How to remove the emotion when selling your home
When the time has come to finally sell your home, we understand that this can foster a very reasonable emotional response. Perhaps your children grew up in the home, or maybe you were the designated ‘hostess with the mostest’ as your living room and dinner parties were filled with many laughs in the surrounds of good company.
No doubt you would have created long-lasting memories in your home throughout the years. There comes a time however, when we have made the decision to sell, where we really need to let go of this emotion and understand that marketing the home is no longer about us personally, rather – treating the process like a business transaction.
It is incredibly important to listen to the advice of your experienced home stager and your agent to ensure the best possible outcome when selling your property. In this blog – we discuss why it’s so important to let go of this emotion, and we outline the strategies you can implement to help you along the way.
Come to terms with the fact that selling can be stressful:
According to Business Insider, the first thing to do when emotionally detaching yourself from selling your home is to simply acknowledge that this period can be stressful. Don’t set your expectations too high or too low and don’t put pressure on yourself. Know that there might be bumps in the road, and if there are – that’s okay! Your home stager and agent will be right beside you to guide you.
Check in with yourself – are you ready to sell?
This is a really important step to removing any emotion from the decision. If you are subconsciously not ready to sell but you have hired an amazing home stager or agent with useful and practical suggestions, which you keep resisting – you may need to ask yourself why? These people are experts in their field and only want the best outcome for you but if you’re not ready to let go you will continue to self-sabotage this process. If you’re not ready, you should wait – however, you may not be in a position to hold off. In these instances, we recommend being open and honest with your consultants so they can gently guide you. You can even lean on friends and family to help ease the burden of this emotional weight. Another great tactic is to put pen to paper by jotting down all the reasons you are needing to sell. These may include things like ‘need more space,’ ‘need to downsize,’ ‘I need to move closer to good schools and work.’
Switch your mind-set
when you have made that decision to sell but you’re still struggling with the emotional aspect of letting go, it helps to think of your home as a product that needs to be marketed – and with any luck, someone will buy what you have to sell! We recommend getting our help to remove personal items such as photos, trophies and awards or any décor which might be polarizing to a potential buyer.
According to Business Insider, “aside from helping to show your home in its best light, removing personal items begins to make your house feel less like your home and more like a ‘product’ for sale. It’s a subtle but important step toward detaching.”
Our team will then recommend some changes to your staging to make your home more attractive to buyers. When listening to our advice it is important to remember that the selling of your home is a business transaction – and our honest critique and suggestions should not be taken personally.
Furthermore, it is important to switch your mind-set as to not be emotional as this may cause you to overvalue the property. Often those who are not ready to sell will insist on a price that is more than what the market will bear. The last thing you want is for the home to be on the market for over a year, with various agents, only for a buyer to come in and score a bargain, capitalising on your mistakes. They key is to trust us, your agent AND detach your emotion from the home.
Focus on the next chapter
We know its cliché, but when one door closes – another one opens (and this is quite literal in the realm of real estate!) Focusing on your future home and the new memories you will be making there will really help you to detach from your old property. You can start visualising yourself in your new home, start planning your interior and furniture design and focus your emotional energy on creating vision boards for this new space! Before you know it, you’ll be emotionally attached to this new property!
At the end of the day – it is important to keep an open mind when selling your property. You should not only listen to the advice of your home stager or agent, but you should also listen to what the buyers have to say. Try your best to remove the emotion and not take these suggestions personally. Once you start to think of the process as a business transaction – you truly will respond to it in a more positive light.
Need some advice when it comes to staging your home for sale? Get in touch to book in a consult with our founder, Jess!