Just like your skin, your home benefits from regular cleaning and care to keep from looking older than it is. Buyers are usually looking for a home that has enjoyed some upkeep and care from the owners, not some property that's been abused and discarded. Any home that isn't taken care of will show the signs of aging and decay long before it should.
There are many specific ways that your property can become prematurely aged but most of them fall under two categories: lack of maintenance and lack of cleaning. Maintenance includes the upkeep of parts of your house like gutters and furnace, ensuring that those parts work. Cleaning covers more of the day to day vacuuming, shampooing, scrubbing, etc.
Many pictures posted online of homes for sale give the impression that no one ever cleans them. Pictures showing excessive clutter or messy bedrooms imply that the owners don't care enough about their home to pick up after themselves. Even worse, some homes are in this condition when prospective buyers come to look at them. Dirty smudged walls, animal hair in the corners, and grease build up in the kitchen can all make a home look older than it really is.
Lack of maintenance is an even worse offense than lack of cleaning however. Tenants who don't clean a home might cause damage that requires fixes such as repainting or re-flooring but a lack of maintenance can result in major appliances needing replacement or worse. Homes can end of with some serious mold problems due to leaky roofs or poorly maintained gutters. Issues like this can contribute to health problems and odors in the home and be very costly to fix if left too long.
When buyers walk through a house that hasn't been well cleaned or maintained it immediately turns them off buying a property in many cases. Any areas that haven't been well maintained are liable to come to light during a home inspection, so don't think that you're saving any money by not doing the maintenance. At the very least, the offers that you do receive will be significantly lower than if the house was tidy and clean.
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