positive experience of selling your house.

One of the key parts of the acceptance portion is acknowledging that there is an element of competition that drives the homebuying process. Approaching it from that basis, you’ll be able to make clearer decisions about how you present and react to scenarios along the way—not just for the initial showing.

That being said, I’m not for utter depersonalization. In fact, when showing homes to clients, I’ve often seen how items belonging to the owners—a favorite record tucked in the front of a shelf, a personal fragrance strategically left on a counter—can create commonalities that allow prospective buyers to see themselves in the house more clearly. I’ve had a client go into a bathroom and see a drawing of an obscure upstate New York amusement park only to find out that the owners were from the same place that the clients fell in love. Sometimes those signs allow you to fall even harder for a house and make the move to write an offer (as said client ended up doing). It’s hard to bet against kismet on something as personal as a home.

Balancing how much of your own personal history to weave into the story of your house while taking away items that highlight potentially too much information (in L.A. you see a lot of personal Grammy collections...) is complex. Make a house too "every person" that it becomes bland and unidentifiable—that is an enemy to the selling process, as you compete without a pitch. In today’s market, I often see that owners who choose a color or a more personal finish attract more buyers, as people are trained to see those elements and register the personal decisions, and thus time and cost, with the quality of the final product. Don’t try to make your house like everyone else’s, but if the market allows, do take the time to refresh some elements prior to listing. Look at the competition in your area and see what elements the record sales had that you can incorporate into your home. Did they retile a bathroom with a vibrant burgundy or turquoise that makes you feel like you’re on vacation, or did they just have a few standout pieces of art or furniture that made you want to invest in your own collection to decorate the home after making it yours?

That being said, every home sale comes with its own timing. Sometimes you’re unexpectedly selling to try to level up to your own dream house, or you have to move for an unexpected job change. I’m a full believer in setting a house goal every year and working on it, no matter how big or small, so that when you go to sell your property, you have items to put on your brag sheet of what you added during your tenure. This allows you to take advantage of an opportunity in the market, or at least have a little less stress if you don’t have time to do extensive prep before putting your house up for sale. Depending on where you live and the time of year you’re in (hard to redo a roof in the snowy winter), sometimes you can invest both the time and cost into some larger maintenance items prior to going on the market. Other times, you’re just trying to take advantage of a busy market and declutter and paint and go.

Markets and consumer confidence can change in a matter of weeks but if you focus on identifying the most likely person to buy your house and keying into how to make your product the most desirable to that consumer with the time you have, you’ll be in a better place. Grab some bougie soap, fill your fridge with fancy seltzers and local wine, and maybe have a little goodie bag with a handwritten note about your favorite restaurants and things about living in the neighborhood. You’re selling a home, but you’re also selling the dream of the person they’ll be in that home.

Top illustration by Ana Galvañ.

Have a burning real estate question or want a realtor’s advice about the ins and outs of home finding, renting, buying, or selling? Ask our expert columnist!

Questions will be anonymized and may be edited for publication. Content shown in this column includes fact-specific advice, limited by the context given. We recommend consulting a licensed professional for your individual needs.