Maximize Your Results When Selling Your Home by Following These Easy Home Staging Tips.
Easy Home Staging Tips:
- Obtain feedback from a friend, relative or neighbor – Your objective is to get the most honest feedback as possible. Start with the exterior and work your way through the entire house. If your home has a garage, basement and/or attic – make sure you address those places as well.
- Check out your competition – Even if it means driving around and writing down the addresses to view them online, you need to understand how your home compares to the others on the market in your area.
- Create a list, plan and prioritize – Preparing a home for the market can be a bit overwhelming; this is where a well thought out plan will help reduce the stress. As items are completed, check it out the list. Repairs should top your list. Buyers don’t want to own fixing problems in their newly purchased home.
- Think like a buyer, not a seller – Viewing your home as a buyers versus a seller can help reduce the emotional connection you may have with your home. This may be difficult for some sellers as the bond can be quite strong. However, you need to remember that homebuyers come into your home with an entirely different perspective.
In addition to the above, it sometimes the smallest of things that can make a world of difference. Adding two pots of flowers by the front door or changing out the welcome mat at the front door can literally change that immediate first impression.
For examples of some of the transformations we’ve made with our Atlanta home staging services, click on the following link:
Atlanta Home Staging Portfolio.Kathy
How to Ensure Your Home Appeals to a Broad Base of Prospective Buyers
If you’ve ever toured a model home, it’s likely that you’ve noticed that the secondary bedrooms are typically staged as a boys’ room and the other as a girls’ room. The third bedroom, assuming there is one, is typically done as an office. There’s a reason for that. The developer, by design, is positioning the home to appeal to all types of buyers. Smart? You bet.
As a home seller, you have the same opportunities. Here are a few tips:
- Avoid “labeling” the room – Typical labels are “children’s names.” For example “Johnny’s Bedroom.” When buyers enter “Johnny’s Bedroom” the subliminal message being conveyed is that it’s Johnny’s, not theirs. You want buyers to envision it being their home. Another example, and one I see quite often as a home stager in Atlanta (although, I’m sure this happens everywhere) is to see diplomas on walls. While you have every reason to be proud of that accomplishment, it’s another label reminding the buyers that the home is yours.
- Don’t make assumptions - Just because you may be using one of the secondary bedrooms as a storage room, don’t assume that the buyer will want to do the same. In addition, it screams that your home lacks storage. Your best bet is to set the room up as a bedroom.
- Use props – Buyers are motivated by their emotions. “Nice things” evoke “nice emotions.” Props can range from white fluffy towels to new bedding and no, they don’t have to be expensive.
And while you’ll never know exactly who the buyer will be, ensuring your home appeals to a broad base of prospective buyers will lend incredible support in helping to sell it quickly.
Kathy
I don’t know about you, but I practically live in my home office. Now this isn’t such a great thing, and I’m working on getting out more, but it does go to show that home offices are as essential to today’s life styles as a large, family kitchen. While all buyers may not be running a home-based business, they need a home office or study to run their family business. The days of paying bills at the kitchen table are long gone. Which explains why a Home Office or Study is number three on the list of what home buyers want.
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The following blog entry is part of our series: What Home Buyers Want and How You Can Make It Happen, where Interiority Complex is taking a deeper look at a recent study on home buyer preferences. If you’re just joining us, click here to get up to speed on the study. Item # 1 on the list of what buyers want to see in a new home is Large Kitchens and Kitchen Islands.
Don’t fret if you’re selling or staging a home and don’t have the budget to do a major kitchen remodel. Much of the time, it’s not necessary. You can spruce up a kitchen and make it feel more spacious by taking cues from the pro’s: (more…)
During this amazing tele-summit, you and the people on your list will learn:
- how to balance and improve the energies in your property and make it more appealing to buyers
- which improvements would add the most value to your home when renovating or remodeling
- how to leverage social media marketing to get your house SOLD quicker than you can imagine (more…)
In a recent study of home buyer preferences conducted by Avid Ratings Co featured in on one of our favorite blogs, Styled, Staged & Sold, we learned a lot about what today’s new home buyer is looking for. How does this relate to properly packaging, marketing and staging an existing home when going on the market? First of all, we can probably assume that these preferences would be applicable to those purchasing pre-owned homes as well. Since the definition of staging includes “preparing a property to appeal to the most number of buyers as possible” and this study shows us what most buyers are looking for, BINGO! We’ve got the ingredients for our action plan right before our eyes. Thanks to this study, we know where focusing our attention will yield the best ROI when staging a home to sell. Ready to get started? First let’s take a look at the Top 10 Features Buyers Want in a New Home: (more…)
The Real Estate Staging Association® (RESA®) study shows 126 homeowners had their property on the market on average of 263 days before they decided to stage. 263 days = 9 months!!!
Those same homes were staged and sold in 60 days on average after staging. This is 78% less time on the market. This is 7 months less time on the market.
As an example, using this formula you can determine approximately how much money you will continue to spend while your home is on the market un-staged.
If your mortgage is : $1800.00
If your direct expenses are: $300.00
Total carrying cost per month: $2,100.00
Our study shows home owners had their property on the market for an average of 9 months. $2,100.00 X 9 months = $18,900.00 in expenses.
Had those homeowners staged first, their time on market would have been cut by 223 days on average (7 months). $2,100.00 x 7 months= $14,700.00
Staging their homes first would have saved them $ 14,700.00.
These numbers are all relative to individual mortgage and expenses. Use this simple formula to determine how much you will save by staging your home or listing before putting it on the market:
Mortgage + expenses (utilities etc.) = Monthly expenses
Monthly expenses X 9 months (avg. time un-staged) = Cost to list house un-staged
Savings: Expenses x 7 months (average time on market reduced) – staging fee = Savings if you stage your house first!
** If you have a price reduction you can also add that into the loss you are taking by listing a property un-staged.
Staging a Home to Appeal to First Time Buyers
We all know that staging a home for sale means turning it into a product that will appeal to the largest cross-section of potential buyers out there. However, stagers are well-advised to bear in mind the likely demographic of potential buyers for a given property. For instance, recently the market was stimulated by the availability of the increased first-time home buyer’s tax credit. Homes of a size and location likely to appeal to first-time buyers need to be staged to appeal specifically to this group of people. (more…)
