Selling A House While Living In It: What Actually Works

so you got a call from your agent
and you have a showing in two hours
and you’re looking around your kitchen going
oh my god
this is a major mess there’s laundry in the bedroom
and I’ve got toys or dog
dog bowls in the middle of the floor
what do you do yeah
this is the part that nobody tells you about
when you’re staging your house while living in it
and that’s today
when I’m gonna show you exactly what you need to do
without going crazy
hey there
my name is Kasha Mcdaniel
and I’m an occupied home staging specialist
where I help women over 50 get their houses sold
while they’re living in it
so here’s why this situation may pop up on you
and you may just feel overwhelmed at this point
it’s because some
most staging advice is meant for empty homes who
where people don’t live in it
and they brought in rental furniture
and everything is just picture perfect right
you’re not walking through it
not when it comes to someone
who wants to live in a house
while you’re selling it okay
you didn’t just move in you’ve been there for years
and it’s maybe decades right
the goal isn’t to erase that life
it’s to curate it strategically
and when you’ve lived somewhere for a long time
you have a tendency to get what I call
seller’s blindness there you have blinders on
you don’t see the different piles
of clutter or a mess or things that shouldn’t be there
you get immune to it over time
I do even just now
after living in a house for a year
you’re like oh yeah
I’ll take care of that pile later
but we’ll get back to that seller’s blind list here
in a little bit
what I want you to do is basically
get a mindset shift
when it comes time to selling your house okay
so instead of making the house look
like no one lives here you wanna make
show it off as if the right person lives here
but beautifully show off that space okay
so their buyers are not here to buy square footage
they’re buying a feeling right
how does it make them feel when they come in there
does it make them feel ah
this is home
this is where I can imagine myself living here
not looking around going
oh my gosh
I have to tiptoe around all this stuff
and it’s just claustrophobic or darker
whatever it is that they’re feeling okay
you don’t want them to think that
and you also don’t want to be living
like you’re living in a hotel
for three months okay
but you’re gonna make a few strategic changes
that make a huge difference
when you’re selling your house
so let’s get into
basically what I call kind of a three layer system
where we go through and talk about a framework
that you can actually use
so the first layer
and I talk about this in my home staging basics course
and other courses that I have
is the one time purge or decluttering okay
that is a big deal that’s the first step
you really need to take a look
and declutter each and every single room
okay and I cover that in my courses
how to do that but basically
you’re not cluttering for decluttering sake
you’re decluttering for the buyer’s eyes
what is it that they’re gonna notice
okay so when it comes to surfaces
you know think about it when you’re on a
looking at a magazine right
what is on the countertop
what is on the coffee table
what is on the bathroom counter
those types of things you will not
probably not see in a magazine
right they should
normally it’s a beautiful vase
or a decorative bowl or something there
that’s not the stacks of mail or the pile of homework
or whatever it is that you haven’t gone through yet
okay
take a look at personal photos
you know that I’m a big proponent
of taking down all those family photos
you don’t want them to think about well
who lives here
you want them to imagine themselves living there
and they can’t
when they have all these extra eyes looking at them
of these family adventures that you took
that you should be very proud of
yes and I know because I have those too
but when it comes time to sell the house yeah
all those pictures are down
I’ve taken them all down and packed them up
and anything that signals it’s your specific life
versus a great life okay
so things like you’re you know
maybe you have a collection of cups
or a collection of little statues
that is your collection
that’s not something that I would recommend leaving out
when you’re selling your house
okay the second layer I’m gonna get into is basically
the daily reset because by now
you’ve hopefully decluttered and rearranged everything
you’ve figured out where everything needs to go
now this is just the primp
and just get things ready
okay so in the morning
there should be a morning quick routine
about 10 15 minutes of
I made breakfast but I put away the dishes
you know we
we put made sure there’s nothing left on the counters
everything’s been put away
the trash has been taken out
um the beds have been made okay
those types of things
are things that you shouldn’t have to do
a whole lot in the morning
just to kind of
clearing up from your activities
that you did that morning
all right same thing with the evening
there should be evening activities
you come home the kids are
whether they’re older or younger or you have pets
all of those toys you know
should be put away um
dinner dishes those would be put away
maybe you need to but
you know straighten out the
the pillows or something like that
or um
maybe you’re you know
vacuuming or something like that
or you’re doing laundry that night
that laundry should be done and put away
all in the same time
one thing that may help you
is using a basket in each room
to kind of just scramble thing and put things away
as you’re walking in the room and going
oh that’s
you know I need to put that away
maybe you had a mental thing of okay
I needed to work on this today
but I didn’t get to it put that in the basket
whether maybe it’s you know
laundry that needs to be done
okay put that away
but those are types of things that maybe you can have
like a showing basket if you will
maybe the homework didn’t get done
or there’s a project or something you’re working on
kind of put it all in one basket and put it away
maybe stash it in the garage
um that way you can get back to it later
for whatever reason that you need to have it out
layer 3 is basically for last minute phone calls
okay say you are
get you to get that phone calls like hey
there’s someone coming over in the next hour or two
you might be in the middle of something
maybe you’re in the middle of cooking or something
hopefully not you can you know
tell the real estate agent say hey
can you wait a couple hours
or you can we’re in the middle of dinner right
um but if you have a checklist
maybe on your phone you walk through and go okay
are the dishes put away right
those are the biggest ones right
laundry is another big one
pet items um
whether it’s you know
maybe outside or in a you know
a closet or something like that
