Putting your best foot forward

 Is your home ready for the big day?

First impressions are the difference between an enchanted buyer anxious to draw up the contract and the buyer who “puts it on their list to review in a few weeks.” Your home should give potential buyers positive, uplifting feelings; like a shop window that make the buyer take notice and walk in. Let’s face it, not all homes have the same appeal. This is where home staging comes in. How can you get top value for your home?

What is professional staging?

“Living in a home and Marketing a home are two very different things”. Most buyers do not have the vision to see beyond the purple paint, the smell emulating from the kitty litter, and the furniture placed strategically where you are almost meant to trip over it. What works for your family may not be the optimal marketing presentation when trying to sell your home...

Clean ● Organize ● Maintain ● Repeat...

Using a proven professional set of guidelines, I work with my sellers to find both the large and small items that may hinder a potential sale. We review everything inside and out to maintain the appeal through the entire showing, from driving up, walking in, and locking the door on the way out. Each home is unique, so only a personal consultation can get the ball moving, but a few helpful hints:

Take down personal pictures: Buyers can’t picture themselves if they always see your family in the home

Fresh Paint: Clean, Fresh, and Inspiring… buyers aren’t just looking at your home as a clean slate, but the whole picture. Paint can be the cheapest and quickest fix for an out of date bathroom back in style due to your ingenious sense of color and style, or the “country kitchen” that was just plain doggy a week earlier.

Remove clutter: Either your hiding something or your telling them there is not enough room in this house!! This means furniture as well as closets.

Clean, clean, clean: Dirt is the biggest turn off. Reminds everyone of the reality of maintaining a home. Absolute buzz kill.

What I tell my “challenged decorators” is to look through furniture catalogs (Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, Or William Sonoma Home) and get a pulse on colors, arrangements, and themes. It’s a good start for those struggling to grasp what the buyer may be looking for. Joke all your want, but they ARE the top catalog companies for a reason, and readily available to the public.