Tag: staging a home

5 More Staging Tips

Yesterday I looked at three tips for do-it-yourself staging. Here are five more expert staging tips!

Yesterday I looked at three tips for do-it-yourself staging.  Here are five more expert staging tips!

1.  Group furniture.  It isn’t necessarily true that rooms will feel bigger if all the furniture is pushed against the walls.  Positioning pieces in conversational groups is cozy and creates an obvious pattern of traffic flow.  Creating more user-friendly spaces actually opens the room up, thus creating an illusion and making the room seem larger.

2.  Move things around.  Consider everything you have in your home.  Remember, furniture doesn’t have to stay in the room where it currently resides.  You can move things from the living room into the bedroom or vice versa.  It may be possible to create a whole new environment with a little creative rearranging!

3.  Use good lighting.  Many staging experts recommend 100 watts for every 50 square feet of living space.  For the best lighting each room should utilize overhead and task lighting along with accent lamps on tables or walls.

4.  Trick with paint.  If you have several small, boxy rooms, they will feel bigger if you create a seamless transition by painting them all the same (warm, neutral but not boring!) shade.

5.  Finish projects.  If you have any missing floorboards, cracked tiles, holes in the wall, cracks in the sidewalk, etc. fix them!  It will cost you much less to fix these relatively minor problems than potential buyers might deduct from the price before making an offer, so it’s worth it in the end.

Thinking of buying or selling a home in Sussex County?  Give us a call at Cooper Realty Associates and put us to work for you – 302-644-2266.

 

Three Suggestions For Staging Your Home Yourself

If you’re thinking of selling your home, or if your home has been on the market for awhile and is not selling you might want to consider staging it. Staging a home is not just about cleaning. It’s arranging furniture and accessories in a way that offers the illusion that your house is larger, cleaner, warmer, and more inviting that it might be. A lot of people think that it isn’t worth their time or effort to stage their home, but trust me, it really is. Recently, a friend of mine moved half-way across the country. Their home was for sale for months with plenty of interest but no offers. It was on the market for so long that my friend’s husband had to move without her and their kids to start his new job. Finally, they had a professional come in to stage their home. The very next person to see the home bought it… within a week they were under contract!

If you’re thinking of selling your home, or if your home has been on the market for awhile and is not selling you might want to consider staging it.  Staging a home is not just about cleaning.  It’s arranging furniture and accessories in a way that offers the illusion that your house is larger, cleaner, warmer, and more inviting that it might be.  A lot of people think that it isn’t worth their time or effort to stage their home, but trust me, it really is.  Recently, a friend of mine moved half-way across the country.  Their home was for sale for months with plenty of interest but no offers.  It was on the market for so long that my friend’s husband had to move without her and their kids to start his new job.  Finally, they had a professional come in to stage their home.  The very next person to see the home bought it… within a week they were under contract!

Staging your home can help it sell faster and for a higher price than if it sits on the market for months, causing you to lower the price in order to sell.  However, if you’re still not willing to budget for a professional to stage your home, consider these three do-it-yourself tips:

1.  Clear it out.  Most homes are stuffed to the brim with furniture.  Take one larger piece out of each room and rearrange remaining furniture to open up floor space.  If you need to rent a storage unit, do it.

2.  Pack Up.  Box up valuables, personal photos, and extra clutter.  Remove all personal objects so that potential buyers can imagine their own things in the space.  Remove all small appliances, etc. from kitchen counter tops and box them up.  Clean out your cabinets and closets.  Leave only what is absolutely necessary to live with and box up all other serving sets, clothes, cleaning products, etc.  Take half of the books off of all bookshelves.  Remove any personal collections from your walls.  You don’t need to clear out completely (after all, you still need to live there!) but clearing out everything that is not absolutely necessary will give the all-important impression of more space.  And again, take the boxes to storage.

3.  Spruce it up.  Paint, replace worn carpeting, etc.  If you don’t have time to do these relatively quick, inexpensive things, lower the price to make the imperfections of your home seem less important.

Remember, just because you love your home doesn’t mean everyone will.  In order to stage your home well, you need to avoid looking at everything through your own personal lense and use an objective eye.

Thinking of buying or selling a home in Sussex County?  Give us a call at Cooper Realty Associates and put us to work for you – 302-644-2266.