Selling Your Home While Working a 9-5—It’s Possible
Prepping your home for sale, keeping it clean for showings, making sure you’ve dotted your I’s and crossed your t’s—honestly, sometimes selling your home can feel like a full-time job. Throw kids into the mix, and it can all start to feel impossible pretty quickly.
So how do you handle selling your house AND being that killer employee (or boss!) who’s on top of everything in her work life, while still making sure you show up for your children? It’s not easy—but it’s certainly not impossible. Here are a few tricks to help you manage your time and resources during a home sale so you’ve still got time for the rest of your life.
1. Start packing and prepping as early as possible.
While you likely won’t be able to start packing your children’s rooms until close to when you move, there’s bound to be a whole lot of stuff in your home that you can pack and live without for weeks, even months while your house is on the market.
Seasonal clothing, kitchen gadgets you rarely use, holiday decorations you won’t need for six months—by packing these kinds of things in increments over a longer period of time, you’ll stay better organized and avoid the last-minute panic that comes with having rooms upon rooms to pack in a weekend!
This is especially true when you’re relocating for work. In these cases, you’ll want to start packing at least six weeks before your move date.
2. Price it right from the start.
Pricing a home correctly is key to selling your home fast, so listen to your real estate agent’s advice. You may be tempted to price it high, but remember, you’ll likely end up having to drop the price a few times to get it to the right place anyway. Plus, overpriced homes tend to scare away buyers.
3. Hire professionals as time and money allow.
When you’re working a 9-5, taking care of kids, and working with a real estate agent, you simply have to prioritize.
Sometimes, that means hiring a professional to do something that you’d ordinarily DIY. Professional cleaning services are a great example, and well worth the investment. In fact, professional deep cleans give you, on average, a 935 percent return on investment (ROI).
The same goes for small repairs. Even if you could touch up that paint and fix those doorknobs yourself, you may want to consider hiring a handyman to tackle all of the small projects at once. It’ll save you not just time, but your sanity, too!
4. Find a great babysitter.
When you’re selling your home, you’re going to have more demands on your time, whether that’s keeping the house clean for showings, meeting with your agent, or tracking down the paperwork for repairs you’ve completed.
Having a trustworthy babysitter, neighbor, family member, or friend who can help you with the kids and is aware that you’re dealing with a very busy time can mean the difference between a stressed-out, anxious mama and a calm, got-it-all-together mama. Sites like NextDoor and Care.com can help you find a babysitter nearby if you don’t already have one, though getting references from a friend is always the ideal.
Selling a house while working a 9-5 may not be easy, but with these tricks up your sleeve, you’ll be through the sale and into your new home before you know it.
