Home Staging
Articles - Free Home Sellers Advice
By Jeanette Fisher, interior
design college instructor
Win Your Home's Beauty
Contest
It's been said that getting your home ready for
sale is like getting ready for a beauty contest. You
have to take what you've got to work with and enhance
it. And you've got to take what's not drop-dead
gorgeous and make it look better. Then you're ready to
face your competition. Based on that analogy, here are
six tips to help your home win the beauty contest and
find a buyer.
First, make your home look great from the street.
That's #1. If it doesn't entice buyers to come inside
for a closer look, you've lost the contest before
you've even had a chance to show your entire package.
Keep the grass mowed, and keep rollerblades, bikes,
and lawn care equipment out of sight.
Next, keep the inside of the house as uncluttered as
possible. Get rid of excess furniture, knickknacks,
photos, magazines, and the 1,001 other things that
collect in homes after people have lived there for a
while. You want your visitors to focus on your home,
not on your stuff, and your home's beauty can't shine
through if buyers can't see it.
Third, never underestimate the power of offensive
smells. If you have pets, you may have become
desensitized to their smell, so ask friends to tell
you if your home has any less-than-desirable odors,
regardless of where they may come from--cigars, food
in the garbage under the sink, dirty gym socks, or
wherever. Use potpourri or air fresheners throughout
the house to fight offensive odors. After all, no
beauty queen ever won a contest without perfume and
deodorant.
Fourth, without spending all your profits, make all
repairs necessary for everything to working properly
and safely. Even something as small as a burned-out
light bulb can create a negative impression in a
buyer's mind that's out of proportion with the
situation. From then on, they'll begin to notice every
little thing that’s wrong with the home, regardless of
how small. So, in your home’s beauty contest, make
sure you fix problems BEFORE the judges (buyers) come
to look it over.
Fifth, think like a buyer and walk through your home,
noticing its defects and finding ways to correct them.
Make sure all the beds are made--including the kids'
bunk beds. Put out your nicest towels in the bathroom,
put a log in the fireplace, bake cookies to fill the
air with homey smells--be creative.
Finally, et the stage for showing. Most home stagers
say that one good way to show your home off to its
best advantage is to set the dining room table with
your best dishes, to show how nice the home will look
on holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. However,
setting the table might make your home appear
"over-staged," just like too much makeup or too many
frills on a beauty contestant's costume that detract
from her features. An exquisite table cloth that
attracts the buyer's sense of touch makes a great
impression. According to a report by the Christian
Science Monitor, March 2006, staged homes sell for 7.4
percent more and in half the time.
In every case, you must think like the ultimate judges
of your home's beauty contest--buyers--and do whatever
it takes to bring home the trophy--a signed sales
agreement.
Copyright 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher
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Copyright 2005-2006 Jeanette J. Fisher
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Family Trust Publishing
18475 Grand Avenue
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800-246-5161
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