alt Hacker News> you'll get much less for your house without cleaning it, because human emotions
It's not because of emotions. It's because it correlates with other neglect that may be less obvious.
A good real estate agent has a rolodex of various contractors that can fix up a house to ready it for sale.
Cleaning the house doesn't retroactively fix the neglect though. It just makes the house look cared for to the lizard brain.