Home staging is the preparing of your home to be sold by spending a little time and effort to make your home more of a presentation for potential home buyers. It can mean the difference between your home selling or becoming an expired listing. Staging can often raise the price of your home as it’s been estimated that sellers sell at anywhere from 7 to 10% higher when their home is staged.
Remodelling however is a more costly route and sometimes a necessary one. Kitchens are usually the most expensive room in the home to remodel. A home owner can spend in the amount of $35,000 to $80’000 to redo the kitchen depending on their vision, the size of the kitchen and the original value/type of home. Staging a living room is very important as you need to allow the potential buyers to envision themselves in that room. Buyers tend to buy on emotion as opposed to their logical thinking. You need to de-personalize the room as you do with the bedrooms as well.
The overall goal of home staging is to improve the home’s appearance to the buyers and sell it quickly for the best price so you can continue on with all the necessary packing as you head for a new chapter in your life! Think about it, when you bought your home do you remember the homes you viewed? Think about how they were presented to you and why the house you chose stood out enough for you to fall in love and buy. Likely the home was staged and well maintained. Clean and de-cluttered allowing you to envision yourself living there. Remember, your real estate agent can guide you to a home stager who he or she trusts to do the job right!
Here are a few benefits to home staging:
1. Staging can sell your home faster and get it off the market. The longer your home is on the market the more unappealing it becomes to potential buyers.
2. It enables you to think like a buyer once again
3. Your packing process is already half way complete as you have de-cluttered your home and packed away all things not required for immediate use before your big move.
4. It can increase the value of your home!
Let’s Get Staging
First let’s start with the exterior. Buyers will see the outside of your home first so make sure your home’s exterior starts them off with a good impression. If they are impressed immediately they walk into your home with a positive outlook!
1. Make sure your entrance is clear, clean and welcoming.
2. Take care of any chipped paint.
3. Remove and replace old curtains in the windows
4. Keep the lawn grass cut and edged.
5. Add mulch to your flower beds as it adds great appeal
6. Keep your garden neat and well cared for.
7. Choose warm welcoming colours for your garden to soothe potential buyers as they arrive.
8. If you have a large enough porch to fit a chair or two, maybe a bench with a small table add that to allow buyers to envision themselves sitting around relaxing
OK now onto the kitchen!
Kitchens have now become the most important room to potential buyers and are no longer just viewed as the room for cooking and preparing your food before entering the dining room or family room to eat! Make sure the right time and effort is put into your kitchen. If you stage your kitchen properly and you will be surprised how beautiful it will turn out no matter how old your home is preventing you from spending those thousands of dollars in remodelling.
1. Arrange some beautiful flowers or plants on the countertop
1. If you have a small eat-in kitchen downsize your table and chair set to make the area seem larger.
2. Arrange books, colourful plates, wine flutes or knickknacks in odd small numbers on any wall shelving or glass cabinetry you have.
3. Place large bowls of fruit on the counter in a colourful glass bowl that flows with the colour scheme of the kitchen and table mats or clothe, if any.
4. If necessary, make upgrades. Upgrade to stainless steel kitchen appliances. Think of yourself as the buyer. What would you want? If your cabinets are out dated, don’t even consider leaving them as is. Try a new paint/stain job or all new cabinets if your old ones are not salvageable.
5. Update your kitchen faucets and light fixtures.
6. Consider adding a back splash if there isn’t one.
7. Don’t block the windows, open your curtains and let in the light shine in.
Staging The Living Room
1. If your living room is small bring in smaller sofas and chairs to make the room seem larger.
2. De-clutter any shelving a replace with books, figurines, and knick knacks.
3. Hide all exposed wiring from your electronics.
4. Accentuate the fireplace with a large piece of artwork or a beautifully framed mirror.
5. Oversized pillows and throws for the furniture is a beautiful warm touch.
6. Bring in plants to give the room a warm earthy feel to it. Everyone loves nature.
7. Update your curtains if necessary.
8. Put furniture covers on your couches if they are out dated.
9. Don’t block the windows, open your curtains and let in the light shine in.
10. Add an area rug for texture and design.
11. Use bright inviting colors!
12. Remove any family photos to de-personalize the home for potential buyers.
Staging The Bedrooms
These same rules apply to your bedrooms as well. De-clutter, de-personalize and keep the room neat and clean. Arrange the furniture in a way that leaves the room looking spacious. Repaint or replace and worn down furniture. Update your bedding and add extra pillows to your bed! Arrange a few small items for display on the furniture like a little lamp and a book with a book mark in it directly under the lamp.
Remember, your real estate agent can guide you to a home stager who he or she trusts to do the job right!
Staging The Bathrooms
Just like kitchens, bathrooms are viewed as expensive rooms to fix up. If buyers don’t see a bathroom they like or that is up to date they will see it as a big job physically and financially. So as you now see it is very important to pay special attention to your bed rooms when your selling your home..
1. Keep the bathroom extremely clean, cleaner than clean. No one likes to see a used duty bathroom. No potential buyer will ever see beyond that to be able to envision them there.
2. De-clutter vanities, cupboards and sink.
3. If the tiles are still in good condition then clean them thoroughly to remove built up dirt. Make sure the grout is clean and if it’s not cleanable hire a tiler to regrout for you so your tiles look brand new again.
4. Update your faucets and if the mirror on the wall is removable update that too.
5. If the cabinetry is worn down repaint or replace them.
6. If the tiling on the floor is worn down, cracked and just simply no good, GET NEW TILES! It’s not worth prolonging the listing until it’s cold and becomes expired. Trust your real estate agent when they come to your home to do a walk through. If they give you some advice take it with a grain of salt and just listen. Believe me they have the nest intentions for you to sell your home fast.
7. Think candles and aromas. Have your bathroom smelling aromatic to add to the cleanly feeling.
If you have some money to spare invest in the bathroom. An smart investment is a Jacuzzi. Try to make the place look luxurious and classy just like an expensive hotel!
So follow these tips and you should sell your home quite fast. Remember, you have two main selling points in your home and those are your kitchen and your bathrooms. If these rooms are not on point then you risk a long stay on the market or worse, an expired listing. Again speak to your real estate agent about home staging because they know what to do to sell your home fast!
As your Whitby real estate agent I provide your consultation with a reputable home stager complimentary upon signing a listing agreement. It’s you have read above it is a key part of selling your home. Remember it costs about 1% of your home value to stage and can bring in a return of up to 10%!
Your Ajax Whitby Real Estate Sales Representative
Molena Gould
Source by Molena Gould