Home Staging Tips
and Home Selling Advice
More Home Prepping Ideas
By Jeanette Joy Fisher
When prepping your home for
sale, the key is to try to think like your potential
buyers. You want to feature the positive things about
your home, while minimizing the things that aren't so
positive--without having to spend huge sums of money
in the process.
One
simple, relatively inexpensive thing you can do to
enliven your home's décor is to add some plants. They
almost always add a touch of hominess and vigor to a
room. Of course, you'll need to make sure they thrive.
Few things look worse, or give a more negative feeling
to a room than dying plants.
Tree branches and cuttings from your garden can make
buyers feel connected to nature and comfortable in
your home.
Looking dispassionately at
your home is critical to prepping it for sale. For
instance, if you have a prized collection, regardless
of what it may be, it's probably worthwhile to pack it
up and send it to your temporary storage facility
while your home is on the market. The key is that
while you see "a collection," a buyer sees "clutter."
That means that they get psychologically caught up in
the clutter of your collection and forget to look at
the house itself, which may cost you a sale.
It's not easy, but removing your personal feelings
from the place that has been your home is vitally
important to being able to successfully prep it for
sale. While your home is on the market, it's best to
remove everything that isn't basic for your day-to-day
needs. As a general rule, the less stuff in your home,
the better, because it gives buyers a better
opportunity to envision their own belongings in that
room.
Though it won't be easy, you must let go of your
house. After all, it's no longer your home. It's just
the place you're staying until you can move into your
NEW home. In essence, your house has become nothing
more than a commodity that you want to sell to the
highest bidder as quickly as possible. That means you
want to prep it well to show it off in its best
possible light.
Sometimes it can be helpful to ask an impartial friend
to walk through the house with you and offer their
suggestions and first impressions of rooms as they
enter and walk around. This can be an eye-opener, but
never take what they say personally. Remember, you
have asked their honest first impressions, regardless
of what they may be. The more you can remove your
personal feelings from your home and begin to see it
through the eyes of potential buyers, the better your
chance of selling your home quickly--and at a better
price.
Copyright © 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher
Go beyond the basic home
staging methods with Design Psychology methods for a
top-dollar sale. Learn how to profile your prospective
buyer and make your home "simply irresistible" with
interior design secrets.
Home Staging with Design Psychology books.
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