First impressions are the only impression! Use these 7 tips to help you earn your client the top dollar for their property:
1. Declutter & Clean – Selling your home is essentially spring cleaning on crack. Remember all those Secret Santa gifts from last year that you didn’t do anything with? Guest what! It’s time to break those bad boys out and finally do something with them. Give them away, donate them or pack them up and put your extra items in storage for the time being. It really does not matter, but you need to reduce when selling.
How To:
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- Leave your closets half empty. While generally we tell our clients to just make sure they are organized, a mental trick can be to leave them half empty. This causes a buyer’s brain to think there is more space in the house than there really is.
- Remove magnets and artwork from the fridge. No one cares that your two year old can finger paint Karen!
2. Depersonalize – “Aw, cute kids! What a lovely home and a lovely family.” Doesn’t sound all that bad right? Wrong. This is not something you want to hear when selling your property. As soon as a potential buyer sees your family photos their mind instantly goes from this could be our home to this is someone else’s home. You need buyers to see the potential your property has to become their next home!
How To:
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- Take down all family photos or personal family mementos. That means your monogram front door wreath, the rock with your last name on it, and yes, the scrabble tiles with everyone’s names interconnect. It all has to come down.
- Remove any hints at personal beliefs. This could be quotes such as bless this home above to door or bible verses as a piece of art. You want the property to appeal to the masses, not a particular group.
3. Pay Attention To The Exterior – Everyone focuses so much time on the interior that they often forget about the whole second part of a listing, the outside! Unfortunately we have not figured out how to teleport…yet. That means that in order for a buyer to see the inside of your property, they first have to pass by the outside. You need to make sure to devote just as much effort here as you do the interior.
How To:
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- Clean up your landscaping. Trim up your bushes and trees. Take out any dead plants. Realign your landscaping bricks. Maybe invest in some fresh mulch, at least for the front. Nine times out of 10 the first image a buyers sees online is of the front of the home. These first impressions matter. If the first image of a house I see is of a warn down neglected home, chances are I am not even going to bother looking at the rest of the photos.
- Freshen up the house itself. This could be power-washing your siding, or maybe replacing a couple of broken gutters. If you do not take care of these items before an inspector will catch them during the inspection!
4. Update Finishes – If you do not know what I mean by finishes, I am referring to the physical surfaces and features of a house that stay with the house when you leave. This could be flooring, paint, lighting – both natural and artificial, faucets, cabinets, etc. During a selling process you want to keep things are generic as you can. The more simple and “basic” you are, the more masses that you can appeal to.
How To:
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- Paint walls and ceilings to neutralize overall look and feel of the property. A simple greige can go a long way on the main floor to a great first impression when buyers first step through the front door.
- Maximize lighting – both natural and artificial. Let in as much natural light as you can from windows by open up blinds and pushing window treatments to either side of the window. Additionally, update lightbulbs throughout the house newer LED daylight bulbs.
5. Reconsider Arrangements – Typically when we are talking about arrangements inside a home we are referring to furniture arrangements. How you place your larger items inside a room can make a big difference on how the space shows.
How To:
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- Avoid pushing furniture up against the walls. This is everyone’s first instinct to help make a room feel like it is more spacious than what it really is. Truthfully though it can have the opposite affect. When a buyer sees all the items pushed as far back as they can go, they instantly think the room is lacking of space and that items have to be pushed back for items to fit. Consider investing in smaller pieces that can be pulled away from walls, even just slightly. These pieces show the potential that a space has.
- Create a function for awkward spaces. When you walk from room to room is there an awkward niche, an extra wide hallway, or a stair landing that larger than what it should be? Arrange the space so that it has a function. A stair landing could become a great reading nook. Or that awkward niche can become a new space saver with a bookshelf for additional storage.
6. Focus On High Impact Spaces – Hight impact spaces are the rooms that buyers are most interested in (Kitchens, Living Rooms, Dining Rooms, and Master Bedrooms & Bathrooms). You wouldn’t want to focus all you extra efforts on updating other spaces that do not give you the most bang for you buck. So when considering the tips from above. Implement them throughout the home, but give them extra attentions on these spaces.
7. Highlight Property’s Features – During a job interview for a top level accounting position you are asked to sell yourself. You wouldn’t talking about how you are an incredible baker. You would say that you are accountable, always on time, a hard work and a quick learner. The same concept should be applied so selling a home. Don’t try to sell a home based off what you love, sell it based off what it can offer!
How To:
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- If you have have an older historic home with lots of custom woodworking, consider sanding down and re-staining the woodwork. Or paint the walls a light color and keep furniture simple with creams and blacks. Do not bring other wood tones in that would take away from the natural elements that come with the house.
Want more information on some of the tips that we discussed today? Check out our blog about some of our favorite neutral paint colors here. A perfect stop for those basic grays and beiges we mentioned. But don’t stop there! Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date with all the latest tips and tricks when it comes to our signature home staging designs. Until next time! Stay happy and healthy.