Debbie Soden's Blog

Staging is presenting your home in its’ best possible light making it attractive to the prospective buyer.  You want the prospective buyer to see themselves being very happy living in your home and thus, wanting to buy it.  So what happens when a house is staged? 

When selling your home you want to appeal to as many buyers as possible. That means keeping things simple, clean, and uncluttered. This way the buyer is not distracted by what’s in the house, but can imagine the house filled with the buyer’s own things. You need to look at your home with a neutral eye and remember that the home you are putting up for sale is not the same as the home you live in. 

There are several things you should consider when staging your home. 

1.       Emotionally detach yourself from the home. This is very important. No matter how long you’ve lived in the home, or what your memories of this place are, you have chosen to move on and therefore want someone else to make their own memories in this home. It is for sale now and it’s become a product; you must treat it as such. 

2.       A buyer doesn’t need to see everything you own. Sometimes homes can have too much stuff in them. The furniture should be positioned to show the best features of the house as opposed to the best angle to view the tv. There should be ample space to move around the house. You never want the home to look cluttered or messy. By clearing out the space, it also allows you to start the packing process.  

3.       We love to show off our family and friends and we like keeping mementos where we can see them … but your potential buyer should be looking at the house, not at your personal things. It is best to remove your personal photos from the space. Remember, the point is for the buyer to feel themselves living in the space and not feel as if they’re imposing on someone else. So remove the personal photos from the walls, tables, and even the refrigerator. You should even remove all indications of pets living in the home. 

4.       People are nosy and as potential buyers, they will be looking at everything. Closets and cabinets should be neat and tidy. Buyers will open all doors including closets, cabinets in the kitchen, and medicine cabinets, so make sure to clean them, stack things neatly, remove excess,  and particularly remove anything that you don’t want strangers to see. 

5.       If want to keep it, remove it. Outside of major appliances, if there are things in the home that will not be included in the sale, such as curtains, chandeliers, light fixtures, etc., remove and replace them before the open house. Once buyers see them, they will either expect them to remain as part of the sale, or it may influence some people to buy or not to buy. So to avoid any problems, replace everything that you would like to take with you. 

6.       Lastly, make the place spotless. If buyers see dust and dirt they will assume that the home has not been taken care of. A new coat of neutral-color paint could add hundreds of dollars to your selling price. 

Once again, remember that the home should be simple, clean and welcoming. You want as many people as possible fighting over your home… all in a good way.

If you are thinking about buying or selling your home, give me a call for more ideas on how you can “showcase” your property and get it sold fast.

Tags: Real Estate, real estate agent, staging

Posted on Wednesday, June 8th, 2011 at 5:36 pm and is filed under Questions and Answers, Real Estate, Real Estate Agent. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.