Open House S.O.S.

Serving Windsor and Essex County

Frequently Asked Questions ...

1. Who is this service for?

Open House S.O.S. is for anyone who plans to put his or her home on the market. Whether you sell your home privately or with the help of a real estate agent, you’re still responsible for getting your house in prime viewing condition. With popular TV real estate shows raising the bar ever higher, homeowners today are expected to declutter, clean and stage their homes like a pro if they want to get on buyers’ appointment lists.

Doing the work that’s necessary to achieve maximum profit on the sale of your home takes time, effort and planning. While some homeowners don’t mind taking on the task, we find that the majority of people would prefer to pass the job off to a professional. That’s where Open House S.O.S. comes in: We do the work while you earn the rewards!

2. Can you give me examples of when decluttering and cleaning services might be needed?

It’s no secret that buyers search for properties online — the MLS website is usually the first stop, followed by home-marketing sites for private sellers — so the photos that accompany your listing must show your home at its best if you expect prospects to put your property on the must-see list. If your listing says your home comes with a two-car garage, buyers will be turned off by photos showing a garage filled with so much junk there’s no room to park even a bicycle!

If your dining room looks like a storage shed gone mad, buyers will be running for their lives.

A photo showing your dining room table littered with books and computers and laundry piled up on the china cabinet won’t make for a speedy sale either. And neither will the photos showing grimy hand marks all over the kitchen cupboards and soap scum around the tub. This house could use both a declutter and a cleaning to bring it up to the show-home standards buyers demand.

3. What if I am willing to do the work myself, but just need some help on where to start?

Open House S.O.S. offers a one-hour consultation for homeowners who want advice on what needs to be done to get their house camera-ready. We will walk through each room with you and make recommendations on cleaning and decluttering, and offer Open House staging suggestions and tips. We will provide you with a room-to-room personalized list of things to do so that you have a reference guide to make the job easier when you’re ready to begin. If you decide later that you don’t want to do the work yourself after all, we will be pleased to offer a FREE quote to get the job done for you.

4. When Open House S.O.S. is hired to declutter, how do you know what to throw out or send to storage?

Open House S.O.S. offers a decluttering service — we are not an organizer. In other words, we are there to remove the clutter. What you do with it is up to you. That said, nothing will be removed (packed or thrown out) without your instructions. We prefer to be told that you do not want everything in your garage to be placed in boxes ready for the movers.

Why? Because we don’t want you to start life at your new home or seniors residence with stuff you no longer need or that doesn’t work. So we will ask you to decide what is garbage, what will stay for home staging, what will be stored and what will be sold or given away. When those decisions are made and your items separated into piles, we can begin our job of packing things up or throwing them out according to your instructions.

5. Where will I be when my house is being decluttered?

Some homeowners decide they will pitch in and share the decluttering work with Open House S.O.S. so the job can be done faster and costs reduced. Most of the time, however, Open House S.O.S. will be doing all the decluttering. We prefer that the homeowner be in the house while the work is being done and, most important, that the clutter is separated into piles (see Question #4) before we arrive. That way, we can receive our instructions and get to work!

We do the work. You earn the rewards!