Staged to Sell

Staging your home like the design pros on TV can help you sell your home. When you own a home you’re, of course, comfortable with how you live in it and you love all your personal things, but when you go to sell you have to see and present what a potential homebuyer needs and wants to see. Annette Loper, Staged to Sell, a professional Atlanta home stager, helps real estate agents and their customers get their homes ready to sell. Here are a few of her tips that can help stage your home like the pros, but if you’re not selling these tips might just help you looked at your home a little differently as you might want to spur your house up for the fall season.

The front door, stoop, or porch is the very first impression, so make sure it's clean, colorful and inviting.

Make a good first impression – Your front door, stoop, or porch is the very first impression. Make sure the front door is clean or freshly painted, if necessary. Add pots with beautiful plants and flowers that are in scale with the space. Make sure the front door mat is clean, welcoming or new. Go with a simply, traditional mat that will appeal to a broad spectrum of homebuyers and not a colorful customized mat that might read I Love Cats. You might not have a potential home buyer that loves cats as much as you love cats.

Box up your personal items – Box up and store your personal items like family photos and collectibles, especially on the main level of the home. You don’t want a potential homebuyer getting distracted with your vacation photos or your great grandmother’s antique plates-across-the-state collection.

The decision to buy can be made in the first room – Mentally potential homebuyers can make their decision in the first room they step into. Since the foyer is typically the first room viewed then this is where you want to spend your money on enhancements and improvements. Consider items like fresh flowers, a large mirror, and/or a table with a lamp or two. If you’re adding lamps then try to minimize the view of any exposed cords.

Don’t leave anything up to the buyer’s imagination – Most potential homebuyers lack imagination with a potential new home. You have to create the sense of how each space is used or how quirky spaces can be functional and interesting. For example, when one bedroom in a four-bedroom home is used as an office or playroom, the house may be remembered as a three-bedroom home with an office or playroom and not a four-bedroom home. You have to create that extra bedroom in their mind especially if you’re competing with other four-bedroom homes. 

Playroom - Before

Playroom - After. This room was staged to be a true fourth bedroom. A twin bed with linens, but no sheets (it's all staged to sell), dresser, lamp, accessories, blinds, and art relocated from the master bedroom.

Paper and plastic aren’t your friends – Get rid of magazines, newspapers and stacks of mail. You want your home to feel comfortable and not like a doctor’s waiting room. Plastic denotes fake or cheap, so get rid of those plastic toys, flowers, fruit bowls, etc. Replace plastic, dried flowers, and even, silk plants with live plants, fresh flowers and fresh fruit. These can come from your garden, home center store, grocery store floral and produce department, or nursery. Picture a kitchen with a gorgeous bowl of fresh lemons and a vase of fresh flowers vs. a bowl of plastic fruit and dried flowers. Which ones appeal to you?    

Laundry room shelving organized and staged to sell. Baskets purchased at local discount department store.

Clean clutter – Get rid of or organize the overall household clutter. Recycling, donate and trash it accordingly.

Impart life to the homebuyer – Impart a new life in your home that would appeal to a homebuyer: a home with a lush or luxurious lifestyle, a home that’s alive, a home that’s fresh, and a home that’s clean and organized.

These tips should help you sell your home in no time or at least you’ll be enjoying the feel of the new look in your current home until you’re off to your next new home adventure.

Follow us through the month for other For Your Home stories where we’ll expand on many of these points with great before and after shots. Need Annette Loper’s Staged to Sell services? Contact her at 404.697.5058.