Make Your First Impression Count
When selling your home, beyond making sure that your house is clean and free of clutter, staging can be the difference between getting your house sold quickly and having it sit on the market for an extended period. Staging, highlights your home’s best features and allows buyers to feel welcome and visualize themselves and their belongings in the space. This tip is especially important if you have already moved out of your home and it is an empty shell.
Buyers have a hard time seeing a home’s potential – especially if certain rooms have a unique layout and furniture placement is not easily identified. For the best results, we recommend hiring a professional stager. If that is not within your budget, enlisting the advice of your Caniglia Group real estate agent is a great alternative as they will be more objective about your home.
Enhance Your Home’s Curb Appeal
When preparing your home for sale, remember this, many people who are considering a tour of your home will often do a quick “drive-by” first to see if they even want to take a look inside. Making sure that the outside of your home is in tip-top condition to entice buyers to have a look inside is key. There are several inexpensive ideas to punching up your home’s curb appeal. Those include, adding a pop of color to your entry or pathway with beautiful blooming flowers, ensuring that the lawn is freshly mowed (or re-sodded if needed) and pesky weeds removed, power washing the driveway, walkway and front of the house and lastly, touching up exterior paint on the home or porch and replacing any burnt out light bulbs or broken fixtures. These are all great ways to make a clean and inviting first impression.
Neutral Color Palettes Sell
If you happen to watch any of the home improvement shows on television, this tip is always high on the list when it comes to staging your home. You may love your bright accent wall or bold wallpaper pattern, but it may not necessarily be the style of those looking to buy a house in your neighborhood. Before showing your home for the first time, you will want to make every effort to tone down bold colors and establish a neutral canvas that will appeal to the most number of people. This tip also applies to children’s rooms as future homeowners may not have kids, therefore, bold colored walls or gender-specific design may distract the buyer from seeing the space as a study or guest room. And let’s not forget the need to neutralize smell. Being mindful not to overpower your home with heavy air fresheners, potpourri, scented candles or oil rings is just as important as making sure there is no lingering odor from trash cans, refrigerators or laundry rooms.
De-clutter and Make it Shine
This is not an easy task, but trust me, it is incredibly important when trying to put your home’s best foot forward. Open house visitors will take a peek into your personal spaces. Clearing all surfaces, floors, cupboards, pantries, closets, etc., will automatically open up the space for your buyers. That means removing all personal items such as artwork, picture frames, vacation souvenirs, religious keepsakes and collectibles so as not to offend a future homeowner who may not share in your same beliefs and tastes. Anything left out should be pristine. Once your home has been rid of clutter it is time to make it shine. Cleaning the floors, vacuuming, removing stains from carpets, cleaning the windows, dusting and scrubbing the grout are just some of the ongoing tasks that will need to be maintained while your home is on the market. It may sound like a lot of work, but it will all be worth it when that buyer pays top dollar for your clean and organized space.
Light It Up
Another important element to home staging is to present a bright, well-lit space. For home tours, make sure that all of the lamps are turned on, and the curtains are open. If your view is less than desirable, purchase some inexpensive window sheers that still allow the light to shine through, but distract from the view. A bright space appears more spacious and convivial.
Make It Warm & Inviting
Now that we told you to get rid of all of your clutter, we want to make sure that your home still has that personality and charm that made you fall in love with it in the first place. Bringing in a few well-placed elements such as vases of cut flowers on the table or a bowl of fresh produce on the kitchen counter adds that warm and inviting appeal that home buyers are looking for. You may also want to do a bit of rearranging with your living room furniture. Pulling your furniture off the walls and using pairs (of sofas, chairs, lamps) to create an inviting conversation area is a nice touch that gives the space a sense of coziness.
