Staging Your Home
Before you place your home on the market you should try to achieve a show home quality. You want to highlight your home's strong points and minimize the weak points. You are trying to persuade someone to spend Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars on your home, so you should try to deliver a quality product.
Get your Home Ready for Showings by focusing on these areas:
Lighting.
Open blinds & drapes, make sure all light fixtures are on & have working bulbs during showings. Many houses don't have enough lighting to begin with but you can go to any big box store and buy beautiful fixtures or lamps for minimal investment.
Living Areas.
Make sure furniture isn’t blocking the flow of a room. You might have a great sectional that you love, but if it makes the room look small, it has to go. Aim for small groupings of furniture, with plenty of space around them.
Kitchen.
1. Kitchen counters should be clear and clutter-free. A single vase holding cooking & utensils is okay, but that's about it. store small appliances in cupboards if you must.
2. Hire a professional cleaner to really make it shine! This rule, incidentally, should apply to the whole house.
3. Replace boring or worn cabinet pulls with high-design new ones. Consider brushed steel, which look great with stainless steel appliances, or decorative ceramic.
Depersonalize.
A potential homebuyer needs to picture themselves in your home. Remove your family photos and, if necessary, paint brightly coloured walls a more neutral shade.
Minimize.
Don't overcrowd any surface in your home. Remove most items from your walls, tables, counters, shelving, & cabinets. You want to give the impression that the house can easily accommodate the buyer's things. Don't kid yourself... people will look in your cabinets & closets.
Bathroom.
An ugly builder's mirror can be replaced with a nice framed mirror for under $100. Switch out the lighting for a nice chandelier or some attractive new sconces and the bathroom will look as if it's been renovated.
Master Bedroom.
Add some fresh bedding to bring your room together. Multiple new pillows with shams or toss pillows in front, crisp linens and a throw at the end of the bed. Keep end tables uncluttered, with matching lamps and nothing else except, perhaps, an alarm clock.
There are a lot of things to consider when staging a home and this list touches on just a few. You may find that hiring a professional stager makes this job much easier! An objective and professional opinion can add value that you can't achieve when staging your own home. Contact Dewar Realty today to discuss how to best prepare your home for sale.
Posted by Greg Dewar on
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