Real Estate Staging: Increasing Your Home's Appeal is Easy

While spending a few years in the residential real estate business both as a sales agent and a broker, I have come upon some staging tips that will increase the appeal of your home to a potential buyer. Remember the old saying: you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Very often that first impression is hoe the buyer will ultimately make a decision, so you want a maximum effort for a positive first impression.

Exterior

First, get into your car and drive away. Then return to your home and look at it as though you were seeing it for the first time. How does it really look? Is the landscaping neat and orderly? Are those bushes that you just never got around to cutting looking like it is wild growth? Is the roof missing some tiles or shingles? Are the driveway and sidewalks clean? Make a list of those items that need attention.

Paint your front door and mailbox. Polish your door and entry hardware.

Make sure your doorbell works.

Make sure your home is clean. Pressure wash those items that need it. If necessary, hire a contractor to pressure wash the house, a $200-$300 investment. You have to be willing to spend a little money to make a lot of money.

Organize your garage and wash your car. Clean the garage floor. If necessary, rent a storage space to store your garage clutter.

Look for cracks in the exterior plaster or stucco if applicable. Patch and repaint.

Remember, if the house looks like it needs repair you'll never get them into the inside to see it. They'll just drive away.

Interior

Now that you've gotten them into your home to see it, you need to make sure they see it at its best, which is often not how you live in it. People buy houses based on what they believe will make them into homes. They think of the parties they'll host, of family time spent, of backyard barbeques they'll have. It is mostly emotional, and while they are viewing your home, they are visualizing how they can make it into their home. After a person decides to buy your home based on emotional feelings, then they justify that decision with logical reasons. Take advantage of that with these suggestions.

Make sure your entryway is free of clutter and spotlessly clean. Fresh paint and clean floors will do wonders. Replace any chipped tile and use a professional wax stripper and fresh floor wax.

While you're cleaning out the clutter from the entryway, do that with the rest of the house. Remember that storage space you rented for the garage clutter? Make it a big one and stick about a third of your furniture in there. Uncluttered homes sell much faster than cluttered ones.

Look for little things in your home. Oil squeaky doors, tighten doorknobs, replace burned out light bulbs, clean and repair all windows, and repair leaking fixtures and toilets.

Clean your home. Shampoo carpets, clean the washer and dryer (even if you're taking it with you!), and clean the kitchen appliances inside and out. It is a good idea to, after you've removed the clutter mentioned above, to call a professional house cleaning service and tell them to have at it. The money you spend will return tenfold in the money you get for your home.

Clean the fireplace and remove ashes. Organize your closets and utilize that storage space that by now is probably bursting to the brim.

You also have to make the home smell as good as it looks. Make sure there is a clean, fresh scent throughout the home. Baking cookies is an old trick of realtors, and one is one of which the public is aware. Better to have a scent in the home that is pleasant but nondescript. If your home smells like chocolate chip cookies, then you'd better have some on hand.

Getting your home ready to show for a sale is a lot of work, but better to work hard and succeed than to waste your time showing a home that will never sell simply for lack of effort.