If you are putting your house up on the market, you are probably feeling the home-selling stress. This stress is quite normal but can easily be avoided through a bit of forward planning.
Here are the five best tips for staying positive when selling your house:
- Envision the best result for your house
- Create plans for your next step
- Find the right real estate agent for you
- Make cleaning and packing enjoyable by going slow
- Practice letting go
By following these steps, you can manage to sell your house and keep yourself and your family happy.
This process is much easier with a sunny outlook, so read on to find out more about how to stay positive when selling your house.
Envision the Best Result for Your Home
Selling a house is rarely an easy task. No matter what style house, where you are located, and what the market is like, there are always little complications that first-time sellers do not anticipate. You may feel overwhelmed by the amount of paperwork, fine-print, and laws that go into the process, but with a little preparedness, you can get the best result for your home.
Before doing anything else, envision what you want to happen to your home. You can even turn these visuals into a physical vision board by pasting them on your refrigerator. How much do you want your house to sell for? Write down a number and remember it, imagining it easily selling for that amount.
Who do you want to move into the house? If you are particularly sentimental about the house you are selling, imagine someone like you moving into the home – perhaps a loving family, or someone who will take care of the house as much as you have. By envisioning the results you desire, your attitude will brighten, and the process of selling will become much easier.
Create Plans for Your Next Step
Much of the stress that emerges from the house-selling process comes from the idea of finding a new place to live. Both selling and buying (or renting) can feel like an insurmountable task. For many people, they decide to sell their house without having their next home lined up just yet. If you are in that position, do not despair. Finding a new home may be easier than you think.
With the technological advances of our time, you can easily find a home you love without leaving your desk. Websites like Zillow and Realtor are easy resources that can help you find the perfect next place for you to settle down. What’s helpful about both of these sites is that they feature both homes for sale as well as homes for rent; you can also sort the homes by school district, location, and budget.
Another great way to find a new place to live is to search through Craigslist. One of the advantages of using Craigslist is that you can find private listings that may not be available through real estate agents. This is a good option if you are looking for a smaller apartment or a condominium.
Just like you did when looking for someone to buy your home, envision what you want your next home to look like. Be imaginative, considering even the tiniest detail like the style of windows and the bathrooms. Keep these visuals on your makeshift vision board to help you stay positive.
Find the Right Real Estate Agent for You
Now that you have envisioned your ideal buyer and your new dream home, it is time to make them real, and you need help to do so. The person who will be your biggest advocate in the process of selling a house will be your real estate agent.
A real estate agent is someone who helps you find houses, sell houses, and makes connections between buyers and sellers. They will also help you navigate all the paperwork and nitty-gritty details of homeownership.
A key element in how to stay positive when selling your house is to find a real estate agent that you connect with. Because this person is going to be handling your home as well as a large chunk of your money, you should be very picky about who you work with.
When you link up with a real estate agent who has your best interests in mind and knows what you are looking for, then you can breathe much easier and develop a more positive attitude towards the process.
Make Cleaning and Packing Enjoyable by Going Slow
As you work on selling your home, you must also focus on putting the house in good shape for potential viewings. Viewings are important because they give people a feel of your home, and they are an opportunity for real estate agents to show off some of the more unique aspects of the house. Because of this, you have to make sure the house is spic-and-span.
Though it may sound like a drag, cleaning your home can actually be an enjoyable task. Take as much time as possible to accomplish the cleaning – use your weekends and evenings to sweep, vacuum, and organize slowly and meticulously.
The more time you give yourself to get this work done, the easier it will feel, and the more positive the experience will become. The same method applies to moving, as well. Once you have sold the home and found a new place to live, you have to start packing. Take as much time as you can afford in order to correctly label boxes and containers.
Practice Letting Go
The moving process is a great time to embrace minimalism. Minimalism is a way of life in which you only own what you need and what brings you joy, and often involves an initial purge of items that you don’t use. During the moving process, think about what you can get rid of.
Are there old clothes that do not fit anymore that you can donate or sell? Perhaps you have musical instruments or furniture that does not get used or is out of date that you can get rid of. When you get rid of unnecessary belongings, you will find that your attitude becomes more positive, and you have less to be worried about and burdened by.
It is also possible that you are mourning the sale of your house. That is natural and normal – homes are a majorly important part of life. The longer we live in a home, the deeper our attachment becomes. Once you have sold your home, allow yourself to grieve. There are likely hundreds (if not thousands) of memories that you have made in that home.
What is important to remember is that the house is not what is most important to you – the memories are what are of value. Take time to appreciate the years spent there, then allow yourself to move on.
Summary
Selling a house can be one of the most stressful periods of your life, but it also has the potential to be an incredibly transformative experience.
When tackling the challenge of how to stay positive when selling your house, everything depends upon your mindset. By following these five easy tips, you can turn stress into positivity and sadness into joy.
Envision what you want to happen with your home. Prepare for the next part of your life by finding the next best place for you and your family, and work with a real estate agent who understands your wants and needs. Take the process slowly, and practice letting go.
I hope the sale of your home is a success and that these tips help smooth the transition into your exciting new life.