Home Staged Home

What to do before you sell

“Home Staging” is more than just preparing to sell your home by making it look the best it can. It’s really the art of first impressions. For many home sellers and real estate agents, the concept of “home staging” is being more frequently recognized and used to effectively promote and market a home in the marketplace. However, while real estate agents are experts in the field of selling houses and closing the sale, many are not experts in design. If you are in the process of, or thinking about, selling your home, you may want to consider hiring a professional home stager to assist you. They work with the “flow” of a home, eliminate clutter, arrange furniture, and even assist in enhancing curb appeal. Or, if you’re more the do-it-yourself type, below are some tips on what you can do to improve your home’s “first impression.”

Start at the curb
Curb appeal is the first step to selling your home. No one wants to buy a previous owner’s dirty house. Power-wash the siding and wash windows until they shine. Trees, shrubs, and flowers should be neat and tidy, the garden weeded and the lawn mowed and edged. Once you’ve removed everything that isn’t necessary, add touches such as large, lush flower pots or hanging planters to welcome visitors.

Move inside
Once you’ve created a promising exterior, you need to focus on the interior. The key to staging is to make it meaningful, set the tone and suggest countless possibilities. That means you need to remove everything that could distract the buyer’s attention. Keep only what you must to remain functional. If you don’t use something everyday, pack it for the move.

Like the exterior, the inside needs to be neat and clean. If paint is showing signs of age, repaint. Neutrals often work best.

Once the house is clean, stage your home with minimal furnishings. If you need inspiration, visit some model homes to see how decorators have put rooms together.

Clear out closets, cupboards, and drawers.

Strip the kitchen down to the necessities. Counters, however, should be clear, except for a decoratively placed bowl of fruit or bouquet of fresh flowers.

It’s not necessary for individual rooms to be used for their original purpose as long as the functions they represent are logical and show the space off well.

Remove anything personal such as family pictures and mementos.

Edit books, CDs, and videos on bookshelves.

Arrange furniture to enhance the strengths of the room and facilitate traffic flow.

If your furniture shows signs of age, consider borrowing pieces.

Open the curtains to allow natural light to fill the room.

Appeal to the buyer’s sense of smell. Hot apple cider, cinnamon rolls, or fresh baked cookies add a homey smell.

Simplicity and comfort is your ultimate goal!

Get out of dodge…

It is always best to leave your home when a showing is scheduled.

We understand it may be inconvenient but if you do it from the start then chances are greater that your home will sell quicker.

I had a showing today and the owners stayed home.  This is uncomfortable for the potential buyers because they will not be able to speak freely and generally just want to get through house as quickly as possible.

Well today we had the owner follow us around and when we came upon a closed door I turned and looked at owner to see if we could go in.  She said yes.  Well I open the door and what do we see but a little girl sitting on the toilet for her potty training.  Needless to say the showing came to an abrupt end as the buyers wanted to leave.

So take note sellers whenever possible leave the home for showings…

This has been a free public selling announcement.

Presentation is everything…

Prosellers absolutely FREE SELLING TIP #2

The smell of cookies when you walk in the front door is GOOD!

However the hockey equipment scattered throughout the home that smells like…… well ummm NASTY is not good.

Your potential buyers have just made a note on the listing sheet and your house is now being referred to as SMELLY HOUSE.

Moral of the story leave Buyers with something good to talk about.

This has been a FREE PUBLIC SELLING ANNOUNCEMENT!

Dirty laundry is never a good thing, especially on a home showing…

Busy day done! Showings in Edmonton with some great people.

Prosellers absolutely FREE SELLING TIP #1.

Do NOT leave your dirty underwear on the bathroom floor in a pile next to a soggy smelly towel.

This has been a free public selling announcement.