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The saying goes, “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.” However, this may not be the case regarding your junky garage. As you prepare to put your home on the market, you may decide to fix other areas of your house and forget about the garage. After all, it’s a place for parking cars. But choosing to leave it dirty and cluttered could be a big mistake when trying to sell your home. There are some things you should do and not do regarding garage staging.
Start By Decluttering
Garages may be for parking your car, but many people use them for everything but that purpose. For example, some use the garage as a work area. Others may use it as a place to store excess “stuff.” Still others may even try to use it as an extra room. But when potential buyers see a garage, they want to see it for what it should be—a garage. Therefore, you would be smart to remove the junk and get the garage ready to show as a clean, spacious place to park cars.
If you have lots and lots of stuff, you might consider renting a roll-away dumpster or hiring a junk removal company to haul off unnecessary junk. If you have items of value in your garage that you no longer need, you may want to have an old-fashioned garage sale to make some money. If you don’t have time for these activities and must move quickly, consider placing garage clutter in a storage facility and dealing with them after you move. You can also get the help of one of the best garage organization companies if you have the budget to do so.
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Don’t Leave Those Stains Behind
If you use your garage for what it’s intended for, chances are, there are various types of stains on the floor from fluids and oils leaking from your car. These stains don’t look attractive. So, after decluttering your garage, it is a good idea to clean it to get dirt and grime off the floors.
If you’re unsure how to get the dirt off the floor, try using a cleaning product with degreasing capabilities, like Oil Eater cleaner degreaser at Amazon, a top pick in our list of the best concrete cleaners. If you don’t want to clean the fluid and oil stains, you can also hire a professional pressure washing company to do the cleanup.
Don’t forget to clean other dirt, debris, and cobwebs by sweeping them away. If pests are infesting your garage, exterminate them yourself or call a pest control company to eliminate any creepy critters before you start showing your home.
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A Little Paint Can Go a Long Way
Not only will greasy garage floors scare away potential buyers, but so will disgusting walls. If your garage walls are dirty beyond cleaning, painting them is a good idea. If you don’t mind putting in a little work over the weekend and painting your garage, choose a color that works for garage walls, like Montage Signature Interior/Exterior Eco-Friendly Paint at Amazon, our budget-friendly choice of the best paint for garage walls. Ideally, the paint color you choose would be neutral, such beige, white, tan, or gray. If the idea of being a weekend warrior doesn’t excite you, hire a local paint company to put a fresh coat on your garage walls.
Brighten It Up
Entering a garage that isn’t brightly lit won’t be very inspirational for potential buyers. So, it may be a good idea for you to brighten it as much as possible. Using a bright LED light bulb in a garage fixture, like the Illuminator 360 garage LED light, our favorite in the best garage lighting tested, might be enough to make the space appear more radiant. If you don’t want to install new or additional fixtures to brighten up your garage, try replacing standard light bulbs with LED bulbs to make a difference for garage staging.
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Make Sure Doors Are Functioning Properly
Another thing you should check when prepping your garage staging is whether your garage doors are functioning properly. When potential buyers are viewing your home during a tour or an open house, they may check the garage doors to see if they are working. If they aren’t, they might wonder if other problems exist throughout the home. Hiring a garage door repair company can help you get your doors back on track and functional. If the garage doors are old and beyond repair, you might have to replace them.
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Don’t Leave Items Lying Around the Garage
Leaving items scattered haphazardly throughout the garage is not an option, even if you can’t remove everything during the decluttering process. Instead of leaving these items around looking untidy, find a way to make them a part of the home staging. To enhance garage organization, you can install shelves, cabinets, or organizers to neatly store paint cans, tools, and other items. For bikes, consider installing a sturdy rack, like the Wallmaster hanger storage bike rack at Amazon that can be mounted to the ceiling to maximize floor space.
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Is It a Good Idea to Finish Your Unfinished Garage?
If you have an unfinished garage, should you finish it before selling your home? The answer is it depends. Not all home improvements give you a good return on investment, and installing drywall in an unfinished garage, for example, might fit in this category. Your real estate agent will know what sells best in your area. If unfinished garages sell well, then leaving yours incomplete might work. However, if the agent points out that the homes that seem to be selling quickly are those with finished garages, this could be a worthy investment.