Home Staging Can Help Make Your Home More Attractive to Buyers

It's often been said that "a picture is worth a thousand words."  And when the subject is real estate, a photo can translate into thousands of dollars.  With over 90% of today's buyers searching the Internet to find a home, a homeseller who can present a home in the most favorable light will capture the most buyer attention.  Prompted by the widespread popularity of HGTV's design shows, savvy homeowners are turning to the growing trend of home staging to transform their current home into a buyer's dream home.

So what exactly is home staging? Home staging is the process of preparing a home for sale so that it shows its best and appeals to the widest possible group of potential buyers.  The home staging process is distinctly different from the more familiar professional service of interior decorating, where the home's decor is customized to the lifestyle and design preferences of the homeowner.  In home staging, the focus is on the potential buyer.  I often tell my clients, "how we live, is not how we stage a house for sale".  Buyers seek to experience the "bones of the house" and not get distracted by the homeowner's furnishings. The home staging process consists of a wide range of changes that are integral to achieving a great first impression among buyers. Below are some of my key home staging tips to jumpstart the process of preparing your home for sale.

1. Where to begin?  Begin with a plan.  Each of us starts the home staging process at a different point.  If you haven't routinely removed items from your home over the years, then you may have some catching up to do.  But it can be done.  Give yourself time and develop a plan of action.  First on your list is to determine a "staging zone" for all your belongings that will need to be relocated from your home.  You may want to consider using your garage, an area in your basement, the home of a relative (or a really good friend), or an off-site storage facility depending on the extent of your furnishings.  And of course, you will need some boxes.  Lots of them.

2.  Many of us are collectors.  Often it is not until we decide to sell our home, that we  realize how much our collection has grown.  It might be books that seem to be fill every bookcase and tabletop in your home.  One client of mine collected guitars, approximately 16 of them which he eventually moved to his parent's home. Another client had numerous surfboards that overtook the expansive recreation room in the basement.  An off-site storage facility was the solution.  There are smaller collections, such as antique dolls, teacups, blue glass, masks from around the world, etc.  When preparing your home for sale, collections need to be minimized.  They frequently take up valuable space in your home as well as distract the buyer's attention. Even when collections are neatly organized, they need to be put away.  For example, one client had several years of the yellow National Geographic Magazine that completely filled two floor-to-ceiling bookcases in the library/den. When staging your home, the goal is get buyers to focus on the house, and not on the homeowner's personal items.  Box up and relocate your collection.  This ensures that your collection is not damaged when the many prospective buyers and young children come visit your home.

3.  What's in your closet?  When buyers tour your home, you can expect them to open every closet door.  Begin with your front hall closet if you have one.  If it is overcrowded with coats and sports equipment and other items, it is time to purge.  Setting the stage to sell your home means showing buyers that there is ample space for their things.  You may in fact be bursting at the seams and have outgrown the size of your home, but buyers are looking at your home similar to how you did years earlier when you decided to buy your house.  You may recall how spacious the home had felt to you compared to where you had been living previously.  Recycle, donate or give away unused items. Place off-season clothing in your designated staging zone and make room in your closets.  Spacious and organized closets give buyers another reason to say "yes" to your house.

4.  Family photos on surface tops and walls throughout your home need to be packed away.  The personal photos, while important to you, distract buyers from envisioning your house as their new home.  You may find that removing your photos creates a void whereby your home doesn't feel like your home any longer.  From a home staging standpoint, this is a key step toward transforming your home into a "house for sale".

5.  To show buyers your home in the most favorable light, you will want to be sure that everything is in good working order.  Conduct a home repair audit to determine what might not be working properly, such as light fixtures, door knobs, windows, appliances, etc.  Inspect the bathroom tiles to see if any need to be replaced. Make your list of the repairs and get price estimates for completing the work.  The excitement buyers feel  about your house can easily fade if there are visible signs that your home has not been well maintained.

6.  Look around your home and see if there is something occupying every corner of every room.  It could be that your home is filled to maximum capacity and when selling your home, less furniture means more house.  This is perhaps one of the biggest challenges facing many homeowners when selling their homes.  Like the familiar adage, "you can't see the forest for the trees", buyers can't really see the spaciousness of the home when there is an abundance of furniture.  When working with my clients, I frequently recommend that they remove a significant amount of their furnishings, sometimes as much as one-third. Buyers get excited when rooms feel big and they can envision the placement of their own furniture in the house.

7.  Reveal the bones of your home.  Buyers need to be able to see the wonderful features of your home.  This means that you will need to uncover your beautiful hardwood and tile flooring that may be hidden by carpeting/area rugs.  Not only will the floors be more appealing to buyers, but the rooms will appear larger as well.

8.  De-layer your windows. Ever wonder why Realtors turn on all the lights in the house before showing the property? Rooms appear more spacious when there is plenty of light, especially when the natural light is able to enter. It is not unusual for homeowners to have as many as three layers covering their windows – a shade, sheers, and a drapery.  So start de-layering your windows.  And if there is a valance or some other covering (e.g. shutter) on your windows, consider removing it to showcase how large your window is while allowing more light to shine inside the room.

These are just some of the many no/low cost staging options to help jumpstart your efforts in preparing your home for sale.  The ground may still be covered with snow, but the 2010 Spring housing market is underway.  The right staging of your home will help protect your investment by creating the "best in show" first impression among today's buyers.

For more information or if you have a question about what you can do to get your home "buyer ready", contact me at suzy@bestinshowing.com

About the Author

Suzy Minken is the owner of Best In Showing.com, a full-service home staging and redesign company for homeowners, Realtors and builders/developers (www.bestinshowing.com).