Staging Diva® Reveals Her Top 5 Home Staging Tips
March 12, 2010 by admin
Filed under Yahoo Answers on Home Staging
Debra Gould asked:
There are so many small things home stagers can do to a property that will dramatically shorten the time it spends on the real estate market while increasing the final sales price for home sellers.
Here are my five favorite home staging tips, so you can help each property you stage sell faster and for more money:
1. Reduce drive-bys
Imagine you’re on a home hunting mission. Your real estate agent has ten properties to show you on a Saturday afternoon. When you drive up to what could be your dream home, you see a rusted-out mailbox, broken handrail and children’s toys strewn across the lawn which hasn’t seen a lawn mower in weeks. You’re probably going to say, “Um, no thanks, let’s move on.”
Curb appeal is so important. If the outside of a house looks like this, a potential buyer is going to think nobody cares about it. You should make sure, no matter what, that lawns are freshly cut, leaves are raked or snow shoveled from the driveway. A potted or hanging plant can make a big difference near the entrance. Repair or replace any obvious defects, often this is cheaper to do than a prospective buyer will imagine. Make sure the walk ways and porches are swept clean and garbage and recycling containers are tucked away at the rear of the house or in the garage. Make sure the exterior gets a good pressure wash and the decks are scrubbed clean. It’s a good alternative to painting and once everything’s clean you might see it doesn’t need to be repainted at all – perhaps just a touch up will do.
2. One man’s junk is not necessarily another man’s treasure, it may be their reason not to buy the house
De-cluttering is essential. Tackle one area at a time so the task isn’t so overwhelming. If you’re doing this with your client, make sure they look at each item carefully before deciding whether it’s to keep or to toss. Each closet will probably have to be gone through more than once to get its contents down to the absolute essentials, but it will be worth it. If the home owner is having a tough time parting with things, recommend they rent a storage locker so they can keep their beloved items, just remove them from the house they’re selling. They’ll have to move it eventually anyway!
3. Avoid wandering eyes
You want to make sure there are no little problems in a room that will have a potential buyer looking from one flaw to another thinking about they work they’ll have to do. You want them to see the bigger picture and imagine themselves living there. For example, do a walkthrough and look for chipped paint on the door frames. These can be filled in with “white out”. Old nail holes can often be hidden behind strategically hung art, but don’t just throw things on the wall where the old nail was (see point 5). Peeling wallpaper should be glued back down. Make sure there are covers on all electrical outlets and light switches, and replace any that are cracked. These little things make a big difference!
4. Color is your friend when it’s time to sell a house
If you have to repaint a home’s interior, or some rooms in a home, try to choose a pleasing color palette that allows each room to flow nicely into the next. All colors should go together. Try to repeat one signature color throughout a home. Maybe it’s the feature color in one room used as an accent in the others, through accessories or throw cushions.
5. Make a big impact with a little art
By strategically using art, you can enhance a home’s perceived value, draw the eye away from tiny flaws, give an otherwise uninteresting space a focal point and replace personal memorabilia.
Position art at eye level and use pieces that are appropriate to the size of the wall. Art with a large frame on a small wall can make the entire area seem smaller. Avoid religious art, or anything edgy that could be offensive to some potential buyers. (For more tips about using art for home staging, visit Staging Diva Art Shop.)
These are only five of dozens of tips that can improve your next home staging project. Check out Staging Diva Ultimate Design Guide: Home Staging Tips, Tricks and Floor Plans – an essential guide for every home stager. It’s full of home staging design tips and tricks (as the title suggests) and they’re all brought to life with before and after photos and sample floor plans from my own home staging projects.
Home Staging
There are so many small things home stagers can do to a property that will dramatically shorten the time it spends on the real estate market while increasing the final sales price for home sellers.
Here are my five favorite home staging tips, so you can help each property you stage sell faster and for more money:
1. Reduce drive-bys
Imagine you’re on a home hunting mission. Your real estate agent has ten properties to show you on a Saturday afternoon. When you drive up to what could be your dream home, you see a rusted-out mailbox, broken handrail and children’s toys strewn across the lawn which hasn’t seen a lawn mower in weeks. You’re probably going to say, “Um, no thanks, let’s move on.”
Curb appeal is so important. If the outside of a house looks like this, a potential buyer is going to think nobody cares about it. You should make sure, no matter what, that lawns are freshly cut, leaves are raked or snow shoveled from the driveway. A potted or hanging plant can make a big difference near the entrance. Repair or replace any obvious defects, often this is cheaper to do than a prospective buyer will imagine. Make sure the walk ways and porches are swept clean and garbage and recycling containers are tucked away at the rear of the house or in the garage. Make sure the exterior gets a good pressure wash and the decks are scrubbed clean. It’s a good alternative to painting and once everything’s clean you might see it doesn’t need to be repainted at all – perhaps just a touch up will do.
