Correct staging is not only helpful, but crucial in timely home sale, especially in buyer market.
Let me point out that the purpose of staging is NOT to camouflage any hidden defects – that would be very unethical, dishonest, and most likely would be discovered by home inspection. Every home buyer is always recommended to order a home inspection conducted by a professional, knowledgeable home inspector.
Staging is meant to present the home listed for sale in the most attractive way possible in order to produce a timely offer. No seller should underestimate the power of good staging.
Staging is different from decorating.
Decorating is personalizing a home for a Family for everyday living. Staging, on the other hand, is decorating the home for sale in order to make it appeal to the largest pool of buyers.
The sole purpose of staging is to produce offer. If that gun displayed in the gun chest in the hall way, or the deer head hanging on the wall in the family room offends half of the potential buyers, it should be placed in the storage. Bright purple can be a beautiful color when matched with the right furniture, but if it chases potential buyers out the door, it is better to repaint it to a more agreeable color.
It is important to stage a home in such a way that is not over-staged. In other way, it is important to stage a home correctly.
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Below are a few tips offered by Debra Gould president of Toronto-based Six Elements Inc. who offered five rules of thumb for handling walls in home staging.
Walls are a key element of home staging. They are the canvas showcasing the greatest attributes of a house. Choosing the right color that complements the furniture and the floor flow is important.
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1. Remove personal pictures: Those wedding portraits and baby pictures have to come down, as do diplomas and awards. Personal items such as these are distracting to potential buyers. You want them to focus on the home itself, not who the current home owners are.
2. Pay attention to the condition of the walls: If the walls are beat up, dirty or chipped, it can distract a buyer and negatively impact the sale price. “Paint is the cheapest, easiest, and fastest fix you can do on a house,” says Gould. The colors, she says should be fairly neutral, but not to the point of boring. Select an interesting neutral color palette with three to four tones, or colors that compliment the existing features of the room.
3. Hang mirrors: Big or small, round or square—there is a mirror out there for every style of home. “Mirrors are a great way to visually enhance a room and to help the room appear brighter,” says Gould. Mirrors can provide subtle stylish appeal or an anchoring focal point. Another benefit: they don’t cost a lot! But it is important to think about what the mirror will reflect—avoid unattractive or cluttered areas of the home.
4. Get some art: Select art work that accents the best qualities of a room. No controversial pieces, violent scenes, or religious art. “With staging, what you want to do is enable the buyer’s eye to move around the room and take in everything,” says Gould, and the art should help achieve that goal, not hinder it. Don’t hang art too high. It must visually relate to the furniture under it.
5. Stay in proportion: Small pieces of décor get can get lost on large walls, while giant prints can be overbearing in an area with only a little wall space. Mirrors, paintings, and other elements of décor should relate to the furniture around it, Gould says.
Of course, floors, windows, woodwork are also important part of presenting a home.
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I am a REALTOR who is also ASP, Accredited Staging Professional. If you, or someone you know, plan to list a home for sale and would benefit from my services, contact me personally for a no obligation listing consultation. I offer my staging service at no additional cost to you, the seller. It is part of my service as REALTOR.
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SOURCE: REALTOR Magazine
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