Home staging: 4 offer-generating ideas
Decorating your home according to your personal tastes and staging it to sell are two totally different things. What works while you’re living in the home isn’t always ideal when it’s on the market.
Whether you’re working with a realtor or you’ve chosen to market your home on your own, these tips will help you create the proper canvas so potential buyers can see the home of their dreams.
Spend some time visiting open houses in your area to get a general idea of how homes are set up to sell. This also allows you to see how your home measures up in the market and can help set your expectations.
While your family photos and the clay flower pots your kids crafted in kindergarten have made your house a home, potential buyers need to envision what their home will look like. Displaying fewer keepsakes and using neutral wall hangings and colors will make your home appear less personal to you but more personal to others.
Yes, repainting walls and switching up window treatments require an outlay of cash. You might even decide to enlist the services of a professional home staging consultant like the ones you see on TV shows like HGTV’s "Flip or Flop". In the end, those extra dollars spent can translate into shorter time on the market and better offers, which mean it’s likely you’ll earn back your investment and then some!
This might be the most challenging part of the process, especially if you’ve hired a professional to help you. Your home has been an extension of you for a long time and now it’s time to move on. You have to shift your mindset accordingly and realize that your current home has become an investment that will catapult you into your next home. So when listening to feedback from your realtor, your staging consultant or potential buyers during your open house, be open to suggestion. Make the necessary changes so you can get the biggest return on your investment, then use the spoils to put your personal stamp on your new place!