While fresh flowers and bread baking in the oven make a wonderful first impression, buyers are too savvy to be fooled by this.  It’s the well-organized kitchen counters, sparkling floors and woodwork, and spanking clean bathroom that really counts. 

It’s easy for a real estate broker to waltz through your apartment suggesting paint and repairs, but to live through them when you’re probably already overcrowded is another story. That’s why you’re moving, right?  On the other hand, there is no doubt whatsoever that a clean, fresh looking apartment sells faster and for a higher price than one that looks tired and beaten up.  We’re talking thousands of dollars difference—much more than a freshening-up paint job or a floor sanding will cost.  If you can live through it, do it.  If not, clean, scrub, dust, and put away.

Paint, touch-up or scrub walls, moldings, etc.  Wax your floors or have them professionally “screened” and polyurethaned (at the very minimum, do the foyer and livingroom if they are in bad condition).  Remove clutter.

If you can’t find storage space under the bed and in the closets (neatly), rent a storage bin somewhere.  The increase in what you’ll get when you sell will more than cover this. Remove clutter.  Organize clothes so the closets seem bigger.  If you can pack away your seasonal clothes, do it.  If not, pack them in boxes or clothing bags. Remove clutter.  Pick up the shoes on the closet floor.  Remove clutter.  Manhattan dwellers are very clever about creating space where there seems to be none.  Use your imagination, and remove clutter.

Wash the windows – even if they look onto a courtyard.   Use high-wattage light bulbs and, if the apartment is dark or the day is dreary, turn them on before the customer arrives.

Give up fish and cigars for the duration.  Bathe your dog and clean the kitty litter daily.  Room sprays are nice, but they don’t cover odors and are easy to overdo.

A buyer wants to feel that he is moving into a happy home, a place that has been cared for. Kitchen and bathrooms must be spotless.  Get rid of the mildew in the bathroom; scrub the grout or re-grout.  Fold fluffy towels; put up a new shower curtain.  Put away appliances and foods that might normally sit on the kitchen counter. Clear counters = perceived space!

If you can’t face these jobs or don’t have time, there are services that will do it for you.  You’ll find your belongings again when you unpack in your new home!    Ask your broker for a referral.

Finally, when the broker is due to arrive with the customer, leave!  And take your children and dogs with you.  Let the prospective buyer spend time in your apartment, feel comfortable in the space.  After all the work you’ve done making the apartment look great, give him time to enjoy it.  That’s the pay-back.