take the trash out
make sure the lights have been turned on
that the curtains have been opened
or the blinds have been opened
that you can see everything
um make sure there’s no smell in the house either
if you need to vent and maybe open some windows
that may be something that you need to do
cause maybe you did some some strong cooking
and even though I don’t recommend that
when you’re selling your house
but it happens I know right
so just make sure that there’s no um
you have a little checklist
whether it’s on your phone
that’s could be something simple
just to make sure you get through there
you know that the
the showers you know clean
you know that the toilet seat is down
you know simple things like that that could um
help you get your house ready for that showing
so here are some of the hardest rooms
that may take a little bit more time um
and a little more effort on your part
starting with the kitchen
that one is the hub of most homes
if you tend to cook a lot
you know that
that stove is probably gonna have some stains on
grease stains or something
or spillage you know
from the spaghetti sauce from last night
um the appliances need to be wiped down
the microwave inside you know
take a look at that that all
you should have done a deep cleaning
in the very beginning in that first purge and cleaning
um but this is the time that’s for the maintenance okay
this is the maintenance phase that you should be doing
you shouldn’t be doing a whole deep clean right now
not two hours before a showing
this should take place like
a week or two beforehand okay
um so that the appliances
you know are wiped down
cleaned down um
that there’s nothing visually distracting
on the counters so one or two intentional items
but everything else gets put away okay
in the primary bedroom
this is the hardest because it is the most personal
um buyers want to envision themselves in the home
so you may just have to you know
like I said that one basket
that show basket you kind of maybe have some books
or if you have like uh
we have a CPAP you know
kind of shut that put that away in a
in a basket so it’s not right there
um you know
maybe it’s other things that you have in the bedroom
right those are the things that you wanna make sure
that everything’s kind of calm
you know put away staged
and that might be where the basket comes in handy
the home office or maybe you have a bonus room
this one can be a catch all
I know randomly you’ll still actually
okay well
it doesn’t go in these other rooms
but it’s gonna go in here
and then that pile just grows
I know I’ve had that too
so that may be something
that this is where the chaos lives
but don’t let it okay
please don’t ignore that room
don’t think it’s just a catch all
they’re gonna look at that room as well
so they’re gonna open the door
but give it a the impression that you need to make
maybe it is an home office
but make it look like a nice office
make sure the desk is clutter free
you can have your calendar out there
your computer screen whatever
you know your sticky notes and your pens
that’s fine but not like the checkbook
along with the iPad and the bills
and everything else that you do
in order to work at that desk
you know what I mean
and then one of the other rooms that may be difficult
is the entryway that one may
you know that’s our first drop off point
where our keys our wallets
our shoes go off our backpacks coats
all of those things um
the first thing that I highly recommend
when in the entryway
there should not be any shoes in there
lined up against the hallway or anything like that okay
I’ve had clients where there was just two of them
and there was literally like 15 pairs of shoes
put the shoes away in the closet okay
need if you need the one or two pair
that you need to go out to the gym
and you’re going to the to work right
those are the only two you should have out
but then make sure they’re not left behind
when you’re leaving the house
okay um
coats
there should be like one or two depending on the season
um but yeah
but that is the first impression
when buyers come in they look
if they see all this clutter and everything else again
that doesn’t help them envision themselves
living in the house
they just see someone else’s clutter and mess
okay so here’s what I want you to understand
the reason why it may seem difficult is that because
it’s just because you stopped seeing it
you haven’t decluttered
you haven’t done the one time purge
and you haven’t planned it all out
or anything like that okay
so when you walk into your kitchen every morning
your brain fills in with well
this is what it should look like
but that’s not what’s actually there
buyers don’t have that filter
they don’t they you just know like oh
I’ll take care of that well
you really need to take care of that okay
before the buyers show up they see everything
so
what I want you to do is walk through your front door
as if you were a stranger
take pictures look around and see okay
what is distracting in here
because you don’t have that filter
even I have that picture
that I have to take as I’m walking through like
oh yeah
we’ll take care of that and then you forget about it
that’s that seller’s blindness
that I talked about in the beginning
so you’ve been watching this video
and you’re probably going Kasha
okay well
but how does this actually look
room by room with my furniture
how do I arrange it or how
what accessories should I leave behind
don’t worry I got you covered
it’s in my five room staging master class
and I basically go through my process of decluttering
cleaning rearranging colors
talk about color palettes and accessories
what you should have what you should minimum
maximum amount of things you should have in each room
that helps you understand how to stage your house
and this five room staging master class
is for home sellers
who are gonna be living in their house
because I know
there are gonna be certain things
that you’ll wanna leave out
but you may think oh well
I’m not sure if I should this class answers that
those kind of questions
and then you also have the option to do a live um
group coaching call to ask those questions
maybe you’re like well
I don’t know if I should leave this Kasha
we meet once a month
and we cover that and answer all your questions
so you can do this you really can
you can absolutely live in your house while selling it
I’ve done it each and every single time
I don’t think I’ve ever moved out of our house
before we sold it maybe one time when we did it when we
so start with a one time purge
make sure you have that daily reset
and then have that quick checklist on your phone
for that last minute showing
to get your house ready to sell
so tell me in the comments
which room do you think
is gonna be the hardest one for you to stage
I’d love to know
so I hope you guys have a fantastic week
and we’ll talk to you later
take care bye