It’s time for the hard-to-do, but feels-so-good-when-you do thing called … decluttering. Nothing makes a home more appealing than cleaning up and straightening up. Most real estate experts agree that decluttering is one of the best ways to stage a house for sale. Local, worthy charities will even pick-up your tax-deductible donations.

Every season is a great time of year for cleaning your house from top to bottom. It’s an especially a good time to do some spring house cleaning if you’re thinking about selling your home. The Internet is full of sites that have very good articles on staging a home for sale, and virtually all the experts recommend cleaning closets and cabinets and getting rid of any unwanted items that make a home appear cluttered.

Secrets to Selling Your Home – Pricing it Right

HGTV has an excellent article entitled, “10 Best-Kept Secrets for Selling Your Home“.

The first best-kept secret is pricing the house right.

The Trembley Group Real Estate has published several recent blogs by Jeremy Jenks, Vice President of Sales, on the importance of pricing a home right from the start. The blog goes into detail about the costs of pricing a house too high or too low and the process Jeremy uses to arrive at a realistic selling price. Give Jeremy a call at 843.638.3002 for more information.

Secrets to Selling Your Home – Declutter

The second best-kept secret for making a home attractive to potential buyers and for getting top dollar is to clean closets and declutter.

“It’s the single best strategy to sell a home in today’s market,” according to HGTV.

A personal money management website, The Balance, says that its number one recommendation is to declutter. “Think of this process as a head-start on the packing you will eventually need to do anyway.”

So, that old, stained sofa bought fifteen years ago when you set up housekeeping… what can be done with it? Maybe with a slipcover, someone could get a few more years use out of it. Maybe some young couple just setting up housekeeping themselves would find it just perfect for their living room.

Tax Deductible Donations

If done through a qualified charity, a donation of furniture or household goods can generate a tax deduction. The real estate professionals at The Trembley Group Real Estate are not tax experts so be sure to consult a tax professional. Many worthy charities have donation guides online …

http://finance.zacks.com/much-tax-deduction-donating-furniture-3508.html

https://satruck.org/Home/DonationValueGuide

http://www.amazinggoodwill.com/donating/IRS-guidelines

These are a good place to start, but there is no substitute for the tax advice of a CPA or a tax attorney.

Free Pickup

And then there’s the problem of getting the sofa to the donation center. Fortunately, that is not a problem. For smaller donations, the donation centers have staff available to help unload your car.

Some charities that accept large donations – like a sofa – will pick it up.

While there are other worthy charities that will pick up large and heavy donations, The Sales Executives at Trembley Group Real Estate frequently use three charities that offer relatively quick response and are rated highly for their management and percentage of each donated dollar that ultimately reaches the designated recipients.

The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army Family Thrift Store program offers much-needed services to the community. The program employs 25 people in our region and the proceeds from store sales support The Salvation Army’s programs in Horry County. In addition to clothing, food, counseling, disaster relief efforts, proceeds from store sales offer financial support to their Boys & Girls Club programs. Stores are open to the public for thrifty shopping and donation drop-offs. To schedule a pick-up, call (843) 488-2769 for all Salvation Army locations.

Palmetto Goodwill Industry

Palmetto Goodwill Industry’s programs and services are funded through the sale of donated household goods and clothing in 30 retail stores across lower South Carolina. More than 90 cents of every dollar Goodwill generates provides support, education and job training for members of our community.  As a direct result of Goodwill’s donors and shoppers, in 2016 they provided job training and employment services to 43,297 job seekers in lower South Carolina. They also helped 1,847 people find jobs through their Job Link Centers, Hire Me! events and other programs. Pick-ups can be scheduled online by visiting https://palmettogoodwill.org/donate/where-can-i-donate/.

Habitat for Humanity

A real estate company cannot miss an opportunity to recommend the good work of Habitat for Humanity. Habitat believes that everyone, everywhere, should have a healthy, affordable place to call home. More than building homes, Habitat builds communities by giving families the opportunity to help themselves. Donations help families break the cycle of poverty and build long-term financial security. With an affordable, stable home, families have more resources to spend on food, medicine, child care, education and other essentials.

Community support helps them do more in all the many ways that Habitat builds. Donations of new and used construction materials, furniture, and household goods to the Habitat Horry County Restore. To schedule a pick up contact the store scheduler at 843-650-8815 ext. 8009.

For advice on decluttering a home and staging a home “For Sale,” give Jeremy Jenks, Vice President of Sales at The Trembley Group Real Estate a call at (843) 638-3002.  He’ll start you down a path that that’s sure to be one of the most exciting, most profitable, and probably a lot less stressful than you thought possible.

For more information: Jeremy Jenks, Vice President of Sales, TheTrembleyGroup.com, 843.638.3002

Need help? Call The Trembley Group at 843.945.1880 ext. 100 and we’ll help you look for the perfect listing or buyers agent!

At The Trembley Group, we pride ourselves on being the experts at more than just selling real estate. We are local residents, some of us have been here for a lifetime. The rest of us will be here until the end of time. We love living, working, and playing in the diverse backyard of Coastal Carolina, and look forward to helping you live and love your dreams soon too. Please reach out to us by phone or email for personalized service and one-on-one advice. 

About our blog

Our agents write often to give you the latest insights on owning a home or property in the Myrtle Beach, SC area.