Staging A Home For the Summer Market
Summer is usually one of the best times to sell your home and the summer season is also the most fun to stage and decorate for! Having witnessed my mom just do this for her house (and sell it in record time), along with her neighbor’s home that she volunteered to help stage (which, after being on the market for 2 years, sold within weeks of her completed work; go Mom!), I have amassed some outstanding tips for women looking to successfully stage their homes for quick summer sale.
De-clutter, depersonalize, and neutralize! The first thing you can do is clean up. Tidy up cluttered spaces and find places to store everything. Most of what you find is probably stuff you will never actually need once you move, so consider having a garage sale to get rid of everything you absolutely don’t need. The fewer things you will have to move, the better (especially if you are going to have to recruit or pay help!).
Once you’ve tossed the junk, look at your furniture. When staging a home, you need your house to be totally maximized in every respect. Therefore, re-arrange furniture to make each room look its biggest. This may temporarily involve removing and storing some pieces you plan on keeping. Just make sure the room still appears functional (i.e., leave the TV, the couch, the armchair, etc, but maybe cut out the love seat, crazy antique wood carving table you got from your Aunt Louise, and any nonessentials). If you have a friend or family member that can keep your excess stuff for you, then great, if not go ahead and rent storage. My mom assured me that the money she invested in a storage facility more than paid itself off with the speed of sale!
Be discerning about which pieces you decide to leave or take, however. I heard from a real estate agent that women shop for things, while men shop for structure. If you have a quaint little antique sewing table in an open corner or along a wall, and it contributes to your theme, don’t hide it! It may sell your house. The woman who bought my mom’s place took it on the condition that she could have the headboard, the curtains, the flatscreen TV wall-mounts, and the cushions on the window seat in her breakfast nook!
With depersonalizing, try to limit excess family photos and other sentimental touches that would make it harder for someone else to see themselves in your home.
Try to neutralize bold colors (even if you love them) on your walls and permanent fixtures by replacing wallpaper with softer paint, repainting old paint, or staining brightly painted wood pieces. My mom’s neighbor actually had lots of problems selling his house because he had eccentric wallpaper, bright blue walls, and a pink bathroom! Eyesore.
Flood the house with light. There is an ideal way to do this to ensure that you don’t go over the top. Leave you blinds halfway opened where they allow light to float up toward the ceiling (as opposed to down toward the ground). This coats everything in natural light and makes the ceilings to look a bit higher. People love natural light, and if they can be convinced that your place is a magnet for it, they will much more likely to buy.
Finally, you need to assess your curb appeal. Keeping the landscaping tidy, manicured, balanced, and simple, not hodge-podge, or complicated, signals to the potential buyer that your place is attractive from the street, and that the greenery is easy to maintain once they have the keys. Keep the windows free of high shrubs or exotic plants that could steal away the limelight.
If you stick to these basics, then you have already maximized your chances of selling your house in a flash. Remember, you are not trying to sell your own personal style, just your house.
Author Bio: Ethan S. writes on behalf of Design55, a UK-based designer furniture shop. Design55 Living Rooms is the best place to headquarter the furnishing of your new home.
Little Touch-ups That Make a Big Difference When Selling your House
You are probably already aware of the major things you need to do around your home to get it ready for sale. These include getting rid of clutter, doing minor repairs, and making everything clean and tidy so every room is as much of a showcase as possible.
But there are a myriad of little touch ups you can do that you may not have thought of before… touch ups that can make a big difference in how attractive your home looks to potential buyers.
Here are just a few:
Can you think of any other touch ups that will pay off when selling? Share them with us in the comments below.
Source: www.vanhomesales.com
How to Sell A House: Easy Ways to Fix Up Your House for Sale
Want to know how to sell a house in this market? Selling a home is never a small task, and with home sales still suffering it can be harder than ever within the current real estate market. Today, it’s not enough just to present the facts and let buyers use their imaginations as to how they might rework or redecorate the place.
