Window Cleaning Before Selling Your Home: A Quick Guide for Sellers
Updated: 5 hours ago
When you are getting a house ready to sell, the list of jobs is long and the budget is not. Window cleaning sits near the bottom of most sellers' lists. It deserves to be nearer the top, because it is one of the few jobs that improves every room and the outside of the house at the same time.
Key points
Buyers meet your home through photos first, and photos depend on light.
About nine in ten Realtors recommend that sellers improve curb appeal before listing, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Schedule the cleaning after painting and repairs, and a few days before the photographer comes.
Include the screens, the sills and the glass doors, not just the main windows.
Buyers notice light before they notice anything else
Ask an agent what buyers say they want and bright and airy will come up again and again. You cannot add windows before a sale, but you can make the ones you have let in all the light they were built for. A season of pollen, dust and water spots takes the sparkle off a room in a way people sense without being able to name.
Clean glass also changes how the view looks from inside. If your house looks out on trees, water or a well-kept yard, that view is part of what you are selling.
What the research says about first impressions
The National Association of Realtors studies what helps homes sell. Its Remodeling Impact Report on outdoor features found that roughly nine in ten Realtors have suggested sellers improve curb appeal before listing, a finding Florida Realtors summarized in its coverage of the report.
NAR also publishes a regular Profile of Home Staging, which looks at how presentation affects buyers. Neither report is about window cleaning specifically. The point they share is simple: buyers respond to homes that look cared for, inside and out, and glass is part of both.
It signals a well-kept home
Buyers and their inspectors read small things as clues to big things. Cobwebs in window corners, dead insects in the tracks and screens gray with dirt suggest a house that has been let go. Spotless glass, clean sills and tracks that slide freely suggest the opposite.
When to schedule it
Timing is where sellers most often go wrong. Have the windows cleaned too early and painters, landscapers and movers will undo the work. The right order is:
Finish repairs, painting, power washing and landscaping.
Have the windows, screens and sills cleaned inside and out.
Bring in the photographer within the next few days.
Give entry doors and sliders a quick wipe before each open house.
What to have cleaned before you list
All exterior glass, including upper floors and dormers that buyers will see from the street.
Interior glass, sills and tracks.
Screens. A dirty screen makes clean glass look dull.
Sliding and French doors, which get handled at every showing.
Skylights, especially over kitchens and baths.
Mirrors in baths and entryways, which brighten photos.
A note for agents and stagers
If you prepare several listings a year, it helps to have a window cleaner you can call at short notice. Andy is glad to work with agents and stagers around Franklin and the surrounding towns, and will do his best to fit a pre-listing clean in around the photographer's date. Exterior-only cleaning can be done on a vacant home with no one present, provided the outdoor water is on.
Common questions
Is it worth cleaning windows if the buyer will replace them?
Yes. You are selling the house as it photographs and shows today. Old windows that are clean and working look far better than old windows that are dirty.
Can you clean a vacant house?
Yes, as long as there is water at an outdoor spigot. For interior glass, your agent can arrange access.
How far ahead should I book?
A week or two is ideal in the busy spring market. Call if you are short on time and we will do our best.
Getting ready to list?
See what is included in our residential window cleaning, browse the gallery for results, or request a free estimate.
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