Where to Begin when Selling your Home
First Impressions. Remember what first attracted you to your house when you bought it? What excited you about its most appealing features? Now that you're selling your home, you'll need to look at it as if you were buying it all over again.
A good first impression makes an impact on a number of levels. It’s not just the way your house looks to potential buyers, but how it feels and smells to them, how their friends and family will react, how they imagine it would be to live there.
With simple improvements throughout your house, you can grab the attention of potential buyers and help them see why your house is right for them.
Where to Begin when Selling your Home
First Impressions. Remember what first attracted you to your house when you bought it? What excited you about its most appealing features? Now that you're selling your home, you'll need to look at it as if you were buying it all over again.
A good first impression makes an impact on a number of levels. It’s not just the way your house looks to potential buyers, but how it feels and smells to them, how their friends and family will react, how they imagine it would be to live there.
With simple improvements throughout your house, you can grab the attention of potential buyers and help them see why your house is right for them.
Preparing your Home for Sale
First impressions make a significant impact on a buyer's decision-making process!
Once your home goes on the market, it becomes a product. Home Styling or Staging simply allows you to highlight the best of your home and de-emphasize its flaws. It's not about decorating, but actually turning your home into a model, to appeal to the broadest range of prospective buyers. The goal is to make people feel like they could live there, and the best way to do this is to "neutralize" the surroundings.
Here are a few tips that can help you style and stage your home:
1. Clear out closets and clutter—sellers can give away or pack up toys, linens, and small kitchen appliances to store offsite. Buyers are also forgiving of storage boxes neatly tucked away in a garage or basement.
2. Focus most on the most visible areas—the foyer, kitchen, living room, master bedroom, and family room.
3. De-personalize the home by removing photos, mementos, and dated items.
4. Use plants in colorful pots or inexpensive wicker baskets to fill in empty spaces.
5. Try angling one or two pieces of furniture slightly and move furniture 4 inches to 6 inches from the wall to create more interesting room spaces.
6. Put away large collections— porcelains, plates, and so on.
7. Remove valuables, prescription medicine, collectibles, and breakables.
8. Trim trees, prune shrubs, and make sure the lawn is mowed and watered regularly.
9. Refrain from cooking anything that leaves a distinctive odor, such as fish, garlic, or cabbage.
10. Set the dining room table with attractive linens, dishes, and stemware.
11. Arrange fresh or silk flowers throughout the home.
12. Light a fire in the fireplace in fall and winter.
13. A mirror in a pretty frame can make a small room feel more open.
14. Use as much natural light as possible. Add extra lamps in dark rooms or corners.
15. Make functional repairs—fix dripping faucets, sticking doors, and broken fences.
16. Bring in another pair of eyes—even if it’s not a professional stylist. The person may see problems you and have missed.
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