Want to know a secret to how you can sell your home more quickly and for a higher price than many other home owners? It's called "staging" and any home owner has the option to choose this to help their home get off of the market.
When you visit department or furniture stores, the rooms that they have set up often feel just so perfect and modern that you wish you could take that entire room and transplant it SOME where in your home. Though you cannot actually do this, you can certainly hire on a home stager to help you accomplish this fantastic look for a low cost.
Think about it; a home stager may cost a little bit of extra money, but the return is thousands of dollars more in your pocket when you sell your home!
A home stager's job is to basically make a great first impression with your home. They know exactly how to use shadows and lighting to make rooms look larger, to cover up flaws, and to make the home feel a lot cleaner and newer. They also know how to set up fixtures and furniture to bring out the most positive thing in every single room. They truly know how to turn your home into a flattering piece of art!
Some other things that a home stager will do are:
- Make suggestions or adjust and arrange furniture to allow foot traffic through more easily, and/or to increase the use of the space
- Adjust any lighting or replace any bulbs that need to be fixed
- They may suggest some tea candles, gentle music, mirrors, and other neat fixtures to enhance your home's "ambience"
There are some things that you cannot expect a home stager to do for you, though. If your home has a particular odor, like urine or kitty litter or perhaps even mold, they will not be able to help you with this; try hiring a professional cleaner to help you out. You also must realize that a tiny room will not suddenly been blown up to look and feel as if it is the size of a football field; you must be realistic. If there are any foundational defects, such as any odd sloping or drooping, they most likely will not be able to fix that problem for you. Lastly, there is no promise that a home stager will "up" the value of your home; this just generally seems to be the way it goes in 90% of staged homes (so the odds are in your favor for making a profit).
Some other things to not expect your home stager to do are:
- Concealing obvious defects or flaws in the home which are required, by law, to be disclosed to every single potential buyer
- They will not, again, guarantee that your home sells, or that it will sell for a set amount of money "based on their experience". They are not knowledgeable of the housing market, and will not pretend to be.
- They will not tell you that your home was appraised at a low number. Again, they do not know the housing market and so they will not try to offer you any professional advice
Home stagers are not all too far away! A quick Internet search, look in your phone book, or a call to a local real estate company will offer you several options for home stagers. So if you want to increase your chances of having your home sold at a price you like, consider choosing a home stager.
