Staging Your Home

Staging your home to sell is not as difficult as it may seem. With a little thought and effort, improving your home is one of best ways to ensure you get the most money, in the least amount of time when selling.

Heather's Top staging tips:

1. A buyer's first impression of your home is the yard. Make sure the lawn is mowed and edged, keep yard art to a minimum, replace dead and dying plants, and be sure the entry/porch is an inviting place to come.
2. Consider packing early. Some do not want to do this, but putting away collections, photos, and knick knacks can have tremendous impact on buyers. Renting a storage unit can have huge rewards when comparing costs of storage and dollars returned on the sale. Move large furniture out of the home, rearrange items left to fit the room, and try several ways of placing furniture. If furniture is a little worn, consider buying couch or chair coverings. A buyer wants to envision how to place their own furniture and if yours fits nicely, then so will theirs.
3. Kitchens and baths are always a place to impress a buyer. Cleanliness is the most important, but neutral colors and uncluttered storage always impress. Be sure counter tops are cleared of excessive appliances, mail, dirty dishes, and whatever else may be distracting. Remove magnets from the fridge. One or two are fine, but displaying your travels, makes an otherwise attractive appliance look cluttered. Organize everything you possibly can. Neat works!
4. Clean your floors, professionally is best, but you can rent professional equipment and do it yourself. On that note, I also want to add that baseboards and kick plates often receive little attention from homeowners. Buyers on the other hand see everything. This is a big investment, they do not want to pay top dollar for a house with black smudges on white trim. Consider repainting high trafficked areas.
5. If you like bold paint colors, you are not alone. But neutral colors will not clash with buyers belongings. This allows a buyer totake time making decisions and changes after they move in. Freshly painted walls are always appealing and for a small investment, you may reduce your market time, increase your selling dollars, or both.
6. While staging refers to appearances, it is really about the feeling of the home. This is where odors come in. Have a friend or ask your agent to give you their honest opinion on how your home smells. Do not be offended, you have options. There are companies who specialize in odor removal. Don’t cook smelly meals before showings, use exhaust fans, don’t use heavy smelling deodorizers, and take your trash out frequently.
7. Remove large collections of photos and art work from the walls. Instead focus on the best features of a home with a few well placed pieces of art. For example, an attractive mirror or painting above a fireplace, creates a focal point in a room. It will either enhance or draw the eye of buyers. Giving them a visual aid on just how nice the fireplace can look. Photos are memories of the lives we have lived and the people who we care most about. A few placed throughout your home give a feeling of warmth. However, entire walls and shelves covered up with photos, is a big turn off. Buyers become so interested in looking at photos during a showing, they miss the great details of a home. In fact, often there strongest memory of a home is the photos.

If you have the best home, for the best price in a neighborhood, odds are you will sell more quickly than your competition. In fact, buyers tend to be more proactive with writing offers and less likely to try to negotiate your price way down. They know that they have seen the best home for them and losing it with a low offer is not the goal. But if a buyer finds a home needing a lot of cosmetic work, you will find any offers coming your way are with an eye toward getting a steal, I mean deal. Good Luck and please contact me for an obligation free evaluation of whether your home is ready to market!

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