1
Days 30–25
The purge.
Go room by room with three piles: keep, donate, toss. Be honest. If you haven't touched it in a year, the buyers don't need to meet it either.
- Closets first. Half-empty closets photograph twice as big. Buyers open everything.
- The garage. You should be able to see floor. Park the car in it again, just for photos.
- Counters, fridges, shelves. Clear surfaces read as space. Everything you keep goes in boxes.
Rent the storage unit now, not later. This is the highest-ROI move on the whole list.
2
Days 24–20
Repairs that pay.
Buyers don't expect new. They notice broken. Walk your house like a picky stranger and fix the small stuff:
- Cracked caulking, tired paint touch-ups, scuffed trim.
- Leaky taps, running toilets, dripping anything.
- Burnt-out bulbs, wobbly door handles, squeaky hinges.
And the big warning: do not start a kitchen reno to sell. You won't get the money back, and you'll delay launch by months. Fix what's broken. Leave the rest.
3
Days 19–14
Deep clean. The real one.
This is not your Saturday tidy. A professional deep clean costs a few hundred dollars and shows up in every single photo — and in every offer. If you'd rather DIY, here's the hit list:
- Windows, inside and out. Light sells. Dirty glass eats it.
- Baseboards, vents, light switches. The places you stopped seeing years ago.
- The oven and the grout. Buyers look. We don't know why, but they do.
Curb appeal counts too: repaint or polish the front door, replace missing house numbers, fresh mulch in the beds. First impressions happen at the curb, not in the foyer.
4
Days 13–7
Staging: the hotel room test.
Depersonalize. Family photos come down — buyers need to picture their life here, not admire yours. Then arrange furniture for the camera, not for how you live:
- Pull furniture off the walls. Floating reads bigger.
- Every room gets a job. The spare room isn't "storage" anymore — it's an office, a nursery, a gym. Pick one.
- Lighting. Every lamp on for photos. Warm bulbs, no overhead fluorescents.
The test: does it look like a really nice hotel room? Then it's ready.
5
Days 6–3
Photo prep.
The photographer is here for two hours. The photos live on the internet forever. Make those two hours count:
- All beds made, pillows fluffed, throws straight.
- Counters clear — kitchen and bathrooms. Toothbrushes live in a drawer today.
- Cars out of the driveway. Trash bins hidden. Toilet lids down.
- Pets out of the house, not just in the backyard.
What the photographer needs from you: the house empty-ish, the lights all on, and you gone. Photos with the owner hovering never turn out as well.
6
Days 2–0
Launch ready.
The listing is live. Now it's about the daily reset — because showings can book with an hour's notice for weeks.
- Lockbox on, showing instructions set. We'll handle the bookings; you just keep the routine.
- The 10-minute reset: beds, dishes in the dishwasher, counters wiped, lights on, blinds open, trash out.
- Keep a laundry basket by the door. Clutter goes in, basket goes in the car. Every time.
The house doesn't have to be perfect every day. It has to be 10 minutes from perfect.
