Home Staging
Category Advice
Home staging is about making your house a marketable commodity, making it look bigger, lighter and airier for instance, and not about concealing its shortcomings or defects.
Make the house inviting by playing background music or putting out fresh flowers or fruit.
Enhance its best features and make it a place where anyone would love to live while minimising the bad features and keeping costs as low as possible. Get some tips...
Take a closer look
Take a walk about with a notepad and pen. Be honest and critical like a potential home buyer would be.
What’s your first impression of your home? List anything that you would change.
Look at the property’s best features and think of ways you can enhance them or how to minimise or improve other not-so-impressive aspects of your home without breaking the bank.
Take time to prepare your house for sale. Work through the house room by room, look at its purpose and architecture and consider what a buyer would want.
Use elbow grease, do the work. Take photos.
Show off your property at its best on the internet and in print.
Staging a beautiful space
When it comes to home staging, there are a number of things you should do beyond cleaning, painting in neutral colours and making minor repairs.
Kerb appeal is important because that’s the buyer’s first impression of the property. The street number must be visible. Tidy up your paving, fences, walls, palisades, shrubs, trees, lawn and plants.
Declutter
Sort through all your stuff and pack away or limit personal items.
Donate furnishings and other household objects that are still in good condition but no longer in use.
Pack away excess items and furniture, and move them into an allocated space in the garage or storage area thereby maximising storage space in the home – buyers do look into cupboards.
Arrange pieces of furniture in appealing groupings, removing clutter and all the extras.
Display your accessories creatively
Use existing scatter cushions and throws to their best advantage or, if you plan on buying accessories and furniture for your new place, why not use these when showcasing your home.
Open up rooms by removing heavy drapes or net curtaining and air the house to eliminate any unpleasant odours.
Add focus to a room, either by painting an accent wall or hanging art and remove or replace items that you want to take along with you - if the buyer never sees it they won’t want it.
When all is done, you’ll be left with a well-maintained home you’ll be proud to show.
You will attract more potential buyers and sell faster for the right price.
Tips for the actual show day
Before the buyers arrive make sure that your house is neat.
Have a duffle bag in each room with cleaning supplies. When the call comes for an unexpected showing, involve everyone to clean and use the duffle for storage of any items that should be out of sight, such as unopened mail and toys.
Remember to put everything where it belongs after the show to prevent it from becoming a clutter haven.
Be welcoming
When your guests arrive remove your pets or take them with you.
Make the house inviting by playing background music or putting out fresh flowers or fruit.
Add a touch of hospitality. Put out the kettle with cups or mugs, coffee, tea, milk and sugar, bottled water and juice for the agent and buyers.
Add a bowl with wrapped confectioneries or biscuits.
By putting in a little bit of effort and making the necessary changes and repairs with or without help of professionals will enhance your property and increase its style and value.
Author: Heidi Meter Cloud9organised
