Home Staging Tips for Home Sellers
From Amy Karatz, Natural Order
Try looking at your house THROUGH THE BUYER'S EYES as though you've never seen it before. Any time or money invested on Staging® will bring back more PROFIT, and often a FASTER SALE.
Outside your home:
- Curb appeal really works. Make sure your home— especially the front door and trim—looks freshly painted.
- Walk around the perimeter of the house; move all garbage cans, discarded wood scraps, extra building materials, etc., into the garage or throw them away.
- Check gutters for roof moss and dry rot. Make sure gutters are swept and cleaned.
- Prune bushes and trees. Keep plants from blocking windows. You can't sell a house if you can't see it.
- Weed and mulch all planting areas. Keep lawn freshly cut and fertilized. Remove all dead plants or shrubs. Add fresh plantings to spark up the front walk.
- Clear patios or decks of all small items such as planters, flower pots, charcoal, barbecues, toys. etc. Clutter makes spaces look smaller.
Inside your home:
- Keep decorative objects on the furniture restricted to small groups of no more than 3 items. Pack the rest for moving.
- Clear all unnecessary objects from the kitchen countertops. If it hasn't been used for three months... put it away! Remove all refrigerator magnets and messages; a sparse kitchen helps the buyer mentally move their own things into your kitchen.
- In the bathroom, remove any unnecessary items from countertops, tubs, shower stalls and commode tops. Coordinate towels to one or two colors only.
- Rearrange or remove some of your furniture. Remember, the more sparsely furnished the room, the larger it will look. A large room attracts more buyers.
- Take down or rearrange pictures or objects on walls.
- Clean until your home shines.