Staging Your Home To Sell

With the right team in place you could be part of the elite group of people that sell their home in 11 days or less. Attorney Rick Carter and everyone's favorite Paralegal Kathy Holtshouser discus many of the ins and outs of staging your home with Licenced Home Stager Extrordinaire Candice Pagliarulo (Pags). Check out https://stagedhomes.com/homes/homeslist.php?asp=35719 for more information on Candice.

Staging of a house occurs where you are presenting the features of the house in it best possible light.

Introductory Facts;

1. Most brokers believe a house sells for a greater price in less amount of time if a house is staged.
2. Brokers believe it allows the buyers to visualize the property as their future home as opposed to someone’s existing home.
3. A buyer is more willing to walk through a home that they saw on line if that house is staged.

Tips on Staging your Home:

1. You need to clean and organize your home.
2. Declutter as much as possible.
3. The property should almost look like a rental in a five star hotel.
4. Have a plan for your move. Attack one room systematically at a time. Give yourself plenty of time prior to your scheduled closing date.
5. In general you might want to get rid of about 50% of your possessions.
6. Make sure the closets are not jammed with clothes. You want the closets to appear spacious.
7. Similarly you do not want bookcases filled to the brim. The less amount of books the better.
8. Sort your belongings into five groups; those that you are selling, storing, throwing away, donating, and keeping.
9. If you have not used something within the last six months remove it from the property.

• Plan on renting dumpsters and/or storage facilities.
• Depersonalize the home, the land, and the driveway. You want the buyer to envision them living there as opposed to the present owner living there.
• For the Bathroom: Make it look as clean and neutral as possible. Make it look like a bathroom you would want to see at a five-star hotel. Put away toiletries, tissue boxes, and used bar of soaps. Remove bathroom items such as scales, toilet brushes, plungers, toilet seat covers and rugs around the base of the toilet. Think of what can be done for short money. Replace old, padded or wooden toilet seats. Close the toilet lid. Remove all medicine from the cabinets.
• Bedrooms: Remove wire clothing hangers. Replace them with plastic white hangers. (The property is perceived to have more value). Again remove any personal items, photos, personalized calendars, trophies, and memorabilia. Remove those stuffed animals, Knick knacks, dolls, and/or figurines. Clothing should not be left out in conspicuous areas. Computers should be left unplugged for the open house.
• Remove distinct artwork, décor and collections.
• Kitchen: Keep surfaces and appliances (including the inside) clean. Remove unnecessary countertop and other kitchen items such as towel holders, magnets, calendars, dish drainers, drain stoppers. You should not have kitchen items within 8 square feet of other items.
• The Living Area: Again remove all personalized items and mementos. Throw rugs should be avoided as they can make the room appear uneven or fragmented.
• Remove all but a select few pieces of furniture.
• Furniture that remains should be well-chosen and usually smaller pieces of furniture.
• Can the extra sleeve in the dining room table be removed to make the room look bigger?
• Houseplants should be watered and healthy looking. Fake dusty houseplants are a huge no-no.
• Newspapers and mail should be removed.
• Remove all signs of pets.
• You might want to remove any mouse traps. Get rid of cobwebs and signs of pests, i.e. roach traps.

24. Think of what you can do for cheap money throughout the house. Think of any repainting or touch up work you can do.

• Paint with neutral colors.
• Neutralize strong odors.
• Put away items of religion, politics, and ideology.
• Play up the season at hand but not the holiday season.
• Remove signs that indicate that there is deferred maintenance.
• Maximize space that might appeal to your market buyer. Maybe turn a home office into a small bedroom.
• Use decorative and lighting techniques to draw the eye away from unappealing aspects of the house and draw the buyer to the strengths of the house
• Add finishing touches such as flowers, cushions, bowls of fruit that pop and catch your eye. Maybe add a duvet to your master bedroom.
• Your curbside appeal is very important since the buyer is seeing this even before they see the house. A buyer may make their mind within 30 seconds of seeing a home.
• The front entrance is very important.
• Driveway is important. Minimize the amount of cars.
• Spruce up your landscaping.
• Cleanout down spouts and gutters.
• You might want to talk to the neighbors to see how they can assist with the outside look of the house.
• Add an impersonal welcome mat.
• Once staged have a professional photographer take pictures of the property. But keep the pictures true to the actual look of the property. Avoid those wide angle panoramic views of a room. You don’t want the buyers disappointed with the view that they actually see in person.
• Use a lot of lighting for the home. This includes even when the house is not being shown because people will be driving by the property.
• Keep the house heated.
• Try to strategize on how a buyer should be living in a staged area.
• Welcome feedback to the home. What worked and what did not work?