How clean do you leave a house when you sell it?

[FreshTressa]

Should I bleach the inside of all of the cupboards and put in new liners, clean all the creases in the washing machine, clean out the fridge etc.

Or, is the clean that it was when they looked at it and bought it good enough??

I mean, if you look at it, it is clean, but there are corners that could still use a scrubbing.

When we moved in, the last owners didn't clean at all. The same with our first place.

What is standard?? I mean, I don't want to be rude, but I don't want to spend every night next week with a butter knife and bleach getting every last speck.

 

[lulubelle]

We always hire a cleaning service to thoroughly clean the house, but just the basic cleaning. Bleaching out cupboards and the like is more than expected (I think). The new owners will be soooo excited to move into "their" new house that a little dust here or there will not matter. Good luck

 

[Cruisin]

Well, I have no idea what or if there is a standard of cleanliness expected.

Maybe you should try to leave it in the condition that you expect your new house to be in when you arrive there.

I personally would not go to the extremes you are stating but some people are for more serious in their cleaning than I am.

If it were my house, I would try to leave it as neat and clean as possible without working for days to get it that way.

 

[Feralpeg]

DD says I am totally anal when it comes to cleaning. My last house was immaculate when I left it.

 

[tubachick]

I would leave it like I would want the house to be.

I on the other hand do a full cleaning no matter what its like when I move in.... I'm just weird that way.

 

[TheDisneyTraveler06]

Maybe you should try to leave it in the condition that you expect your new house to be in when you arrive there.

I personally would not go to the extremes you are stating but some people are for more serious in their cleaning than I am.

If it were my house, I would try to leave it as neat and clean as possible without working for days to get it that way.

Of course, the new owners of your house, are going to do a little cleaning anyway before they move in, so don't go too extreme!

 

[WDWFAN9]

When my sister and I sold my parents' home after their deaths we left it spotless - even vacuumed the basement rafters. My mom would have wanted it that way.

 

[NAB]

My house was clean to when we moved and when we got to our new house we were very disappointed on how they left it for us. They lived it for a few months and just let it go after they sold it. We had pop all over one wall, some on the kitchen cabinet that kind of thing.

I know people probably will wash out cupboards when they move in so they themselves know how clean they are. So I would just make sure everything looks as good as you can make or you yourself would like it.

 

[Luv'sTink]

I would clean it but not go overboard. As said before the new owners will clean it when they move in.

 

[momrek06]

DH & I recently moved into our new home. The house we sold we cleaned the entire basement and garage and shed....we hired a service to clean the entire house first and second floors. Cleaning the bathrooms and kitchen and vacuuming all the rooms.

We removed absolutely everything, even stuff we didn't want except for the fireplace equipment and the screens for the doors. We ordered the dumpsters from our trash hauling co and we loaded them up THREE times.

Make sure the smoke detectors are all in working condition. In the state of MA (not sure with other states) the Fire Dept does an inspection. One of our batteries was dead (despite the fact it was BUILT INTO THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM)(battery was a back-up) and the Fire Dept was going to hold up the new family from moving in....my Broker ran out and got a battery and replaced it immediately.

Anyway, OP, call around and get a few estimates to have someone come in and clean. I know we were so crazy busy, cleaning was not an option for me to get to at all.

 

[allison443]

I wouldn't put down new shelf liners...the new owners will probably expect to do that themselves. For the refrigerator, I would do as good a job as possible.

 

[SwedishMeatball]

I would leave it like I would want the house to be.

I on the other hand do a full cleaning no matter what its like when I move in.... I'm just weird that way.

Same here.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

The last two house we moved out of were cleaned top to bottom and left move-in ready for their new tenants. We even dusted the blinds and pressure washed the garage and driveways.

 

[barkley]

does the contract have any provision in it? our sales contract read "broom clean" and while i would have liked to have cleaned better the buyers were so anxious to get in (bumped the escrow close up almost 2 1/2 weeks) i was'nt able to do much more.

i plan on having a provision in any home purchase contract that indicates broom clean and a credit for a professional housekeeping service to come in (i don't care how clean a place looks-i want to KNOW it's clean and with the appropriate products).

 

[aprilgail2]

I would just give it a basic cleaning, nothing overboard...before I moved into a new home I would be there scrubbing everything and ripping out the carpets and replacing everything like that anyway before I actually went and lived there!...

 

[safetymom]

I cleaned my house very well when I sold it. The buyer came back several weeks later with claims that I had left a lot of stuff at the house and wanted money for a dumpster she rented.

I had pictures that I took that morning of closing and showed them to their agent. I never heard anything after that. So take pictures!

 

[bettyann29]

I like to leave the house better than it was when I moved in and thats how I leave it.. Now I dont go to extremes.. We just bought a house and when we moved out of our other house I actually cleaned it quite well.. in addition to a new paint job.. I was a little disappointed in the house we bought though.. It wasnt as clean as I thought it would have been.. but I always reclean it anyways so it wasnt a big deal..