2. One man’s junk is not necessarily another man’s treasure, it may be their reason not to buy the house
De-cluttering is essential. Tackle one area at a time so the task isn’t so overwhelming. If you’re doing this with your client, make sure they look at each item carefully before deciding whether it’s to keep or to toss. Each closet will probably have to be gone through more than once to get its contents down to the absolute essentials, but it will be worth it. If the home owner is having a tough time parting with things, recommend they rent a storage locker so they can keep their beloved items, just remove them from the house they’re selling. They’ll have to move it eventually anyway!
3. Avoid wandering eyes
You want to make sure there are no little problems in a room that will have a potential buyer looking from one flaw to another thinking about they work they’ll have to do. You want them to see the bigger picture and imagine themselves living there. For example, do a walkthrough and look for chipped paint on the door frames. These can be filled in with “white out”. Old nail holes can often be hidden behind strategically hung art, but don’t just throw things on the wall where the old nail was (see point 5). Peeling wallpaper should be glued back down. Make sure there are covers on all electrical outlets and light switches, and replace any that are cracked. These little things make a big difference!
4. Color is your friend when it’s time to sell a house
If you have to repaint a home’s interior, or some rooms in a home, try to choose a pleasing color palette that allows each room to flow nicely into the next. All colors should go together. Try to repeat one signature color throughout a home. Maybe it’s the feature color in one room used as an accent in the others, through accessories or throw cushions.
5. Make a big impact with a little art
By strategically using art, you can enhance a home’s perceived value, draw the eye away from tiny flaws, give an otherwise uninteresting space a focal point and replace personal memorabilia.
Position art at eye level and use pieces that are appropriate to the size of the wall. Art with a large frame on a small wall can make the entire area seem smaller. Avoid religious art, or anything edgy that could be offensive to some potential buyers. (For more tips about using art for home staging, visit Staging Diva Art Shop.)
These are only five of dozens of tips that can improve your next home staging project. Check out Staging Diva Ultimate Design Guide: Home Staging Tips, Tricks and Floor Plans – an essential guide for every home stager. It’s full of home staging design tips and tricks (as the title suggests) and they’re all brought to life with before and after photos and sample floor plans from my own home staging projects.
Home Staging
What should you put above a refrigerator when staging your home for sale?
February 22, 2010 by admin
Filed under Yahoo Answers on Home Staging
Sarah asked:
I have been in the process of staging my home, and I get that storing cereal boxes and other foods above your refrigerator can be considered unsightly and is a staging no-no. But when I remove everything from above the refrigerator, the kitchen looks very bare and the refrigerator seems too big for the space. Is there anything I could put up there (a plant or vases maybe?) that will spruce up the kitchen a bit? Links with photos would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Learn Home Staging with Videos
I have been in the process of staging my home, and I get that storing cereal boxes and other foods above your refrigerator can be considered unsightly and is a staging no-no. But when I remove everything from above the refrigerator, the kitchen looks very bare and the refrigerator seems too big for the space. Is there anything I could put up there (a plant or vases maybe?) that will spruce up the kitchen a bit? Links with photos would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Learn Home Staging with Videos
Is anyone familiar with home staging? What is the best way to get educated in this field?
January 20, 2010 by admin
Filed under Yahoo Answers on Home Staging
ashlu82 asked:
I am interested in taking a course in home staging but don’t know where to begin…help!
Home Staging Props
I am interested in taking a course in home staging but don’t know where to begin…help!
Home Staging Props
Top 7 Must Dos of Home Staging
January 20, 2010 by admin
Filed under Yahoo Answers on Home Staging
Joshua Ferris asked:
Staging your home can be a fun, inexpensive experience that will significantly affect the amount of leverage you have when negotiating the sale of your home but first you need to know where to start. Haphazardly staging your home without a plan or guide to what you are doing will result in a staged home that lacks a cohesive flow and missed opportunities.
Burned out bulbs must be replaced! – This is huge. Because you live in your home you will become less aware of things you see every day including the third bulb that burned out over the bathroom mirror 6 months ago. Take a friend or family member who doesn’t live with you through your home and see if they notice any burned out bulbs that you might have missed.
Burned out bulbs mean lack of maintenance to a home buyer and they will gladly deduct dollars (in thousand dollar increments) if they suspect they will have to do a lot of work before moving in.
Take out excess big furniture. – Another epic mistake most do it yourself homeowners make when staging a home is leaving their large furniture sets in a room. Large furniture will dominate any room, especially smaller rooms, so consider taking some of the non-essential seating space out of a small living room to showcase the available square footage.
Dark furniture and poor lighting don’t mix! – On the topic of large furniture, dark furniture can be equally harmful to your home’s ability to show well. Because furniture is large in nature, dark furniture pulls the eye towards it. Unless your home features many expansive windows that allow sunlight to illuminate the entire room during the day, stay away from dark furniture.
Detach yourself from your home. – Detaching yourself from your home is very difficult to do but it’s better to develop a thick skin about your home now so you don’t take buyer feedback on your house personally.
One key aspect to detaching yourself from your home is to remove photos of family and other personal effects that may hold sentimental value. When you show your home you should only be showing the house and not family photos or interesting furniture pieces. Once buyers lose focus it is next to impossible for them to refocus on touring your house.
