Mike Kobeissi on Setting a House Apart for Sale

Mike Kobeissi’s May 2023 WordPress essay is a seller’s checklist built on one premise: when many houses compete for the same buyers, the one that is spotless, current and appealing gets noticed.

The author begins with cleanliness, which he places ahead of every other step. Routine dusting and vacuuming are not enough in his view; a seller should arrange a thorough deep clean before the house goes on view. He then turns to appliances, urging owners to retire tired machines for newer ones while choosing models that fit their own needs and budget. Before making any change, he writes, a seller ought to learn what buyers in the area are actually looking for, since the house will be compared with its neighbors.

The additions he weighs

Most of the essay walks through five larger moves, and each comes with a caution. A swimming pool can make a house stand out, but the author notes that the upkeep it demands may put some buyers off, and that a neglected pool with cloudy water adds little. A deck is presented as one of the simpler improvements, provided the owner checks with the local building office about permits and plans the layout around a written list of wants.

The garage receives the most attention. The essay describes it as shelter for a car, extra storage, a workshop or a laundry room, sized for one, two or three vehicles and built of concrete, brick or wood, either attached to the house or standing apart. A fireplace, he writes, adds charm to the main gathering room, but an owner should settle why one is wanted before picking a type suited to the space. Rearranging furniture closes the list: before moving anything, he advises picturing how people will walk through the room so that no piece blocks a path.

Context for the checklist

The pool advice sits inside a long California story. Eichler Network traces how sprayed gunite, developed in the 1940s, opened a mass market for backyard pools that had once belonged to Hollywood estates, and how the appeal of indoor and outdoor living had the country in a pool craze by the mid 1950s.¹ Garages have their own problem; Architectural Digest observes that they tend to become catchalls for garden gear and holiday boxes until shelving and cabinets reclaim the floor.³

The essay’s caution about matching changes to buyers echoes older reporting. A CNBC survey of renovations advised owners to weigh each project by whether a future buyer would value it, and it reported that the home office remodel had long ranked poorly in resale studies because its use was so specialized.² The National Association of Realtors draws a related line between remodeling and staging, which it defines as decluttering and styling a house rather than rebuilding it.⁴

Read as a whole, the essay pairs nearly every upgrade with a question for the owner, and it returns to the pool, deck and garage a second time near its end to restate those questions.