How To Emotionally Detach Yourself From Your Home Before Selling

Before you put your home up for sale you must first love the idea; you must let go of that home and the memories of the life you spent there to make selling your home a success. This article talks about how to let go of any emotional attachment that comes with selling a home.

If you can’t unpack yourself from your property, no amount of pretty pictures and nice furniture will help sell it.

“How you live in your home and how you prepare your house to sell are two different things.”

This Barb Schwartz quote is at the core of home staging.

Some people understand the need to think about the most likely buyer of their property, then merchandise their property to attract that buyer.

They are happy to pack away family photos and every bits and pieces of them from the house to make it ready for prospective buyers.

But for many, these simple actions are difficult, as they’re still emotionally tethered to their home and find it hard to unpack themselves from the property.

Emotionally detaching from your house before you list it is the first step to getting it sold.

If you still see your property as your home and not as a product to be packaged, you won’t see what needs to be done, or be willing to make the changes necessary.

Everything will seem harder until you realise that your house is now a property. Your next property is your home.

Separate & Preserve

Selling your house can be a difficult and emotional time. Most time home stagers/agents take care of the house and the owners during that time, whatever their stories.

• The couple who had bought a large family house but were now selling as they couldn’t have a family.
• The husband who wanted to stage the family home to sell when his ex-wife and kids wanted to stay.
• The lady on her second round of chemotherapy who couldn’t de-clutter, as she was hoarding memories for her children.

These people all have problems letting go and moving on.

This lyric from musician Dave Mustaine sums it up: “Moving on is a simple thing, what it leaves behind is hard”.

An agent will know his/her client is struggling with a home sale when they become emotional, procrastinate, get caught in the detail, go into denial or leave everything to the last minute.

These self-sabotaging actions move them further away from getting their house sold.

Tips to ease your exit

If you’re about to list your house and are finding it difficult to emotionally detach, these tips will help:

• Take your time. If you don’t have to move quickly, don’t. If your agent is pushing you to list by soon, that’s his or her agenda not yours. Work to your own plan and only list when you and your house are ready.

• Get help from family and friends. Some things are too painful to do alone.

• Accept that moving on doesn’t negate the past. Take pictures of your house, rooms and special possessions. Write down your memories of the house too. Put everything in a memory box and pack it away for your next home.

• Ask yourself “What will the house sale give me or enable me to do?” Hold onto these positive images or feelings. Affirm them regularly.

• Think and talk in chapters. This property was one chapter. There have been many, and there’ll be more. Look forward to the next chapter of your life.

Without letting go, these things will be impossible.

culled from www.realestate.com.au