If you are looking for a quick sale of your home, think staging. What is that you ask. It is a challenging marketing strategy that owners and listing agents struggle with. Hiring a professional to take the mystery out of it, is an option but often can be expensive. The point of staging, is that the home presented to the potential buyer is an illusion of what it can look like, not how you really live.
A well-staged home will hide years of wear and help it sell quicker and for more money. Know that the simplest mistakes can be deal-breaking and can turn potential buyers off.
Develop a Plan You Can Follow
Top of the list is to hire a staging company but if that is off the radar, make an effort to address the guidance of your agent, which will pay big in the end. The agent is well versed in what will sell and knows that a photo-ready home is important to completing a quick deal. Means, that professional photos will be taken to be displayed on listing websites. That’s why you should consider a plan to present the home views geared to entice prospective buyers.
So, always think of the camera to highlight the best features of the home. During staging you can take photos to review and make sure the view through the lens is welcoming and determine what errors need to be adjusted and corrected. You can judge the lighting, the window placement, and the balance in the room to present the most attractive photo for publishing.
Create Attractive Lighting
Control the light during a photo session. Try to control it by making sure photos are taken during clear days. You do not want bright afternoon sunshine interfering with the space by throwing shadows and creating dark areas. Pay attention to the best time of the day for indirect sunlight outside to illuminate and brighten your space. It’s also a good idea to turn on interior lighting sources, preferably lit with soft or warm LED lights, to even off the outside light. Clean up the areas outside the windows to not draw attention to the view. If there happens to be a spectacular Colorado mountain view, enhance it by making sure it is part of the planned effect and the center of the photos.
The best advice is if you want great photographs of your beautiful space, hire a great photographer.
Stay With Current Colors and Styles
It is important to keep your furnishings and accessories polished and to a minimum while still providing a lived-in appearance. An empty house is hard to visualize your own family living inside. Furniture allows potential buyers to capture the size of the room and the space. It then becomes more about how it can be used than how it is decorated. It is not necessary to push their furniture against the walls to make the room look bigger. Pull the furniture away from the walls to create a conversation area. It is important for the space you are selling to create a warm, welcoming look. Very often the look is so welcoming that buyers want to buy the furnishing also because it reflects the way they have chosen to live in that particular house.
A smart choice is to stay neutral to give a good option to add color accents, which should be used minimally. Remove the clutter and keep accessories to a minimum. Keep each room to a color scheme and do not add exotic colors that you love, because colors can turn off buyers. That red bathroom you adore, is not something everyone can live with, so keep colors warm and neutral and if you have to paint, do. It will make a world of difference to how quick you sell.
Also remember the photographs, they will appear visually noisy with too much exotic colors and collected clutter. So, here with color, neutral is the key. Ever notice how whites and beiges and grays present a warm backdrop whenever you enter a home? It is always recommended to give a fresh coat of paint when getting the house ready to sell even if your walls are already neutral. Painting is an easy quick fix to make even an older home look new and sparkle.
Staging~The Best Short-Term Investment
If you make the decision not to stage you are leaving money on the table as it can increase prices from 6-10 percent. It makes your home look and feel clean and even in a hot market you can accentuate the positive with a proper staging plan. It can hide some imperfections and add dollars to the final sale price. Less is more here and keeping it clean and simple is the key to not distracting buyers. Never underestimate curb appeal, it works!
Kathy and Ed Boyle with the Katchen Company are here to serve and guide you through buying and selling the home of your dreams, and any of their specialized brokers are experienced to guide you through a quick home sale. And remember, staging today might mean SOLD tomorrow!
