What Is Staging And Why Bother?
What Is Staging and Why Bother?
In real estate, Strategic Marketing is the integration of pricing and staging principles. It involves several aspects of preparing one’s home to appeal to the psychological needs of buyers. Staging is one aspect of Strategic Marketing. It is completely different from decorating. Decorating is the personalization of one’s home to suit individual tastes. Staging, whether the home is vacant or occupied, is the depersonalization and neutralization of one’s home to appeal to buyers.
Why bother? According to a recent study conducted by Proctor and Gamble, 78% of buyer’s needs and criteria are met before they visit your home (Number of bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, acreage, location, etc.). This means that you control how those last 22% of needs and criteria are met. It is extremely important that you do everything possible to get your home ready to make the best impression on buyers. Staging is about creating a series of impressions that helps buyers create an emotional connection to the home, so they can imagine the home as their own.
So what can you do to give buyers the best impression of your home?
De-clutter
- Remove family pictures, reduce the amount of items that are on surfaces such as bookcases, kitchen and bathroom counters, dining table, and any catch-all space, and pare down clothes and linen closets. Think of it this way: You’re planning to move anyway, so why not get a head start in your packing?
- De-cluttering shows buyers that there is room for their belongings, allows buyer’s eyes to focus on your home’s features instead of your things, makes your home feel larger, and brings a sense of calm to buyers.
Clean
- Remove scuffs from floors and walls, stains from carpets, freshen up bed linens and curtains, dust blinds and all surfaces, wash windows, and wipe down kitchen and bathroom counters.
- Cleaning shows buyers that your home has been well cared for and eliminates daily odors such as pet and cooking smells.
Repair
- This includes cracked windows, kitchen drawers, ripped or damaged flooring, caulking in your bathrooms, and anything that has been on your to-do list. You know it needs to be fixed, chances are buyers will notice too.
- Repairing items around your home shows buyers that there is no extra work to be done. Uncompleted work translates to buyers as additional expense, time and effort that will need to go into your home after purchase and cause buyers to question if there are any hidden problems.
Neutralize
- Choose warm and neutral colors for walls, flooring, and even bed linens.
- Neutralizing your color pallet throughout your home allows buyers to imagine their furnishings in your home.
For those on a limited budget, the four least expensive things that will have the biggest impact are: de-cluttering, cleaning, painting, and enhancing your home’s curb appeal. Spruce up your curb appeal by doing any of these quick and easy things: mow your lawn, bring in fresh bark mulch, clean up dead leaves and plants, replace that shabby mailbox, plant some inexpensive annuals for color, and sweep off front stoop, walk, and driveway.
Staging is all about preparing your home to appeal to buyers. All of these items are basic steps that you, as a homeowner, can take to begin that preparation. As a Certified Home Marketing Specialist, I provide an in-depth customized consultation about Strategic Marketing and specifically home staging to all my clients.
Trying to Sell Your Home? Helpful Things to Prioritize
Paying attention to how your home will appear to others will help you sell your home.
Sellers in the Corvallis, Albany and Philomath, Oregon real estate market will benefit from a few easy steps to take before you put your home on the market. Today’s market is very competitive, and you want your home to stand apart from the pack. Prioritize and analyze what will fit in your budget and take the steps necessary to make your home show well and appeal to prospective buyers.
- Fresh & Clean: Inspect your home inside and out. Does it need a coat of paint? A fresh coat of paint is the least expensive/highest impact item you can do and is well worth the cost. Does it look clean and tight? Pack up anything you don’t really need and store it away, the more clutter free a home the better it will show. Likewise an empty, but properly staged house shows better.
- Curb appeal: Pay attention to your home as if you were a potential buyer. Is it inviting? Clean? Tidy up your landscaping, make sure that your lawn is green and well-kept, that your flower beds are weeded and mulched, add a spot of color. Verify that the exterior of your house is clean and respectable. Pay close attention to the exterior front entry.