Raise the bar on your windows, literally. – Low sitting windows with drapes can be a kiss of death to vertical space conscious home buyers. Raise the bar above your window and mount it closer to your ceiling to give the impression that the ceiling is higher than it actually is.
Clear away ‘catch-all’ stations around the home. – Everything has a place and sometimes that place is all in one spot. Coffee tables, kitchen counters and tables by the main door are highly visible locations that tend to end up covered in mail, keys and random travel belongings.
Clearing these spaces is important as home buyers will deduct points (and dollars) for the perceived loss of space.
Get a pressure washer and wash away the elements! – Your home’s exterior bears the burden of making the first impression that will make or break a buyer’s interest in your home. Many times I have toured homes with clients who refused to go into a home because it didn’t look clean. Back to deferred maintenance, buyers don’t want to buy someone else’s problem.
Get a pressure washer (they can be found in many home improvement stores and rental centers) and spray down the exterior of the house. Pay special attention to the corners of the home which can harbor multiple generations of spider webs, insects and grime.
Understanding the top seven must dos of home staging will help you avoid costly staging mistakes and help sell your staged home faster than competing homes on the market.
Learn Home Staging with Books
Staging your home can be a fun, inexpensive experience that will significantly affect the amount of leverage you have when negotiating the sale of your home but first you need to know where to start. Haphazardly staging your home without a plan or guide to what you are doing will result in a staged home that lacks a cohesive flow and missed opportunities.
Burned out bulbs must be replaced! – This is huge. Because you live in your home you will become less aware of things you see every day including the third bulb that burned out over the bathroom mirror 6 months ago. Take a friend or family member who doesn’t live with you through your home and see if they notice any burned out bulbs that you might have missed.
Burned out bulbs mean lack of maintenance to a home buyer and they will gladly deduct dollars (in thousand dollar increments) if they suspect they will have to do a lot of work before moving in.
Take out excess big furniture. – Another epic mistake most do it yourself homeowners make when staging a home is leaving their large furniture sets in a room. Large furniture will dominate any room, especially smaller rooms, so consider taking some of the non-essential seating space out of a small living room to showcase the available square footage.
Dark furniture and poor lighting don’t mix! – On the topic of large furniture, dark furniture can be equally harmful to your home’s ability to show well. Because furniture is large in nature, dark furniture pulls the eye towards it. Unless your home features many expansive windows that allow sunlight to illuminate the entire room during the day, stay away from dark furniture.
Detach yourself from your home. – Detaching yourself from your home is very difficult to do but it’s better to develop a thick skin about your home now so you don’t take buyer feedback on your house personally.
One key aspect to detaching yourself from your home is to remove photos of family and other personal effects that may hold sentimental value. When you show your home you should only be showing the house and not family photos or interesting furniture pieces. Once buyers lose focus it is next to impossible for them to refocus on touring your house.
Raise the bar on your windows, literally. – Low sitting windows with drapes can be a kiss of death to vertical space conscious home buyers. Raise the bar above your window and mount it closer to your ceiling to give the impression that the ceiling is higher than it actually is.
Clear away ‘catch-all’ stations around the home. – Everything has a place and sometimes that place is all in one spot. Coffee tables, kitchen counters and tables by the main door are highly visible locations that tend to end up covered in mail, keys and random travel belongings.
Clearing these spaces is important as home buyers will deduct points (and dollars) for the perceived loss of space.
Get a pressure washer and wash away the elements! – Your home’s exterior bears the burden of making the first impression that will make or break a buyer’s interest in your home. Many times I have toured homes with clients who refused to go into a home because it didn’t look clean. Back to deferred maintenance, buyers don’t want to buy someone else’s problem.
Get a pressure washer (they can be found in many home improvement stores and rental centers) and spray down the exterior of the house. Pay special attention to the corners of the home which can harbor multiple generations of spider webs, insects and grime.
Understanding the top seven must dos of home staging will help you avoid costly staging mistakes and help sell your staged home faster than competing homes on the market.
Learn Home Staging with Books
When staging a house for showing, do you leave the items in the home?
January 14, 2010 by admin
Filed under Yahoo Answers on Home Staging
sparklelove8702 asked:
My husband and I are getting ready to list our house for sale, and are getting it ready to stage. Before I buy items for the house (like artwork, plants, candles, etc.), I was needing to know if these items are expected to stay with the house or will we be able to take them with us? Also, any ideas for staging the house would be quite helpful. We have already decluttered everything, taking down all personal pictures, magnets, etc. We have painted everything neutral and cleaned it up inside and out.
Learn Home Staging with Videos
My husband and I are getting ready to list our house for sale, and are getting it ready to stage. Before I buy items for the house (like artwork, plants, candles, etc.), I was needing to know if these items are expected to stay with the house or will we be able to take them with us? Also, any ideas for staging the house would be quite helpful. We have already decluttered everything, taking down all personal pictures, magnets, etc. We have painted everything neutral and cleaned it up inside and out.
Learn Home Staging with Videos