Michelle Wylie, your Realtor for Annapolis, Anne Arundel County and the surrounding areas

Neat Houses Sell FASTER and for MORE MONEY: The BEST and WORST places for Sellers To Hide Things From Buyers!

Your home is on the market, and you're a motivated owner. Translation: you REALLY want to sell. Because you have instructed your Realtor to: "Show me the Buyers!", you are getting a ton of showings. Prospective homeowners arrive on your doorstep with a moment's notice.

In addition, you are driving your family crazy. You have decreed: "No dishes in the sink, no crumbs on the kitchen counter, no dirty clothes on the floor! No one will eat, drink, sleep, or brush the dog again until this house is sold!"

Take a deep breath, sit down, and relax. While it IS true that 'You don't get a second chance at a first impression', most buyers ARE human and realize that Sellers have to live, too.

Just for the fun of it … and because it might actually come in handy one day … here are the FIVE places buyers are LEAST likely to look when viewing a house for the first time. Therefore, these are the best last minute hiding places:

Under the bed. You probably didn't need to be told about this hiding place, and you may have trouble squeezing any more 'stuff' under there. What makes this an ideal place is that it is big, and usually centrally located in the room. Therefore, clothes, toys, shoes…whatever… can be flung from all directions with a good chance of finding their mark. Any last minute items can usually be kicked under the bed.

In the washer & dryer. Buyers rarely, if ever, open a washer or dryer. This makes them ideal last-minute hideaways for toys, books, and boots, as well as dirty clothes. When utilizing this hiding place, it is a VERY good idea to tell the rest of the family. You never can tell when someone will get ambitious and turn on the dryer, or start to fill the washer.

Trunk of your car. This, at first glance, might seem a little drastic. But, if the Realtor is pulling into the driveway, and you are standing with two paper bags filled with household items, the trunk could come in very handy!

Refrigerator. Again, while this might appear far-fetched, buyers will NOT open your refrigerator. This makes it an ideal place for the last-minute stashing of anything that won't suffer from being a little cold!

Behind the sofa. Another old standby that could already be seeing some 'active duty', the sofa usually has a wall behind.

The other side of this issue deals with those areas buyers are MOST likely to inspect during a house tour. Try not to use any of these locations for your last minute secret hiding places.

Oven. Do not store your pots and pans in the oven. This makes it appear as if you are short on kitchen space. If possible, the oven should be totally empty, and, of course, clean.

Bedroom closets. One of the things buyers tend to remember about the houses they see, and to either comment favorably or unfavorably upon, are the closets. Avoid cramming the bedroom closets with extras; the more space that shows in your closets, the better.

Kitchen drawers. The same buyers who would not dream of opening your refrigerator, will think nothing of pulling out a drawer. Try to keep kitchen drawers as uncluttered as possible. If need be, utilize bedroom drawers for all the kitchen utensils and junk you have to put someplace.

Laundry room. A nice, neat laundry room is often a pleasant surprise in a home, and something that buyers tend to remember.

Kitchen pantry. Like the laundry room, the kitchen pantry is often the 'dumping ground' for all kinds of odds and ends. The less cluttered the pantry is, the bigger it looks, and the more buyers will remember it, favorably.

As you can probably tell, the secret to 'hide & don't seek' is to keep those places that are USUALLY used for storage as clear as possible. This gives the buyer the distinct impression that he/she will have plenty of room for all the stuff they need to put somewhere. In order to do this, you may need to move your items to unusual places that are not normally of concern to a buyer.

Your Annapolis realtor and Anne Arundel County realtor helping you find townhouses, townhnomes, single family homes, single family houses, condos, and duplexes. Serving Anne Arundel County, Calvert County, Charles County, Howard County and Queen Anne County.  Accokeek, Annapolis, Annapolis Junction, Aquasco, Arnold, Baltimore, Barstow, Bladensburg, Bowie, Brandywine, Brentwood, Broomes Island, California, Capitol Heights, Cheltenham, Chesapeake Beach, Churchton, Clarksville, Clinton, College Park, Columbia, Cooksville, Crofton, Crownsville, Davidsonville, Dayton, Deale, District Heights, Dowell, Dunkirk, Edgewater, Elkridge, Ellicott City, Fort Meade, Fort Washington, Friendship, Fulton, Galesville, Gambrills, Glen Burnie, Glenelg, Glenn Dale, Glenwood, Hampton Park, Hanover, Harbor Oaks, Harmans, Harwood, Highland, Hollywood, Huntington, Hyattsville, Indian Head, Jessup, Lanham, Laurel, Lexington Park, Linthicum Heights, Lisbon, Lothian, Lusby, Marriottsville, Mayo, Millersville, Mount Airy, Mount Rainier, North Beach, Odenton, Owings, Oxon Hill, Pasadena, Port Republic, Prince Frederick, Riva, Riverdale, Saint Leonard, Savage, Severn, Severna Park, Shady Side, Simpsonville, Solomons, Suitland, Sunderland, Temple Hills, Tracy's Landing, University of Maryland, Upper Marlboro, Waldorf, West Friendship, West River, Woodstock. Admiral Heights, Anchorage, Annapolis Cove, Annapolis Overlook, Annapolis Roads, Arden on the Severn, Arundel on the Bay, Atlantis, August Woods, Bahama View, Bay Ridge, Belvoir, Blackwalnut Cove, Bretton Woods, Cape St. Claire, Cherrystone, Chesapeake Harbour, Cranberry Woods, Epping Forest, Fishing Creek Farms, Harness Creek Overlook, Herald Harbour, Heritage Harbour, Hillsmere, Historic Annapolis, Hunt Meadow, Landing at Spa Creek, Mariners Landing, Martins Cove, Murray Hill, Pendennis Mount, Penderbrooke, Pinehurst, Poplar Point, Revell Down, Riva Trace, Saefern, Saltworks on the Severn, Selby Beach, Sherwood Forest, St. Margarets, Sunrise Beach, Tall Timbers, The Overlook, The Downs, Vineyards at Iglehart, Wardour, Windsor Farm, Woodland, Woodlore. Ask Michelle Wylie, your Annapolis real estate agent to help you with Annapolis relocation, Anne Arundel County relocation, homes for sale, houses for sale, and property for sale. I will help you find a home, find a house, find land; just tell me your needs.