Selling a Messy Home in Sacramento

Selling a messy house presents challenges that are not always insurmountable.

Selling a messy home in Sacramento can be quite the challenge but not completely impossible. Being a Sacramento Realtor who rarely meets a home she does feel a strong urge to remodel with her own two bare hands, there are times I have to muster all of my strength to keep a straight face when talking with prospective sellers. It’s a gift in a way, to know when to keep your trap shut and how to temper words.

Being a good Realtor means you can’t let every unfiltered thought flow out of your mouth. Thinking before speaking is paramount. It’s a technique that can be difficult to teach others. Everyone knows I tend to tell it like it is but practicing restraint can also be a beautiful thing. Now, I don’t have any horrible listings at the moment and am not presently engaged in selling a messy home in Sacramento, which is precisely why I can talk about some of my past accomplishments. I try to never discuss any sales in progress. That’s just bad business.

This is blog for the people who spot questionable photographs in MLS and ask in an incredulous tone: how can another Sacramento Realtor publish such photos of a messy home in Sacramento? Isn’t she trying to sell it? Why would anybody do that? Does she know how bad those photos appear?

Why yes, yes she does know how bad those photos make the home appear. The thing is, the house is not going to magically transform itself into the Palace of Versailles when the buyer tours the home. If the place looks like Grey Gardens from the Beale era, it’s gonna showcase all of that squalor to a buyer, regardless. A vase of fresh flowers will not change perception. An agent may as well advertise to the type of buyer who will see value.

Reminds me of a seller I worked with years ago. She was selling a messy home in Sacramento and had called me to list. She forced me to step over piles of garbage on the floor; stuff was scattered a foot deep from one end to the other, featuring a big ol’ pile of rubbish lined up along the walls. This seller removed a framed picture from the wall, pointed to the nail and asked if she should try to cover the hole it would leave with spackle.

She was serious. Completely oblivious to the mess. That’s the thing to realize about selling a messy home in Sacramento. People are not gonna change their living habits in the blink of an eye. I sold another messy home in Sacramento in which a gigantic pile of rats had been swept into the center of the floor. The occupants stood over the rats puffing like crazy on cigarettes. I’ve sold homes that have been stripped and gutted by thugs, homes that smelled so badly I couldn’t enter, homes that by the principles of gravity should not still be standing.

Bottom line, if it’s priced right, anything will sell.