Selling your home is one of those fascinating tasks that you don’t quite understand until you have to do it yourself. I mean, how hard can it be? People who need to buy a home in the area you’re leaving will come in and have a look around. If they like what they see, they’ll make an offer. Right? Well, yes. Technically, that is true. But it’s a fact that if you don’t show off the home you’re selling to its best advantage, you could find yourself being offered considerably less than your home is worth. No worries, you’ll wait for the next offer. But the longer your house stays on the market, not getting good offers, you may have to lower your price. That shouldn’t happen. What you need is to get a fast house sale, at the exact price you want. But how do you go about getting that?
Ever Heard of Home Staging?
What’s home staging? The art of showing off your home to its best advantage so you can get the best price for it, at the earliest. It’s a professional task tied to the real estate business. Some real estate agents have studied for qualifications in this area. Others simply link to a home staging agency and call it in if its services are required. Home staging is required to get the best possible price for your house, but it doesn’t come cheap. You might be able to do it yourself and save some cash. If you fancy responsibility, here are a few tips to get you started.
Ten Home Staging Tips
Put these tips into practise. Remember, once the house is prepared and cleaned, you must top that cleaning up every day, as long as the house remains on the market. If you don’t, the house will become dull and dusty after some time and put potential buyers off, which you don’t want to do.
- Put away your personal items. Create space a buyer can imagine living in. If your new home’s not ready, put your and the family’s personal belongings in storage for the present.
- People will be walking in and out. You can’t watch everyone. Valuable items like an art collection or silver cutlery should be sent into storage with the personal items.
- Work on brightening up one room at a time. You see these rooms every day and you’ve stopped noticing them. Brighten each one up, one at a time. Each room may need a fresh coat of paint or some fresh curtains. Stick to neutral, calming colours. Keep the bare minimum of essentials in the house and make sure your cupboards are clean and tidy.
- Get rid of any clutter from every place in the house.
- If you haven’t had a refurbishment in a long time, it might be worthwhile to consider getting a fresh coat of paint for the whole house. It will brighten up the look considerably.
- Call a window cleaner and get those windows cleaned. In fact, consider whether your house needs a professional clean-up. It could make a huge difference
- Check the electrical fittings and plug points. If any need replacing, call an electrician.
- Check the plumbing. Be prepared to call a plumber to fix any leaky taps or blocked toilets if necessary.
- Place minimal furniture in each room, and keep the decor as neutral as possible, colour wise. Shades like grey, cream and beige will be perfect. You’re inviting the buyer to make his own of the place, to stamp his personality on it. Going colour neutral is the best way.
- Place fresh flowers at strategic places around the house, to give an atmosphere of freshness and life. Keep the curtains open at all times during daytime to let the light in.
Get the Best Possible Price
Put your best food forward and go all out to get a great price for your house. Once you’ve got a fast house sale on your old home, you’ll know it was worth it.