It’s more important than ever to present to potential buyers a real vision of how the home could be theirs; the ideal locale in which to live, sleep, work, play, learn, grow and thrive. To get the best possible price when selling a home, many sellers and realtors are ‘staging’ homes with the right kind of amenities and furnishings to subtly persuade buyers into seeing the property in a new light. To easily fix up a house and make a faster sale for a higher asking price, without undertaking a full ‘staging,’ try some of the easy quick fix tips below.
The number one way to make a home sparkle and shine in the eyes of buyers is to make it actually sparkle and shine!
With a bit of good old fashioned elbow grease, and a great cleanser, any home can look its best with a good day or two of cleaning and organizing. Potential home buyers want to see that their investment was well cared for by the previous owner, instead of dreading inheriting someone else’s mess. Take the time to clear away clutter, scrub wooden floors, shampoo carpets, organize closets, dry-clean the curtains, clear drains and gutters, and even wash the home’s exterior.
Don ‘t stop with the home either, make sure the driveway and lawn are impeccable by mowing the lawn, trimming away tree branches, weeding any gardens or planted areas, and picking up any chaos or clutter that might frighten potential buyers away.
It’s understandable that a home will need a few touchups after being lived in for many years by any one owner.
Instead of leaving these touchups for the new buyer, it’s easy for sellers to take care of a few of the basics themselves for next to no investment. For example, it only takes a few moments to fill in picture frame holes, paint chipped window sills, or even just a few days to repaint the entire interior of the house. There’s no need to go professional with the paint job, just concentrate on creating neutral spaces the potential buyers will be able to envision their belongings in.
Painting the outside of the house is often unnecessary, but a fresh coat of paint on the windowsills or on the front door can really change the look of the house and make it seem fresh and exciting. Post the home’s street number in big, new numbers in an obvious place where potential buyers will be able to see them when arriving for a showing, or even when just driving by.
Finally, those up for a larger project that will really boost the return on investment should focus on quick fixes to the windows and floors.
Anything from a good cleaning and new window treatments, to an entire window replacement will help to sell the home more quickly. Floors, whether wooden or carpeted should be polished or shampooed to look their very freshest. Any dingy wooden floors can look brand new again with a weekend of sanding and refinishing, well worth the investment for the look on potential buyers’ faces. If there are wood floors hiding under carpeting in the home, don’t be afraid to expose them to increase the chances of a quick resale.
About the Author: This article is a joint effort from Jim Beadman of Construction Chemicals, who are experts in DIY projects from decorating a room to tanking a cellar, and Victoria Crowdell of Shopfit Design who specializes in displaying homes for sale on Cable Display systems.
Staging Tips: Appeal to the Homebuyer’s Senses
Every seller wants his or her home to sell fast and bring top dollar. It’s not luck that makes that happen. It’s careful planning and knowing how to professionally spruce up your home that will send home buyers scurrying for their cheque books.
Your home will be judged not only on its outward appearance, but also on the feelings it evokes in those who view your property. Follow these simple tips to prepare your house and turn it into an irresistible home.
Sight
Use light to showcase your home. Open draperies in the daytime and turn on lights (day and night) to accentuate a cheerful atmosphere. If you have a fireplace, burn a Duraflame log. De-clutter and remove any personal photographs and any potentially offensive posters or religious signs.
Sound
Consider playing soft background music while people tour your home. If there is exterior noise, such as traffic or nearby construction, work with your sales agent to schedule showings around noisy times of day.
Smell
Make sure your home is sparkling clean. Grind a fresh lemon in a garbage disposal or boil cinnamon sticks to add a clean, fresh scent. Candles and flowers look nice and smell pleasant as well. Lingering scents of strong-smelling foods, smoke or pets should be aired out prior to showing your home.
Taste
Realtors and home stagers say that one of the most appealing smells to people is fresh baked cookies. Bake a small batch of cookies before every showing (or at least on the weekends when there will be multiple showings). This not only adds a pleasant scent to the home, but also adds to the hospitable home atmosphere. Potential homebuyers may also appreciate a cookie or lemonade.
Add a human touch
Your home should appear livable. Update the look by making simple changes like rearranging furniture and accessories, painting, and adding stylish and practical pieces.
