Tips for Selling Your Home with Unpersonalization

You’ve spent years in your home and it fits you to a T, but when it’s time to sell, buyers may not appreciate all of the personalizations that suit you, not them. Here’s how to unpersonalize as you work to sell your home.

Take a walk through your DFW home and evaluate it with unbiased eyes. What appears? A million and one photos on the mantle. Kiddo artwork spilled across wall after wall. Seating arrangements surrounding toys and video game consoles and backpacks and more. Your home may truly be the best representation of your life and family — it contains all that you love and work for and participate in. But is it really the home that a potential buyer can picture their own family living in? Maybe not. But using these tips for selling your home, you can be well on your way to getting a great offer.

Clutter Can Kill

Killing clutter before it kills your chances to sell your home appears in “how to sell” tips time and again because it’s just that important. Don’t let clutter define your home. But especially don’t let personalized clutter damage your ability to stage your home for sale. Does every drawing from preschool need to be on your fridge at the same time? Probably not. Take all but one or two down to instantly make this focal-point appliance look neater. How about family pictures?

Picture It: Gone

You’ve probably taken family photos quite a few times, and received other pictures from loved ones that you proudly display. Instead of leaving dozens of frames on walls and mantles and other furniture throughout your home, pare down to just a few. You’ll have enough left to still feel surrounded by family memories without blocking a potential buyer’s ability to imagine forming her own memories there.

Color It Sold

You may have spent dozens of hours over the year painting each room in your house in unique hues. Dark blue in your son’s room to represent a favorite team. Bright pink in your daughter’s to match her baby dolls. An interesting orangish-red in your hall bath to tie in custom artwork. While these colors may be stunning and represent your family, they can overwhelm a potential buyer. Grab a paint brush or hire a crew and pick some natural wall colors that will help a potential buyer to see the (less colorful) beauty in your home.

No Names, Please

A list of tips for selling your home through unpersonalization wouldn’t be complete if it didn’t involve advice to look for ways in which you’ve incorporated decorative signage that includes your name. From signs by your front door to custom-painted curb numbers, you may have marked your territory in numerous ways. To the extent you can, it would be wise to remove or replace any areas where your name appears in conspicuous ways around your home.

Ready, Set, Sell

Now that you’ve experienced the art of unpersonalization, your neat, tidy and neutral home should be ready to list. Buyers are now better suited to imagine their own families in your space and that means nothing but good news in selling your home.

Image Source: Flickr/Wonderlane

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Tiffany Aller

Tiffany wasn't born in Texas, but she got here as fast as she could. She and her husband have gained extensive experience buying, selling, renovating and flipping homes in the DFW area. A professional freelance writer, Tiffany enjoys contributing real estate and home improvement articles to the Coldwell Banker site and working with other clients to craft content that's specially designed to generate interest while sharing valuable ideas.