Expecting a buyer to walk in your home and feel like buying it right away is like showing up at a fancy party in your pajamas and expecting to be complimented.
Why Staging?
The goal of staging your home is to SHOWCASE your home in the BEST LIGHT. It helps maximize your sales price and minimizing your time on the market. The objective is to make your home look bright and clean, smell fresh and feel spacious. It makes buyers want to live there. You may not be able to afford a professional stager. You should still achieve a quick sale by following the 4D concept of staging:
4D: Decrease, Declutter, Depersonalize and Deodorize.
Decrease the number of items by 30%. I suggest that you start with the big things first. Remove oversized furniture like that leather recliner. Pull the remaining furniture away from the walls and make groupings that allow for cozy conversation. This will instantly make the space feel larger. Of course, this depends on your room layout too.
Storage space sells houses. Now let’s focus on the smaller things. Everyone looks inside cabinets and closets during the open house. The more spacious your closets seem, the more attractive your home becomes. You should start by decluttering your bedroom and your all your closets.
Depersonalize the home. Pack away those family photos, travel souvenirs, your sports paraphernalia, and collections. Make it easier for the buyers to imagine their life in their future home, not yours. A buyer has no connection with a home when they walk in. Your items make it even harder for them to visualize their life in it.
Just take a moment to think of your office microwave during lunch time. No one likes that mixture of odors. Right? Do you know what the best smell for a home is? No smell at all. Some homeowners become immune to the way their house smells. Other sellers are too house proud to accept that their home smells dank, and I know of buyers who don’t make it past the foyer precisely because of that ‘old house smell’. We all know what that is. So give your oven a deep clean, throw/donate/discard those old unused items that have gathered dust. Things like old shoes and coats, cosmetic samples, rusty utensils, old cell phones, broken electronics, unused hobby related projects all add up to create that old house smell. Go that extra mile to get rid of those pet odors and smoke odors. Get your carpeted floors shampooed. Most likely it has decades of dust in it. Deep Clean EVERYTHING. It is worth the investment.
Wish you good luck and a speedy, profitable sale with this 4D method – Decrease, Declutter, Depersonalize, and Deodorize!
It often makes you fall in love with your home again. It is a good policy to have even if you are NOT selling the home.
