Staging Your Home For Sale
Many buyers have a hard time imagining what a house would look like with different furnishings or a different furniture arrangement. That's why we here at Lake & City Homes are big believers in staging. We've been known to go to great lengths to stage a vacant home, even using excess furnture from one home to stage another home! In a tough buyer's market, sellers need to be especially open to suggestions from Realtors about how best to stage their homes.
Who Should Stage My Home?
Although there are several courses Realtors can take to become certified in staging, a good designer can stage your home for about $150 and a good Realtor with the proper training can usually do it for free. There's no question a well-staged home (that's also priced right) will attract a great deal more attention from prospective buyers, whereas an unstaged home (despite the fact that it may be priced right) will more often than not sit on the market much longer than it would have if it had been staged properly.
You'd be surprised how well you can stage your home for little to money. All that's needed is a little time, energy, and creativity.
Top 15 Staging Tips
Here are the principles I use most frequently when staging a home for the market:
1. remove clutter from surfaces and replace with items that can be displayed in "twos & threes"
2. don't mix vastly different styles of furniture in the same room (Victorian+Modern Contemporary=Ouch!)
3. remove rugs that are sitting on top of carpeting (it might give the impression you're hiding a stain)
4. avoid clashing patterns when it comes to bed linens, throw pillows & blankets on couches, etc.
5. give each room one purpose (e.g. don't combine office equipment and bedroom furniture)
6. create "white space" in bookshelves, on side tables, on kitchen countertops, etc.
7. relocate any lamp that's sitting directly in front of a window
8. put fresh fruit or flowers in the kitchen and set the table
9. size artwork and pictures to the available wall space
10. open up spaces by removing or relocating furniture
11. if possible, create a focal point for each room
12. avoid putting too many pictures in hallways
13. avoid displaying too many items on shelves
14. make sure outdoor furniture is left outside
15. avoid displaying personal items & photos
Be prepared to invest about three hours of time for every 1,000 square feet of living space (give or take an hour depending on how much prep work needs to be done).
In a buyer's market there's simply no point in putting a home up for sale that isn't ready for prime-time - so spend the time upfront to get your home in tip-top showing condition!
Call us today at (563) BUY-SOLD or fill out the short form below to inquire about preparing your home for sale, to request a free market analysis of your home, or to inquire about listing your property with Lake & City Homes.
