Be Your Own Home Stager – Part Three

I don’t care how pretty your wall colors may look in your room, certain colors may not appeal to all buyers.

As a buyer is walking through your home, the thing that can distract them is the fact that nothing they own will match the color of the home they are viewing. If you think to yourself, “well, they can always repaint…that’s cheap!....think again! There are enough homes on the market today, that they can just say to their agent, “take me to the next one; we don’t want to nor do we have the time or money to repaint!”

I have been a Realtor for over 25 years. I remember the days when corporations used to buy homes from their employees so that they could move on to their new destination and the corporation would take over in the sale of their home. The corporation would hire people to come in and pull down the fancy drapes, pull up the carpet (usually a different color in every room) and replace with a neutral color carpet; and repaint the entire house in beige. I totally “get” the concept….they wanted any buyer to walk in and be able to visualize their furniture and things in this house….brilliant!

As I suggested to you in our last blog, go visit a model home. Rarely do you see crazy colors in every room. You should see a good flow of colors. Today’s neutral may be different from just beige. You could have neutrals in grays, taupes, etc. Have a stager or a friend with great taste help you pick a neutral color that you could paint your home that would appeal to the masses and go with your furnishings. Avoid yellows as too bright of any color is offensive and can kill your sale.

Are your carpet colors and textures different in every room? Do you realize that your eye stops when the view changes. You want buyers to flow from room to room and not even realize how they got there.

Again about color….do you have a lot of “things” with color that detract from the room?  Do you have a collection of pillows on your couches or beds? I’m not talking about the attractive bunching of pillows that is so popular today….I’m talking about the ones that are sentimental to you or have words on them that only you can appreciate…pack them! Do you have throw rugs spread from the front of your house to the rear that help keep your home clean? Your cleaning will be more difficult, but pick them up and pack them! Do you have chatchkes (knickknacks/trinkets) or collectibles spread throughout the house that distracts the buyers from seeing the great selling features of your home? Go ahead and pack these items. There is a saying, “less is more” and this little phrase alone will assist you in getting your home ready to sell or stage! Pack it or purge it!

And lastly, for this issue, don’t just appeal to the sense of vision when preparing your home. Appeal to ALL senses! Smell! Don’t go out and buy the cheapest (nor the most expensive, for that matter) of room sprays or carpet powders, but do get something soft that will make the buyer feel like the house is clean and they would like to wake up in this lovely smelling home! Diffusers are great! You just turn the sticks every day or so and the rooms will smell great! Hopefully, you will be able to mask any smells or odors that are normally predominant in your home (dog smells are some of the worse…also, keep cat boxes in a discreet place). I have seen home sales lost to smells of cigarette smoke! Beware! Sense of Hearing! In the model homes you may hear soft sounds of music playing. Try not to leave music on or a television on that will make your buyer/guest feel uncomfortable while walking through your home! Soft instrumental music can make them feel so relaxed and comfortable that they may want to stay and spend more time enjoying your home! Loud kid and animal noise, however, may run them off!

And the most important thing I can tell you to aid in getting your home sold is: Get out of the house while the buyers and their agent are at your home. If your home is set up to showing at its best, it doesn’t need you to extol its virtues to the buyers! They need to be able to picture their things in your home and to speak out loud about the things that are good or bad for them. If they have to do that later with their agent, they may not be able to remember some of the finest things about your home to discuss! Stay away! Go for a walk! Take the dog with you!

We'll send you more about staging throughout our blog sight!  Hopefully this will help you get inspired; get started and get staging!

Next week, Nikki will take you on a journey of removing the dreaded popcorn surface from your ceilings!