Jennifer Schariter shares her experience selling a home for the first time with the help of Garland Properties. 

In October of 2013,  my husband and I had our first experience of trying to sell a house. Both of us had never done so before, and we really had a time limit that it needed to be sold by. We had a house full of boxes, clothes, dirt, and lack of aesthetic appeal. The amount of stuff we had to move out of the house was astronomical. We probably took 15 car loads of donations to a thrift store to sell. I spent countless hours cleaning, moving furniture, and clearing out rooms.

I had never gone through an estate before, and it is very difficult, especially when you have to make decisions about what to keep, sell, or donate. One thing I learned though, if you want to sell a house, minimal “stuff” makes it appear much better. We had a limited budget, so most of the work we did ourselves. We hauled all the junk out, organized the garage, cleaned the carpets, washed all the linens, replaced a toilet that was broken ourselves, and removed all the external dog fencing outside. One of things that Amy Garland taught me is the importance of creating a staged look that speaks to what each room is used for, so buyers may visualize themselves living in the house.

We decided to make the fireplace room look like a den, and we arranged chairs around the fireplace, and there was a grandfather clock in the room, and a small desk. We cleared off the kitchen counters, and placed China in the display cabinets in the kitchen. We turned one of the bedrooms upstairs into an office. We made a guest bedroom from random furniture, but it ended up looking very nice. We put a few houseplants around the house, and arranged furniture on the screened in porch overlooking the nice creek that runs through the property.

It took six months of elbow grease, hard decisions, and commitment to stage the house for the market. The hard work paid off though, because we are able to move it super quickly in a market we were worried about. I think this was due to my agent (she has wonderful marketing materials), and the cleaninless and lack of clutter of the house. We were able to get into a new beautiful house in West Knoxville right after our wedding.

For help with your home listing contact Amy by phone (865) 257-0100 or e-mail.