Where DO you start if you want sell your home?  After you’ve decided it’s the right time for you to sell. After we’ve decided on the price.  And after we’ve figured out when we’re going to list their home, the first question my sellers ask is “Now what?”

And no wonder it’s the first question.  For many, getting the house prepped is the hardest part.  It’s overwhelming because it seems like such a huge project.  We carry around a ton of stuff with us, move it from house to house, even move it from our parents’ house to our house.  I’m a major pack rat myself!  In my garage, I have totes with broken dishes for my someday yard art projects, some clay art from 3^rd grade, and more than a few childhood knick knacks my BFF Margaret gave me.  It’s crazy, but I know I’m not alone.

I consider myself the queen of the Workback Schedule.  (I capitalize it because I think it’s that important!)  The Workback Schedule is a chronological way of dealing with the project, working back from the finished product to today, allocating your time and resources to the tasks at hand each day or week before our “go live” date.  For example, if we know we want to list on March 15, let’s work back 5 weeks, knowing the house has to be ready for photos by the 11^th.  If we want to take photos on the 11^th, that means that house needs to be decluttered, roof cleaned, lawn mowed, and bathtub refinished by then.  The Workback Schedule lets us plot it all out to get the tasks done on time, call contractors, clean the garage, mow the lawn, buy flowers, etc.

I’ll walk each room of the house with my homeowners, making pretty detailed lists of what I recommend they do.  Some of us need really specific instruction, some get the generalized picture.  Regardless of the way each client processes, we make our list and then start assigning projects to the timeline and to the task owner.  My name always shows up at the end of the Workback because my tasks generally come when you’ve finished yours.

I’m happy to send you a copy of any Workback Schedules we’ve used in the past.  The tasks are usually similar, but can vary widely.  For several of my listings in SW Portland, for example, we’ve added oil tank decommissioning or water in the basement mitigation to our Workback, usually early on so we know what we’re up against.

Let me know if you’d like me to help you with your Workback Schedule.   It just makes sense to do one.

And my answer to the original question?  Clean the garage!  No matter how you slice it, the garage is the #1 repository for our stuff.  If you clean it, you have somewhere to put the rest of it.  Good luck and happy packing!

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