Home Staging Tips

As a seller, your ultimate goal is to sell your home quickly and for the highest possible price. Home staging is done to improve the home's appearance in the eyes of potential buyers with a special emphasis on presentation and appearance.  By using the home staging tips and advice offered below, you will have a much greater chance of selling your home quickly and for maximum price.

1. Check Curb Appeal. If a buyer is attracted to the exterior of your home, he/she will definitely think that the interior is worth checking out. But if a buyer won't even get out of his agent's car, you'll never get him/her inside. First impression happens only once so make sure that the exterior is attractive enough to convince the potential buyer to enter the house. Some of the things that you can do to achieve curb appeal are prune overgrown plants; mow your lawn; remove unnecessary clutter and paint faded window trim. You can also plant yellow flowers. Yellow evokes a buying emotion.  You can also paint your front door an attention grabbing color, like dark blue, red, or green. 

2. Rent a Storage Unit. It is always better to show a home with less furniture.  Lesser furniture will make the room appear larger.  Leave just enough furniture in each room to showcase the room's purpose and plenty of room to move around.

3. De-Personalize. Pack up those personal photographs and family heirlooms.  Buyers might get distracted when looking at your personal effects. They can't help but wonder what kind of people live in the house that they are viewing.  And this might affect their judgment in buying the house.

4. Remove Favorite Items. Pack the items that you will be taking with you such as built-in appliances or fixtures.  If the buyer can't have an item, she will covet it, and it could cost you your deal if you don’t include it in the sale. Put those items away and replace them if necessary.

5. Make Minor Repairs. Damaged items in the house will give an impression that the owner of the house don't take care its home and this might turn the buyer off.  Replace cracked floor or counter tiles, patch hole in walls, fix leaky faucets, fix door or drawer jams, replace burned-out light bulbs.

6. Decorate the Bedroom to appeal to both sexes.  When you are selling, the master bedroom should appeal to both sexes. You'll never know who will be viewing the house.  Get rid of features that seem too gender-specific.  Paint the walls a neutral color, and choose bedding that matches.  Then accessorize with items that complement the overall color scheme.

7. Install New Kitchen Appliances. Studies show that the new kitchen appliances bring in high returns from sellers. People spend a lot of time in their kitchens, so nicely staged kitchen will help them see themselves in the home.  If you can afford it, install new equipment to give an impression that the kitchen is newly renovated.   This will increase your home's value.

You will need every advantage you can get in order to sell your home as quickly as possible for the maximum sale price. You can seek advice from a Realtor who knows the requirements and the process of home staging.

Getting the Best Value for Your Home

Most sellers are nervous and unsure if now is the right time to sell their home. Although there are more houses for sale, the prices have slowed, plateaued or even decreased, you don't need to worry because there are strategic plans that you can use to make sure you get most out of your house sale.

To ensure that your house is priced competitively, consult with a Realtor. There are 3 factors to getting your home sold, those are location, price and condition.  Among the 3 factors, you only have control over the price and condition. Ask for a Comparative Market Analysis from your Realtor to have an idea of what is the price range of the properties being sold in the same neighborhood with similar structure.  Also, the Realtor may suggest improvements to the condition of your house that would appeal to a wider range of potential buyers.

Act fast.  The best price you'll get in today's market is the one you get now.  If you wait, it will be lower.  And every month the price on your home decreases, your costs remain the same.  Keller Williams research shows that the sellers who listed their home at the price the Realtor suggested sell their homes 38 days faster.

Devise a Marketing Plan. Whether you want to hire a Realtor or do the marketing yourself, it is always better to have more people advertising your property, it will have a higher chance of reaching the potential buyers. With the advent of social media, you can easily advertise your property at the comfort of your own home. Large companies are using social media as an advertising tool, why don't you?  But of course, hiring a Realtor to help you market your property will go a long way as well.  Making use of his/her contacts, resources and knowledge will definitely produce positive results.  Hire a Realtor who is familiar with both traditional marketing and marketing to social media networks for maximum exposure.  Virtual tours and lots of pictures are critical to fruitful online marketing.  The key to a successful marketing campaign is marketing with consistency and keeping the message simple. 

Beware of hidden financing costs.  Not all financing is the same from a seller's point of view. There are some types of financing such as FHA and VA home loans that requires the seller to pay for the points on the loan. You must understand what is required of you as a seller, because that could affect your profit in the sale.  You may do some research or you may ask a Realtor to explain the other costs related to a home sale.

Renovation Costs vs. Resale Value

Are you thinking of renovating your house? If you want to find out the average costs of renovation versus the resale value of your property when you decide to sell it, you may check out Remodeling Costs vs. Value Report 2010-2011. It is available for download at http://www.costvsvalue.com.  Results are based on a Web-based survey of more than 150,000 REALTORS® and appraisers in 80 cities.

The report contains data that compares construction costs for popular remodeling projects against the share of those costs recovered at resale.  In addition to city data, the report includes tables with national and regional averages, as well as complete project descriptions, 3-D images and QuickTime movies for all 35 projects surveyed.

Home renovation may actually increase the value of your property, it will stand a better chance at attracting a willing buyer who doesn't have to take care of renovations.  Though, don't be surprised to find out that you will not be recouping all the expenses you paid for the renovation. According to last year's data, the national average of the job cost of remodeling the bathroom was $16,142, however, the resale value was at $11,454 meaning that the cost recouped was only at 71%. The percentage of the resale value vs. the costs varies depending on what type of renovation you want.  Based from history, kitchens and baths have some of the higher cost-value ratios.

The extent to which you will receive a return on your remodeling costs depends in part on the price of your home when it goes on the market.  Homeowners may also benefit if remodeling costs stay low.  According to Mike Gaffney of Gaffney Homes, one of the reasons in decrease of remodeling costs is the increased availability of skilled workers to make the renovation.

Renovating can be costly and inconvenient, but it can add to the comfort and use of your home.  And of course, it will increase its value when it's time to sell.  If you are renovating to sell, always consider the taste of potential buyers which means that the upgrade should be neutral to appeal to a wider range of people.  You can ask a Realtor for ideas to increase the house appeal.  They would have an idea of what buyers look for in a house.  When doing the improvements, you want to make sure you can get the best value of your dollar.

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