- Inspection: There will be a home inspection completed by the buyer be prudent and do one yourself. Attend to items that could possibly hold up the sales process. A professional inspection in advance the buyer’s gives you the opportunity to address any issue that come up ahead of time, enhances the perceived value of your home and smooths the way through negotiations and to closing.
- Best areas of a home to update and remodel? The Master Bathroom and the Kitchen. Don’t spend the money to gut and redo your entire home but remodeling the master bath and kitchen areas of your home will make your home more appealing and grab a buyer’s eye.
- Evaluate: Are the remodel/updates going to net you more than you are putting into them? It is very important in the end to pay attention to your local market and make the improvements that will help you not hurt you. You may not make every dime back, but the improvements could set you ahead of the competition… review your market, see how you stack up and make business decisions about improvements. This is an emotional time, but not the time to make emotional decisions.
Want to know more? For additional tips on how to make your Corvallis, Albany, or Philomath property have an advantage over the rest, get in touch with me for a no-cost consultation.
Feel free to email me at
dbehrens@valleybrokers.com or give me a call at 541-257-3422
Focus On These Tried And True Tricks-Of-The-Trade To Sell Your House Quickly
Sometimes sellers lose sight of what is most important to a buyer. Making that good first impression is so important since you usually only get one chance during that first showing. Remember to focus on the following and you should have an offer in no time:
- Spruce up that entryway, or change it to appear more welcoming as a buyer enters through the front door, with an attractive bench or chair and a vase of fresh flowers. Remember too, the first impression starts at the curb.
- Houses can lose their appeal to a buyer if there are dirty dishes piled in the sink, piles of laundry or dust. It is hard work to keep your house sparkling at all times for a surprise showing, but very necessary.
- Kitchens sell a house. If yours looks old, a buyer might “discount” the value of the home in their offer price. Specifics to focus on are change the countertops, install new hardware and change to a neutral paint color, clean up or paint cabinets. Even replacing just one appliance with a stainless steel version makes a difference!
- Never forget to remove any personal items such as family photos and collections. It makes it harder for a buyer to envision themselves in the space if all they see are dozens and dozens of hummels. The goal is to have the buyer focus on living in your home, allow them to absorb the space, not be distracted by details…
- Light is good! Even if you prefer a darkened space, remember that a prospective buyer looks for as much light as possible. Remove drapes if you have to to let in light, or trim back large bushes or trees that are preventing light from entering a space.
- Empty those closets so that at least half of it is visible. Many sellers find that they have to put things into temporary storage elsewhere, but this effort pays off as a buyer needs to believe that they have a myriad of places to put all of their “stuff”.
- In this economy try your best to be brave and list your home lower than the competition. Buyer’s in today’s market trigger on getting a good value… This strategy has a track record of creating many buyers with bids, that often end up over the ask price.
Be Ready To Put Your Home On The Market With These Staging Tips
The first impression really does count with potential home buyers. If your home is lacking basic curb appeal or is not sparkling inside, you could lose a potential buyer’s interest immediately – and never get it back! Here are some tips to avoid losing a potential buyer:
- Flowers, flowers, flowers. Nothing welcomes a potential buyer more to a home than colorful flowers.
- Keep walkways clear, trimmed and weeded. Curb appeal is crucial.
- Patios must be power-washed.
- Windows should be sparkling.
- Dust everywhere. Even the baseboards.
- Since potential buyers look everywhere, make sure underneath your sinks and closets are clean, clutter-free and odor-free.
- Remove all personal items such as framed photos, awards and collectibles. Buyers need to be able to imagine the space as theirs.
- Paint any room that is a bright color, a neutral color.
- Remove any worn or outdated furniture.
- Repair any chipped or smudged paint, broken fixtures or squeaky doors.
- Toss worn carpets.
- Consider replacing dated hardware.
I have completed a Certified Home Marketing Specialist For more information about home staging go to Home Staging Information.
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