By Barb Schwarz, The Creator of Home Staging® and CEO www.Stagedhomes.com
I often receive questions from home owners who want to learn about Home Staging. Most are about to put their homes on the market and want to know how they will benefit from Staging before their REALTOR® starts marketing their home. Also I hear from sellers who have had their homes on the market for quite some time and they are now looking for a solution to sell their homes before there is yet another price deduction.
Here is a list of my top ten tips on how to Stage® a home.
- Always hire an ASP® Stager to Stage® your Home. Whether they provide you with a written plan after an initial consultation for you to Stage® yourself or they do the Staging for you, you know it will be done right.
- Make sure your Home is Completely Free from Clutter. Pack up stuff such as collections, family photos, and any other items that may take up necessary space and create a distraction for those visiting your home. As you clear out space, keep in mind: “The way you live in your home and the way you market and sell your house are two different things!”
- The Right Colors are Crucial. Pick a neutral color for the walls, and floors when needed. It will make your house feel bigger and prospective buyers will not turn away when they realize they would have to repaint a purple bedroom or bright blue living room. Use accent colors in artwork, bedspreads, towels and area rugs. It will add interest and the buyer knows you are taking those things with you. I call it ‘Moveable Color!’
- Keep it Q Tip clean. It’s very hard to envision living somewhere when buyers first have to mentally ignore that the home they are visiting is dirty. Make sure your home is absolutely clean, both inside and outside.
- Get Rid of Smells. I always say “If You can smell it, you can’t sell it!” Make sure to permanently remove any odors before you put your house on the market. Don’t cover up the smells, eliminate them!
- Rearrange Furniture to Create Space. It’s impossible to envision living in a home where all you see is furniture and no open space. Consider putting extra furniture into storage if you have too much furniture in any room. And sometimes you can move one piece of furniture from one room into another room where it looks ever better.
- Stage® Every Room. To sell the whole house you have to Stage® every room.
- Stage® the Outside to get the Buyer Inside. You must Stage® the outside of your home to get the buyer on the inside of your home. All of your property has to be Staged, and it starts on the outside.
- Keep the Lights and Music on Every Day. Make sure to keep your home Staged every day by keeping lights on timers in dark rooms and music softly playing in the background on each floor of the house. I call it ‘Buying Music.’ ‘Lights, Music, Action!”
- Keep it Staged until Closing. No sale is a real sale until the seller gets their money and the sale is recorded at the county. The best insurance you could ever have for your sale to close is to keep your home Staged till closing.
Stage® is a Federally Registered Trademark of Stagedhomes.com
The post 10 Tips on How to Stage® a Home appeared first on .
