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Next to Spring, Autumn is prime selling season, so if you are preparing to sell your home, now is the time to get it ready! And with home prices (unfortunately) and mortgage rates (fortunately) at historic lows, now is a great time to find a buyer – and to buy your next home!
The first rule of getting your home ready for market is that the sooner you start, the better off you will be. Begin by calling in a home stager for a consultation. Although you can do many of the things necessary to prepare your home for sale yourself, a home stager will look at your home with an unobjective eye and give you honest advice about what you need to do to get it sold quickly!
The next step is to buy some packing materials. Boxes in various sizes, clean wrapping paper and tape. Make a sweep of your home room by room, and identify any clutter and collections that you may have. For the uninitiated, a collection is anything that you have more than THREE of. Also put away anything religious and ALL family photos. Start packing them away, and certainly get rid of whatever you can part with.
The items that you choose to divest yourself of can either be tossed, donated or put into a neat pile in the garage for a tag sale. Autumn is a great time to have a sale. The weather is nice, and there is tremendous tourism here in Upstate New York, with leaf-peepers coming in droves! And best of all, you won't melt being outside for the better part of a weekend. If you can, begin the sale on a Thursday or a Friday.
Once you've done this first round of eliminating clutter, do a second round. I promise you that you missed many items that should not be on display. Next is to scour your house from top to bottom. This includes the outside of your home. Consider calling in a window washer, if your budget allows, and pressure wash the house, patio, porch, etc...
Now that you've eliminated the clutter in your house, make everything pretty. Pull out fresh autumnal bedding and fresh linen for your bathrooms. Add some fall themed decorating items, spread sparingly around the house, just to give a hint of the season, keep some fresh flowers in vases, and your house is ready to put on the market!
And don't forget the finishing touches! Put some potted mums around your front door, and keep the piles of falling leaves at bay!
 Neil Bindelglass is a professional home stager in Saratoga Springs and owner of Let Me Organize You. He is an expert article contributer on the topics of Saratoga home staging and home organizing.
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