Selling your home for a profit can be a difficult task, unless you understand the dynamics involved.
Finding a good Takapuna real estate agent is probably the first step, but another factor that plays a key role involves your home and its appearance to the outside world.
When you are selling a home, staging your property (or home staging) can be crucial—not only to the amount for which you sell it but, more importantly, for how quickly it is taken off the market as a result.
No seller wants property on the market for too long, for obvious reasons!
Why Home Staging is Important
It’s been said that the external appearance of a home can create an excellent first impression. However, that’s where it ends; a lasting impression is created based on how your home looks on the inside.
Clutter, for one, doesn’t help anyone—not the people living there, not if you want a better insurance deal, or (quite unfortunately) not if you want to make a profitable sale of the home that’s on the market.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, considering that there are a number of ways by which you can get your home to look better (home staging as we know it), and thus increase the chances of a sale when it is on the market.
Regardless of what you think, home staging consists mostly of simple tips that do not take much effort, but it’s the homeowner who should take this ‘project’ into his own hands so as to make the house look more appealing than usual.
If there’s a lot more money at stake, a Takapuna real estate agent should be able to help you with making your home look, quite literally, like a million bucks!
Keeping this in mind, let’s look at 10 tips that can improve the appearance of your home and affect the outcome of its sale, in more ways than you can think.
Home Staging – 10 Best Tips
One thing to keep in mind is that when you work on home staging, it’s important to focus on bringing out your home’s strengths while downplaying its weaknesses. Here are 10 Home Staging Tips that can help you do so:
#1: Clear out Clutter
Clearing out clutter has a number of benefits. First, the house looks more presentable to buyers, but it also looks bigger. For starters, remove excess furniture from your home to achieve this effect. Also, for every new item that you buy, make sure you get rid of another.
#2: Update Home Lighting and Eco-Friendly Materials
Buyers are happy to pay more for homes that are ‘green’. One example would be replacing traditional hardwood flooring with cork flooring. That also goes for plastering your walls. As for home lighting, aim at 100 watts per 50 square feet. This will make it look warm and welcoming to buyers, adding to that positive impression of the home.
#3: Reuse Junk
One way to save money is to reuse any junk you find in your home. For example, you can reuse hardwood flooring strips as a fence, or even make headboards from old doors.
#4: Create a Serene and Relaxed Bedroom Setting
Use luxurious linens as well as soft colors to create relaxed bedroom settings, which should make a potential buyer feel relaxed. You don’t even have to buy a new bed. Just purchase the frame and an inexpensive mattress and use neutral colors to dress it up.
#5: Use Appropriate Paint Colors
You can experiment with a dark color for a powder room, a bedroom, or even the dining room. As for the living room, pick a fresh, neutral color since bold colors are not necessarily preferred by buyers.
#6: Repurpose Rooms That Aren’t Used
If you have rooms that aren’t used for anything in particular, repurpose them (for anything other than storing junk). One example of this would be converting the space into a study or a cosy reading spot.
#7: Invest in Contemporary Appliances
Update all your kitchen appliances, be it a cooktop, a refrigerator, or even a stove. Almost every seller will regain his expenses for the investment made towards getting new appliance for the home.
#8: Complete Unfinished Projects
Nothing scares potential buyers away like unfinished projects. Avoid situations such as large cracks in the sidewalk or missing floorboards. In other words, complete these projects before putting your house on the market.
#9: New Cabinet Door and Drawer Fronts
If getting new cabinets is too expensive, just replace the doors and drawer fronts. Paint just about everything else so as to match. This also goes for the dishwasher, where you can simply get a new front panel.
#10: Get Flowers From Your Yard
Home staging involves the use of fresh flowers and orchid arrangements that are pricey. Instead, you can get flowers from the yard depending on the season to spruce up your home on sale.
In Closing
Home staging doesn’t have to be expensive at all, given the tips above. But one thing’s for sure: it definitely matters when it comes increasing interest in the home you have on sale.
If you need to some expert advice or need someone to stage your property from a scratch, then you should contact a reputable Takapuna real estate agent.
In particular, and with years of experience, Sherelle and Don Benson will be glad to help you sell your home, given their track record for a number of years now and being recognised as #1 in the Takapuna/Hauraki area, with the highest dollar-value in sales of all time.
So, are there any other home staging tips that you can think of? If so, feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section below.
