Keeping Your Business and Home Clean

If you're in the process of selling your home, you probably know how important staging is. Staging a home involves cleaning, removing clutter, taking care of needed renovations, and doing small things like implementing effective lighting and moving furniture to create a free-flowing space. The National Association of Realtors says that this process allows potential buyers to visualize themselves in the home. And no buyer will want to visualize themself in your home if it isn't clean everywhere. If you have tile in your house, and you haven't thought about having it professionally cleaned, here are four benefits to you as a home seller.

Presents a Clean Home

Whether you have tile in the bathroom or kitchen, it doesn't matter how immaculate the rest of your home is if the tile and grout look bad. It's possible you've gotten used to the way it looks or maybe you think that having it professionally cleaned won't make much difference. But buyers do tend to notice those small details.

Common problems with tile include uneven or discolored grout from mold or mildew, and tile surfaces that have become streaked with calcium and mineral deposits that won't come off with regular cleaning methods and products. Buyers viewing your home can be put off by this.

Hiring professional cleaners can get your kitchen and bathroom tile sparkling clean, which better stages your home and presents an attractive image for potential buyers.

Helps with Inspection

If you get an offer on your home without cleaning or updating your tile, it may present problems at the home inspection. Tiles that appear defective, moldy, or aren't properly sealed may indicate water damage. And when this information gets passed on to the buyer, they could require you to take care of the issues before moving forward with the sale.

Doing so before listing your home can prevent inspection problems and save you the time and trouble of having to do it down the road.

Frees Your Time

Selling your home leaves you with a to-do list that can keep you pretty busy. And attempting to tackle a tile cleaning project on your own can be time consuming.

When you hire a professional company, you can spend your time doing the things that only you can do to sell your home. Like what, you ask?

Well, there are a lot of creative ways to market your listing. For instance, make a video of your top three favorite memories made in your home, or plan a block party for your open house and get your neighbors involved. Small things like trimming the bushes outside and adding a few decorative lights can be effective. Take care of the fun stuff involved in making your home picture perfect and leave the cleaning to the professionals.

Can Prevent Mistakes

Cleaning the tile yourself is an option, but you need to know that it involves more than a bottle of bleach and a scrub brush. You also don't want costly mistakes that can cause damage.

For example, you need to use the right equipment. A lot of popular DIY websites steer homeowners in the right direction by telling you which tools you need. Unfortunately, some of those tools can do more harm than good if they're not used properly.

Also, some people make the mistake of using a vinegar/baking soda cleaning solution because it seems gentler than bleach. But vinegar is so acidic that it can actually corrode the grout.

Some people rent steam mops to clean tile floors, but these usually aren't capable of getting into the grout and cleaning out the deep layers of dirt and grime.

Professional cleaners have been trained to do the job right, and if you stick with a company that's licensed, bonded, and insured, any mistakes that are made will be covered by their insurance. Any mistakes you make will have to come out of your own pocket.