In a seller's market, such as we have today, sellers might feel like they can skip some steps before listing their home. After all, sellers are getting their asking prices, aren't they? But is that the only thing to consider? Our real estate agents know staging your home is important in any real estate market. Here's why. 

Reasons to Stage Your Home

• Online Listings
  With online listings, buyers can jump online at any time and research houses, gravitating to the homes with the most extensive array of clear photographs. The camera will see details the human eye can miss. Staging the home means that the photographs will show the house in the most favorable light possible. By attracting potential buyers online, sellers are cutting time on the market before selling dramatically. It allows buyers to focus on the homes in which they are truly interested, ignoring those they know won't fulfill their needs.

• Maximizing Space
  Homeowners don't always align the furnishings of the house with the size of the rooms. A favorite chair might be comfortable but make a room appear cramped. Staging ensures that the scale of the furniture makes the room appear more spacious. Even without employing a professional stager, sellers often find that renting a storage unit is beneficial to remove large pieces and clutter. Rooms that appear more spacious will photograph better for online listings and feel more comfortable when buyers look in person.

• Creating Focal Points
  Buyers prioritize particular rooms when shopping for a new house. An elegant living room is far more important to most of them than a secondary bedroom or home office space. Proper staging shines a brighter spotlight on key areas of the house. Great rooms, master bedrooms, kitchens, and dining rooms are, in that order, the areas in which staging will have the most significant impact. This is especially important to the seller with limited resources who want to concentrate their efforts where they will have the greatest impact.

• Revealing a Home's Potential
  Staging includes de-personalizing a house to allow potential buyers to imagine their own lives in the space. That begins with removing the collections from the shelves and the photographs from the walls, but it doesn't end there. Brightly colored accent walls must give way to the more neutral colors that allow a buyer to imagine their own furniture next to them. Small kitchen appliances should be removed from countertops, and personal care items in the bathroom should be out of sight. 

Stage Your Home With These 5 Steps

Not all sellers have the resources to engage a professional staging company, but there is plenty you can do to increase your home's appeal to potential buyers. Our agents recommend that the seller address a few basic chores at a minimum when getting a home ready to list:

1. De-cluttering - this means ruthlessly removing any personal items from pictures to children's toys. Consider this the very first step of preparing for a move. Sellers should remove everything possible from the premises. Decide whether you are getting rid of these items are taking them with you to your new home. If you are keeping these items, this is another reason you might want to consider a storage unit.
    
2. Deep Cleaning - From scrubbing the baseboards to washing the windows, the object is to make the house sparkling clean. It's particularly important to pay attention to stoves and refrigerators. The slightest remnant of kitchen grease will put off potential buyers.
    
3. Removing Pets - Let's face it. No matter how much we may love them, our furry family members tend to leave a trail of hair wherever they may roam. They often leave unpleasant odors, as well. Potential buyers may have allergies or even be afraid of pets. Boarding them or letting them visit a friend can eliminate these issues from the equation. Also, ensure your pet supplies like food bowls and litter boxes are hidden during showings.
   
   
4. Cleaning Carpets - A good cleaning can make carpets look and smell like new. Buyers like to be able to move in quickly without making a lot of changes to the house to make it comfortable. A carpet that doesn't need to be replaced is a very important element of that decision.
   
   
5. Painting - A fresh coat of paint breaths live back into dingy walls. While white is still the most common recommendation when selling, current trends include several neutrals that will make the house appear a little more modern. Gray, taupe and beige tones are also favorites.

Before you invest a lot of time and money into preparing your house for sale, contact us for expert advice. Our team has the experience you need to make sure you properly prepare your home for the market, appeal to buyers, and ultimately sell your home for a desirable price.