A Well-Staged and Decorated Home Entices Buyers to Come In and Stay a Lifetime!
A seller can certainly assist in helping create a “Welcome Home” experience for a buyer. Providing aesthetic tools like furniture, accessories, and decor helps awaken a buyer to the possibilities.
As well as presenting your home in its best possible light, home staging also helps buyers see themselves in that space. Buyer’s agents say that staging a home increases the dollar value offered on a home between one and five percent in comparison to like homes on the market that are unstaged. Seller’s agents concur, also reporting an increase of one percent to five percent of the dollar value offered by buyers, and adding that there were slight decreases in the time on the market when the home is staged as well.
Empty houses provide little interest. Who wants to picture themselves in a boring home? Buyers should be invited to imagine themselves coming home to your space.
“Buyers have a hard time envisioning themselves if it’s empty,” said Scott Leverette of McGuire Real Estate in Berkeley, Calif. “I think also a home looks smaller if it’s empty.”
Tips from real estate and home staging professionals might include:
* Put A Little Love in Your Art
When creating the space, home stagers will bring in furniture, art, and accessories that are current with the trends offering style and inspiration. A buyer may be persuaded to make their highest and best offer on a home that looks as though it was on a picture of a magazine.
* Eliminate the Negatives
Be a savvy seller! Your outdated decor will immediately turn off a potential buyer, lowering your home value and making the selling process that much more difficult. Items that may be considered out of date and nearly obsolete in today’s standards for construction: Gold or brass-like lighting and plumbing fixtures; doorknobs and cabinet hardware: “Swap it all out for something with contemporary appeal," says Emily Finch, an interior designer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Even chrome can be considered outdated and give an impression of a low-budget feature. Brushed nickel and bronze are currently the new metals of choice with designers and builders. Consider exchanging dingy beige outlet plates and switches for new clean contemporary white ones for an easy fix at a reasonable cost expense.
* Tu Casa es Su Casa
Buyer and seller agents alike agree that a buyer should be enticed to see themselves living in a home. A very popular suggestion is that a seller “depersonalize” the space. Showing off pictures and art of the kids and grandkids is every parent and grandparents joy….except when trying to sell a house. Personal articles only remind potential buyers that they are in someone else’ home and therefore can be huge distractions.
While removing these personal items, begin to pack away and store items that are not strategic for home staging. A cluttered home is another huge distraction and can make a home feel smaller.
* Home Cozy Home
Different in the way a cluttered home can be a huge distorter of Feng Shui, creating homey vignettes or inviting settees lends a peaceful easy feeling causing a buyer to pause and take in the surroundings.
* Put Some New Shoes On
Some sellers feel very strongly about people taking their shoes off or insisting that shoe cover booties be worn when touring their home. By giving buyers explicit instruction as such, you are reminding them of the seller’s connection to the home. Remember, the goal is to allow buyers to picture your house as theirhome. This becomes harder to do with a constant awareness of being in another person’s home. Sellers, remember that you're moving and clean carpet will soon be the concern of someone else!
* Just “Pet” i-ful!
In the items of most common home improvement tips, agents will also highly recommend, “Remove pets (and signs of them) during showings!” Meeting someone else’s animals can be stressful. Pets might be protective of their turf, so owners should consider taking them somewhere else during showings…. While adorable to their owners, pesky pets can be a nuisance…a barking dog screams “Go away! This is not your home!”
There is absolute strategy involved in selling a home. Sellers and their agent share in the burden of securing the highest and best offer on the home. Agents have a fiduciary duty to their clients as a seller has responsibility and duty to getting their home in its best possible showing presence. It is in a seller’s best interest to show their home in its greatest potential!
Looking to sell your home? Contact one of our agents today to get info on your home's value and insight on how to get your home into outstanding showing condition!