As a Home Stager I hear weekly this song from people getting ready to sell their occupied home.
"My closets are stuffed, you hate your living room sofa, Grandma's old dinette set looks shoddy, and those oak cabinets in the kitchen are not going to fly with the younger buying bunch. You wish for a home that looks like the "AFTER" reveal of your favorite HGTV show. A house where everything is perfectly in place - plump pillows perking up your living room sofa, stylish accessories adoring your lovely kitchen, and all your closets looking like Martha Stewart spent the weekend in there."
It can be done! The majority of homes on the market have people living in them, have well used furniture, and spaces not recently remodeled. You just need a professional plan, make smart updates and changes, and have the emotional resolve to understand that your home becomes a stylish exhibit in a Realtor's advertising campaign for a cute couple to fall in love with.
How do you pull off this feat? The inside reality is - You need the professional services of a Home Stager. A Home Stager is going to be your ace in the hole to tell you what stays and goes, what to pack up, and what needs to be improved. Once you get done packing and improving, they'll swing back in and upstyled your home using your furnishings and accessories to their best advantage. From choosing a perfect color palette to attract the perfect buyer to styling each room to make that cute couple gush, Home Stager's can make an owner occupied home shine.
What is the process? Home Stagers start with an evaluation in which they'll review your home from curbside to back fence offering a list of instructions and suggested enhancements, changes and upgrades for you to get done.
PACK. You are moving, so pack it up. Start in the main living areas of your home, then bedrooms, then finally basement/storage and garage. Pack your home like a potential buyer would walk through your home - Foyer, guest closet, living room, dining room, etc. The goal of packing is to showcase every space of your home from guest closet to porch and. not distract the buyer with your stuff. And yes, even the closets... after all people move because they are out of room at their old house. Sell them their dream!
Living in a Staged Home TIP: Purchase flip top bins for each room of your home that you can use to organize yourself if the phone rings for a showing. Label each bin with the room. Pop the bins in the garage or storage for showings.
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| (Photo: Martha Stewart) |
IMPROVE. Make smart, cost effective, return on your investment updates and improvements. From a fresh coat of paint, walls and maybe your front door, swapping out your light fixtures both outside and in, refinishing or replacing flooring, to more involved projects such as painting kitchen cabinets. Smart updates can offer a great return. Sure they require a bit of cash to make these improvements, but the goal is a turnkey home, no buyer today wants a long list of things to do prior to moving in. The days of a 'carpet allowance' are long gone - eliminate as many negative reactions to your home as possible.
Living in a Staged Home TIP: If you are painting your rooms, plan on having the replacement lighting done at the same time. The ladders are all there and no need to circle back to touch up where the new fixture went in.
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| (Photo: Julea/Reinventing Space/VHT) |
Living in a Staged Home TIP: Try using only one bathroom for showering when selling our home. This way the other baths stay in 'model' condition. Always replace wet towels with dry ones if showing your home.
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| (Photo: Source) |
ROOM STYLING. Each space has to be styled to give the room its best selling advantage. This is where home stagers are best utilized (We are so worth our fee). Our interior arrangement and design know-how can expertly arrange, style and revamp each of your spaces to showcase the room without any emotional connection. We are masters at making each room visually and emotionally fabulous for that ideal buyer. We'll use what you have by shopping your home, perhap using pieces found in other rooms and reinvent the setting for selling, rather than dwelling.
If pieces are off scale or are not appealing for the prospective buyer, we can swap them out with rental or purchased items. Home stagers are a one stop shop to getting your home styled for that targeted, cute couple. The goal is that the buyer understands how to use each space, connects with the home and pictures themselves living there. They tour a home and fall in love with the story that the home conveys.
Living in a Staged Home TIP: Your furniture placement may be adjusted to visually invite buyers in and allow them to walk freely in the room and then pass to the next space. It may not be the layout you are use to, but you'll have to make allowance during the selling period
When you take the time, effort and investment to do the things we discussed above, your home will be at the top f the list for that cute couple and you'll revise that old song you sang to a shout - SOLD!
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(Photo:Julea/Reinventing Space/Portraits of Home) |
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