Keep your Floors Clean for Bare Feet

With Spring finally here,  more and more buyers are looking at homes and are wearing sandals.  While you may wear summer shoes in your home, buyers feel it’s rude to leave their shoes on in your home, so they take them off and are left with bare feet.

I urge everyone who has their home for sale in the summer to do the barefoot test.  Take a walk around your home like you are a potential buyer in your bare feet and make sure that nothing sticks to your feet, that your feet don’t stick to anything and that your home in general feels clean. 

Areas that I commonly find to be a concern are front entrances, make sure that if you do wear your shoes in the house that you aren’t leaving sand and dirt particles at your front door, a barefoot visitor will grab these on their feet as their first and last impressions.  Basements, all buyers go into the basement, even if you don’t go there a lot, so make sure even your furnace or utility room is clean.  Another basement area that can feel very dirty to bare feet is a kitty litter area, I’ve often walked into a basement and ended up with kitty litter on my feet from little fluffy walking it around the basement.  I would suggest a small carpet outside of your kitty litter box for fluffy to wipe his paws on before he treks it all over the basement.

Buyers will also step outside of your home, into the garage or onto the deck, so make sure those areas are swept up as well.  All areas of your home, inside and out need your attention, not only in the summer, but all year round.
Another item that can set off barefoot buyers is sticky kitchen floors, if you have children I’m sure a spilled drink it common, but in a buyers mind, a sticky floor is dirty and a dirty floor can mean a dirty home which causes them to wonder what else has been left unattended.

Before your home is ready for sale, make sure all areas of your home are bare foot tested and ready for those summer buyers.