When you’re getting ready to sell your Beverly Hills home, you know you need to de-clutter. This is the time to go through your belongings, give family and friends their pick of the items you no longer use, then either have a yard sale or make a nice donation to a charitable organization with a thrift store. We have a few here in Beverly Hills that would be pleased to accept those things you no longer use.

Remember to go through the garage when you’re choosing sell/give away items.

Once you’ve disposed of items you’ll never use again, you need to pack up seasonal and “occasionally used” items in order to make your closets and cupboards seem more spacious. Be sure to label those boxes as you’re packing – it will make the move into your next house much easier!

And… please don’t stuff those boxes into the garage. Instead, rent a storage unit and make the garage look just as spacious and appealing as the house.

Along with their original function as a place to park a vehicle and perhaps store seasonal items, garages now function as workshops, hobby rooms, home gyms, or even home offices.

For some home buyers, the garage space is every bit as important as the rest of the house. So let your potential buyers see the opportunity the garage offers for expanding the home’s living space.

First, clean it out. Move everything you don’t need to use over to that storage unit.

Then make it attractive. If the walls are dingy, repaint them. If the floor is greasy, get some heavy-duty cleaner and get those spots out. Then use cement paint to give the floor a fresh new look. Remember that light colors give the impression of more space, so choose grey over dark brown.

You’ll naturally need to keep a few yard tools, etc., so organize them. Install some inexpensive steel shelving and get things up off the floor.

Since the garage is not only one of the most useful parts of the house, but one of the most visible, many savvy sellers choose to replace the garage door as part of their pre-selling preparation. According to houselogic.com, sellers who do so will recoup 87% of the cost, and realtor.com says it could easily return 100%. But that might not be the greatest advantage. A beautiful new garage door adds to the “Wow” factor and could make the house sell sooner.

If you choose to replace the garage door, consider installing the latest technology, just to add to the overall “Wow” factor. Buyers will be impressed by the fact that they can open, close, and lock the garage using their mobile devices.

The garage may not be as important as the kitchen and bathrooms in a Beverly Hills home according to some people, but then again it

might. It all depends upon your future buyer.