5-Star Home Staging

 

 

Sellers often ask what they can do to make their home sell quickly and for a better price. Home prices have dropped over the past few years with more short sales and foreclosures on the market. To compete with those listings, your home must stand out in a positive way.
 

Sparkling Move-in Condition: You can put your regular sale home ahead of those foreclosures and short sales that are not normally as pristine. Not every buyer wants to paint and make repairs when they buy a home, especially if they are paying a bit more money for it; they tend to put in higher offers on homes they perceive they can move into immediately without any fuss.

 

Avoid This Mistake: Don't think your collection of souvenirs, trophies and knick-knacks is will be appreciated by buyers. Personal items and knick-knacks are very distracting to buyers; they start thinking about the seller more than the house.


De-Personalize: Family photos should be removed: When a homebuyer looks at your home, phots make it more difficult to imagine themselves living there. Your personal photographs can definitely prevent this process; they are documentation that someone else lives in the home and cause curiosity. It makes good safety sense that children's photos and items with their names on them should definitely be removed

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Store Excess Furniture: A sparsely furnished home shows more effectively than one with an abundance of furnishings; it looks more spacious. You will benefit in price if your home appears larger, and trimming down excessive belongings will achieve this.

 

Remove Ethnic/Religious items: These items are very distracting to buyers and unfortunately may even influence their choice.

 

Pack Away Collections: Not only will collectibles be potentially vulnerable to theft, they also tell a lot about the owner, which is distracting to buyers.

 

Most of us have a hard time discerning how much stuff is too much and what stuff is a turn-off to buyers when it comes to our own homes. Often sellers benefit by a professional staging consultation to identify items that should be moved or removed.

Imagine walking into a 5-star hotel suite:  Irregardless of the fahionalble decor, you would expect to see only the necessary items of furniture, beautiful yet minimal decorations, impeccable cleanliness, no evidence of personal items or trash, beds made neatly, everything in its functional place. You would know others had stayed in the room, but there would be no obvious evidence of it and you are not drawn into thinking about them.

 

Imagine the suite has a comfortable decor, only a few tasteful pictures on the walls, the curtains are clean and open, and there aren't any personal items of someone else laying around. A home doesn't need to be brand new to present the image of a "model home."

 

In your 5-star home for sale, the smell of fresh linen and fragrant cleaning solutions are good.  Everything is clean and put away. The kitchen sparkles; the bathrooms are spotless, with toilet lids down, a squeaky clean sink, a clean shower curtain or door, and no dirty or wet towels hanging on the rod. You've removed fingerprints on doorways, appliances and by light switches.  All closet doors are closed.

It's true, typical American homes are not hotel suites and this may seem like an extreme staging goal. We all have normal lives with the need for normal personal items in our homes. Nonetheless, during the selling period, you will benefit greatly by making the sacrifice of trimming down your possessions, by moving them to storage, by packing them for the move, or by selling them or giving them away to charity.

The 5-Star Hotel Suite image may be extremely difficult or impossible to achieve, but keep it in your mind as a do-your-best goal to attract the greatest number of buyers. Don't beat yourself up if you can't quite get the look, but aim for the uncluttered, ultra-neat-and-clean look for your home. Buyers will be impressed and more willing to put in higher offers. Plus, your home is likely to sell more quickly!

The three most important factors in getting a home sold are: Price, location, and condition. You may not be able to control completely current prices or market value of your home, and you definitely can't control the location, but you do have total control over the showing condition which can affect the price and the length of time your home stays on the market.