How to Prepare Your Carpets Before Selling a Home

If you’re getting ready to sell a house, you know how important it is to make a good first impression on the potential buyers touring your home. Ideally, the environment will be fresh, clean, and clear of any dirt or debris. There won’t be any stains or lingering odors – and prospective buyers will have no trouble imagining themselves living here in the future.

But if you’ve lived in this home for more than a year or two, the carpet may be in questionable condition. Giving it a thorough clean may be necessary if you want to maximize your chances of selling quickly (and possibly for a higher price).

Adopt the Right Mentality

First, it’s important to adopt the right mentality when it comes to the cleanliness and appearance of your carpets. There are two big ideas here:

1. Definitions of “clean” may vary. What do you consider “clean” carpet? Your definition may not match the definition of someone touring your home for the first time. Some people are sticklers for cleanliness, and if your carpet is just “passable” rather than exemplary, it could be an immediate turnoff for them.
2. You’re subject to the endowment effect. In the realm of behavioral economics, the endowment effect impacts almost everyone. Basically, the idea is that we tend to value things more (and perceive them in a more positive light) when we own them. If you attempt to price an unowned mug, you might value it at $5, but if you currently own the same mug, you might value it at $7. You own this house and you may have lived here a long time; accordingly, you might be more forgiving of stains or odors than someone seeing it for the first time.

Keeping these ideas in mind, it’s important for you to err on the side of over-cleaning and over-preparing.

Give Your Carpet a Deep Clean

With a commercially available carpet cleaner, you can make a huge difference in the aesthetics of your carpet. A thorough vacuuming, followed by a deep shampooing and scrubbing, can instantly breathe new life into carpets that look faded or dirty. They may not be as bright or as pristine as they looked when they were first installed, but they’ll certainly make a good impression on the people who tour your home for the first time.

Treat Tough Stains

If there are some tough stains in your carpet that won’t come out with a conventional carpet cleaner, there are some extra steps you can take. For example, you can use a combination of baking soda and club soda to saturate and soak the stain, loosening it up. If you’re lucky, it can prepare the stain for a second round of cleaning and remove it entirely – or at least improve its appearance.

Try a Professional Cleaner

If your spot cleaning and thorough carpet cleaning aren’t effective, you may want to hire a professional cleaning service. Professionals tend to have expensive steam cleaning equipment that can clean your carpets more thoroughly than you can likely manage on your own. It might set you back a few hundred dollars, but it has the potential to get your carpets looking like new.

Get an Outside Opinion

You may be satisfied with how your carpet looks, but what will other people think? Consider bringing in other people to get their sincere reactions. What do your friends think about your carpet? What about your real estate agent? They may see things that you can’t.

Add Finishing Touches

It also doesn’t hurt to add some finishing touches. For example, you can add rugs or runners to certain high-traffic areas to add contrast and minimize additional accumulation of dirt. And you can add fresh scents to make certain rooms feel cleaner and more inviting.

Consider Replacing

If your carpet is in shoddy condition or if there are several stains that simply won’t come out, you might want to consider replacing it with new carpet (or a different type of flooring entirely). In a hot real estate market, where homes are selling almost immediately, questionable carpet probably isn’t going to be a dealbreaker. But if you’re in a competitive environment or if you want to get the best sale price for your home, replacing the carpet may be worth the investment. This is a relatively expensive decision, so review the variables carefully before proceeding.

A brighter, cleaner carpet makes your home seem more inviting and more valuable – which is indispensable if you’re trying to sell your home quickly and for the highest possible price. It may take some extra work, and a bit of extra money, but it will likely be worth it in the long run.

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