It's easy to overlook your bathrooms when you prepare your home for sale. Bathrooms are an integral part of our everyday routine, and in our rush to get out the door, the stuff of our lives is usually left in full view. Potential buyers are more interested in a neat and tidy bathroom than they are in the artifacts of your morning preparations. They may correlate the condition of your bathroom with the care you've taken to maintain your home, and they could come to negative conclusions about the condition of your entire home based on the state of your bathrooms.
Make sure your bathrooms look like the ones you'd expect to find if you stayed at a nice hotel. You'd want the bathroom to be sparkling clean and fresh with no traces of any previous visitors. You'd be paying big bucks to stay at a nice hotel: Should a dirty bathroom be part of the package? Absolutely not! Home buyers don't want to envision it as part of their package either.
For a great "Bathroom Ready Checklist" see Karen Otto's great list below:
The White Glove Checklist for Beautiful Buyer-Ready Bathrooms
1. Purchase new luxurious towels for display purposes only. Use fluffy white or off-white towels to create a showcase bathroom.
2. Replace your old shower curtain with a new one in a neutral solid color. Replace the curtain rings at the same time.
3. Remove your daily necessities from the countertops. Toothpaste, medicine, your hair dryer and the like should be stored neatly in the cabinets.
4. Open up the room by removing excess non-permanent furniture, items and equipment. One exception would be a nice vanity seat, if one is present in the room. Bathrooms are usually small rooms, so you'll want to open them up by getting rid of unnecessary clutter.
5. Keep toilets clean with the lids closed, and be sure the toilet paper is on the holder.
6. Before you leave your home, wipe up any excess water from the shower, glass doors and bathtub. Ka-Boom is a great product to use on shower doors that have hard water spots or soap scum. Remove any used towels and bathroom floor mats.
7. Keep your bathroom décor to a minimum. River rocks and matching soap dispensers are a nice touch. If you like greenery, use silk orchids, simple ferns and bamboo to invoke a spa-like feel. Candles on the bathtub and a pretty jar of bath salts look nice, if space permits.
8. Clean, clean and then clean some more. Make sure everything sparkles from the baseboards to the light fixtures and including the countertops, cabinets, light switches, mirrors, bathtub, grout and shower. Think "spa-like retreat," especially where your master bathroom is concerned. Buyers want to envision themselves, not you, bathing in your bathtub.
9. Instantly update your bathroom by adding new modern hardware 
, painting any worn or outdated cabinets and, if appropriate, replacing older countertops and light fixtures.
10. If necessary, resurface your bathtub and shower to make them look like new. Resurfacing is a low-cost alternative to replacement, and you'll get a good return on your investment.
11. Change outdated wallpaper or very bold or personal paint colors to neutral tones. Stone, creamy beige and linen are good choices.
12. In most homes, bathrooms shouldn't be carpeted because carpets can be a repository for unhealthful mold. Consider whether you should replace carpet with flooring or tiling, but get several estimates before you decide to make this investment.
Here's a video interview on staging a bathroom from one of our members: 6 Tips to Make Your Bathroom Buyer Friendly.
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