Quick Tips to Stage Your Home
If you're thinking of selling your property, or even getting a higher offer when on the market, you should consider staging.
What is staging? Staging a property is the act of organizing or preparing your home for sale, with a focus on appearance and presentation. The goal here will be to make the home more appealing to the potential buyers that will be walking through it, with the final goal of getting the best and highest offer. Remember think like a buyer when staging your home.
There are many companies out there that offer staging as a service, they offer services from rearranging your existing furniture to bringing in their own. Their prices vary on how much work they will perform and how long their furniture needs to stay at your property.
When deciding on staging you have to consider the value and cost. Staging an empty property will cost more, of course because there nothing in the property. And when staging a furnished home, it should cost less, depending on the condition of the furniture. Cost to stage a vacant property can range from $250 to $1000s, depending on the how many rooms need to be staged. Staging a furnished home should usually cost from $250-$500. And most staging companies will stage for a 3 month period, additional fees will apply if you need a longer period.
Have you staged your home for selling?
Below are some do it yourself tips for staging your home.
Curb Appeal: Make sure to trim bushes and tress, cut the grass, check the flower beds for dead plants and put down some bark or moulch around the dirt areas(I've used the red moulch which stands out). Check for chipped paint around the property, touch up the areas that need it. The front door is very important, make sure its clean or paint it if needed, a dirty door is always a turn off for prospective buyers.
De-clutter: Try and have minimal things in each room, you want to make sure that potential buyers can walk through every room with out feeling crowded. Put things away, kids toys move them to the garage, clear countertops, don't have too many towels hanging, or clothes laying around. Another place to de-clutter would be you fridge door, take down as much as possible.
Cleaning: This goes without saying, your home needs to be clean. This will include mirrors, windows, kitchen, bathrooms and floors. And make sure it smells good, use those wall plugins. Huge tip - close the toilet lids, a toilet seat left up is not appealing.
De-Personalize: This is a must in my opinion. Take down family and friends photos, some buyers tend to associate and make a descision on a home with the photos there. Religious artifacts, if you can, take these down also. Food, do not leave food on the stove or counters, this includes dirty dishes.
Finally Make it Inviting: When there is a showing or open house, make sure that you the owners, are not present when potential buyers show up. Leave soft low music on, jazz works well. Plug in air freshners, bake cookies or spray Febreze, the house needs to smell good. Open all the curtains/blinds, or turn on some lights, the property needs to look bright and open.
Remember your final goal is to sell and sell for the most possible, so put a little time in preparing your home before listing it. Talk to your Realtor and ask for their opinion on how things should look, an outside prospective is always good. And good luck on the sell of your home.
Staging for Profit
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© 2012 TomRy