Tips For Sellers:

1. Do not stay in the house with the buyer and their agent is going through!  Buyers and their agents like to talk through each house to point out the pros and cons and they won’t do that if you are within earshot!

When a buyer walks through your home, they are going to try to see themselves in the house!  With you there it will be impossible!  Also, they will feel very uncomfortable looking in to closets and kitchen cabinets!

Best advice - LEAVE!!!!

2. Make sure you have done everything possible to have your home in showcase level!  And don’t you decide if it is in tip top condition, as the Realtor, or better yet, hire a Staging Coordinator!

Showing a messy house is a kiss of death! Remember, it is work to keep your house lookiing like a model home, but you must if you want to compete with the other homes for sale in your price range!

HGTV has infused buyers with visions of what their next home should look like, so make yours match their impressions!　

3. Rent a Storage Locker!  If you really are planning to move, then pack up your “stuff” and move it into a short-term rental storage. Make your closets look half empty! Make your counters cleaned off of appliances and personal items!  Look under your beds and remove everything!  Clean out your basement and garage!  Believe me it will make moving a breeze!

4. Don’t Price your Home! Let your agent work up the market price and be ready to lower it every two weeks! Most buyers won’t even bother looking at your home if the asking price is clearly higher than the market stats that they are looking at online.

Top experienced agents like Steve Babbitt understand the history of the market and the conditions that affect the market price.

Home Staging

Home Staging is a word that today is synonymous with getting your house ready to sell. It’s a buzz word we hear all the time. So I decided to ask my friend Naomi Harel of Invision Design Partners to share with me some of her thoughts on the topic.

Home Staging is the art of preparing a home for sale by maximizing its appeal to the broadest range of potential buyers and creating immediate interest for purchase.

Wow, that’s saying it pretty concisely!

As most people naturally strive to personalize their homes with meaningful decorations, artifacts and specific aesthetic tastes or styles, Home Staging on the other hand, aims at creating an impersonalized space that would make it possible for others to imagine themselves living there and making it their own.

Some of the actions necessary for achieving this goal include painting with neutral colors and de-cluttering living spaces or simply put, removing junk!. Usually, the owner’s own furniture and accessories are rearranged for greater advantage and impact. On occasion, however, these types of items are brought in on a temporary basis to maximize the marketability of the home.

A home seller would greatly benefit from accepting that they must “let go” of their own personal taste in interior decoration in return for the creation of a neutral, warm and welcoming interior style that appeals to others. A practice that could bring a higher sales price and a speedy sale of the property.

The best strategy for achieving this goal may be to hire the services of an interior decorator who has an unbiased “eye” to see the living spaces as they will appear to potential buyers. For additional information on Home Staging go to Home Staging Tips.

What do you think about Home Staging and how do you handle it as an agent?