Buyers who come with agents are more at ease when the owner’s not around, so it is best if you take your children and pets on a short walk during the showing. To ensure your safety, remember to remove keys, jewelry and other valuables from your home during showings.
The key to getting your house sold is to make it stand out from the comparable real estate properties around you. This process is best done by making an emotional lure with a lot of bait. That bait comes in the form of unique characteristics of livability. Use plenty of hooks, and people looking to purchase a home will swarm to your bait and take it.
Article Source: www.vanhomesales.com
‘Going Green’: 5 Home Makeover Tips
By Dana J. Smithers
Many of us have been doing ‘green’ makeovers for years, just not realizing that we were doing is until it became a popular term. As a professional interior decorator and redesigner my clients often call on my services to give their home a whole new look, in just one day, using what they already have in their home. Seeing the transformation and knowing that these women feel SO much better about their home is one of the most satisfying aspects of my business. You can do your own ‘green’ home makeovers by following this simple formula below, but there is one thing you need to do before you begin:
EMPTY THE ROOM YOU ARE WORKING IN…
Most people would never think of doing this but this is the KEY to doing a successful home makeover. Once you decide which room you are going to do your ‘green’ makeover in, get rid of all the clutter and any items you do not really love. Start by taking out the smallest items first and begin grouping them putting like items together eg. Art with art, candles with candles, lamps with lamps, plants with plants, etc. You can leave in your one biggest piece of furniture but take the rest out systematically.
1. DETERMINE THE FUNCTION – before you start emptying the room you need to know what you want to do in this room now. You may have a large enough room to have a few different functions going on such as a family room could have a tv area, a
computer or office set up, a sewing area, etc. You may decide to turn your formal dining
room into a computer room since you hardly ever use it.
2. DECIDE ON YOUR FOCAL POINT – your room will have either a natural (view) or created focal point (television, art wall) or a built in (fireplace, bookshelves). You want to place your furniture so that your focal point can be seen and people can be comfortably seated to take advantage of your focal point. You can have 2 focal points but one should be more dominant. Rotate your focal points seasonally if you have a nicer view in the summer than in the winter, the fireplace may be the focal point for
winter.
3. BUILD THE ROOM BACK UP – work with your largest piece of furniture first and decide on the best position for it, keeping your function and focal point in mind. For living room furniture placement try putting your furniture (sofa and/or chairs, loveseat) in a parallel formation, a ‘U’ shape or an ‘L’ formation. Build the room back up with the tables, bookcases, lighting and large plants.
4. HANG YOUR ART – see if you can group some of your pieces of art that you have spread throughout your home. Decide on a common element and make the outline of a rectangle or a square. If putting over something hang the bottom 4 – 10” above it, and if gallery or floating art mark the centre 56 – 60” from the floor. If you need help with this check out my Trade Secrets to Hanging Art Like a PRO! ebook.
5. GROUP YOUR ACCESSORIES – these add your finishing touch to your home. When you emptied your room you would have put all your like accessories together so it should be easier now to see where they fit in your home. Group in ‘3s’ when possible
with the tallest at the back, middle object, and smallest in front. You want to create peaks and valleys with your accessories.
This is the home of a divorced woman. She loves the condo she bought but is not happy with how she has everything arranged. She loves to read, entertain and look outside when she is at her desk.
Before - Living Room
After - Just What She Wanted!
Before - Dining Room?
After - Music Room!!!
• You can buy gliders/sliders at large hardware stores to make it easier to slide/glide your furniture over different types of flooring.
Dana J. Smithers, Founder & Creative Director of PRES (professional real estate stagers) Resource Centre is a professional interior decorator, redesigner and home stager. She has taught a professional home staging and redesign course for 6 years and is known as the ‘Staging Guru’. She appears frequently on television, radio, newspapers, magazines and in e-articles. Check her out at www.PresStaging.com or www.SunOnMyBackRedesigns.com for articles and Do-It-Yourself e-book on How to Hang Art Like a PRO
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