The phrase “first impressions last” doesn’t only apply to person-to-person interaction. A buyer’s first impression of your home can make or break their decision to buy it, so cash in on that first impression by making sure your home is in perfect shape! By simply taking time to clean your house and rid it of unnecessary clutter, you are raising the value of your property without hurting your finances. Sound surprising? Not really.

Many real estate professionals maintain that a home’s cleanliness is one of the biggest factors in determining its market value. To make sure that you’ve got all bases covered, Clean Conscience provides us an easy-to-follow cleaning checklist. Check it out:

Here are a couple more points to remember:

• Avoid accidents. You don’t want your buyers to meet an accident (however small) while doing a walkthrough of your home, so make sure to put away children’s or pets’ toys. Watch out for fixtures in your home that may cause accidents as well, such as loose tiles, open drawers or cupboard doors, etc.

• Keep private things private. Before welcoming a buyer to your home, keep in mind to put away your personal effects out of sight, especially in areas like the bedroom and bathroom. These include used clothes/laundry and toiletries such as toothbrushes, shavers, and the like.

• Pay attention to odor-causing areas. Make sure your buyers don’t catch a whiff of something stale in the kitchen or an offensive smell from the bathroom. Remember to scrub the kitchen sink drain to rid it of odor-causing bacteria, and throw stale food away. In the same vein, don’t forget to disinfect and deodorize the bathroom before the buyers come!

It’s not that difficult to earn from a huge investment such as your home if you maintain it well and keep it clean. With these friendly tips, we hope that you will be able to impress your buyers and get them signing papers in no time. Should you feel the need to give your property one last walk-through, don’t forget to take the checklist with you! Good luck, and may first impressions favor you well.