Staging Your Home for maximizing results
This may sound like a lot of work but it will be worth the effort in the type of offers you may receive from buyers, who appreciate the perfected condition of your home.
1. Rent a storage unit. Deposit all excess junk, furniture, clothing and unnecessary items. Remove 50% of all items from table tops, dressers and counters.
2. Clean, clean, clean, - deep clean all bathrooms, appliances, carpets, walls and windows. Buyers are drawn to spotless homes that smell clean.
3. Empty all closets and organize them. The buyers will feel the home has more room for their belongings.
4. Make sure all the blinds are open. Buyers love a lot of light. If some areas of your home are dark, add a lamp and leave all the lights on.
5. Remove all personal pictures from walls, dressers and mantels. Buyers want to decide where their family portraits will be placed.
6. Arrange furniture to give as spacious a feeling as possible. Consider removing furniture from rooms that are too crowded. Remove any furniture that looks old and tattered.
7. Consider adding fresh or silk flowers to a dining or living area.
8. Check for peeling paint or dirty walls. If it needs paint, do it prior to marketing. This includes cabinets, molding, and especially doors.
9. Kitchen work areas need to be cleared of all appliances and knick knacks. Counter space is very important to most buyers.
10. Clean and polish all woodwork and cabinets. Use a product that will make them look newer and shinier. Use wood soap to clean and a product like Old English to smooth out scratched wood trim and moldings.
11. If marketing in the winter, be sure to take a look at your tired yard. Pick up all debris and cut down all of last year’s plantings. Rake out flowerbeds, and if the lawn is looking exhausted, rake it too!
12. If marketing in good weather, hose down outside of the house for webs and insects, clear and rake all beds, wash windows and screens, and “Round-Up” any weeds in cracks of sidewalks, curbs and driveways.
