5 Springtime Tips-Getting Ready to Sell!

Blog Post Image
Real Estate

Hi!  Welcome back to #WorldWednesday!  Getting a house ready to go on the market takes planning and preparation.  Here are 5 staging tips to make your listing warm and welcoming to potential buyers:

1)  Keep calm and maintain the cleanliness.  A clean house is a wise investment in any market.  Along with the basics of dusting, vaccuming and shining the floors, windows and interior spaces, be sure to attend to overcrowded areas.  If you want your abode to show like a model home, you need to reduce clutter and remove anything that isn't necessary for the functioning of your home interior.  Home staging pros recommend that 50% of surfaces, like bookshelves should be empty and closets, 30% empty.  Make sure that linen closets have the sheets and towels neatly folded.  Make do with one extra set of sheets for each space.

2)  Keep it neutral.  Neutral doesn't always mean beige and dull.  A warm pale gray or blue can serve as a neutral backdrop.  Be sure to keep the primary bedroom appealing to all decision makers.  Avoid gendered bathrooms, religious decorations and sports memorabilia.  While these items may be meaningful to you, they can be distracting to potential home buyers.  

3)  Make it friendly and inviting.  Create a good traffic pattern and flow between rooms by opening them up.  Remove traffic-impeding coffee tables, unnecessary extra chairs and extra cabinets.  Stage furniture away from walls and in sensible conversational groups.  Use accessories to bring buyers in to conversation areas.  For maximum impact, arrange items in 3, 5 and 7 numbered groupings.  Experts often say 3 is the magic number and suggest arrangements in the shape of a triangle with key pieces as the focal point.  Be sure to keep tall items in the back and shorter ones up front.

4)  Attend to proper lighting.  Sellers often underestimate the power of good lighting to create a first impression.  Open the window treatments, blinds and turn on all the lights every time you have a showing.  Professional staging often makes use of task lighting and table lamps.  An architectural-style mirror can create the illusion of extra space and light.

5)  Make areas appear larger.  You can use the same strategies experts rely on.  Use a shared paint color to unify areas and create seamless transitions.  Without the distraction of competing colors, the eye sees separate spaces as one larger area.  Always choose lighter paint colors to brighten and expand visual perceptions.  To add visual height to a room, paint the ceiling a slightly lighter shade than the walls.  To keep couches looking sleek, select pieces with exposed legs rather than those with skirts and heavy materials.  Glass or Lucite tables are a great way to free up visual space as well.  

"Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.” ― Thomas Edison.  Check back next Wednesday for tips and tricks.  See you soon!  Warmly, Susan