5 Hot Tips From Home Staging Experts

When you’re selling your home, you can’t just clean up, run the vacuum and call it a day. You need to stage it – and that means making it more attractive and allowing buyers to see its potential so you can make a sale. Some people choose to hire professional home stagers, but you don’t have to go to those lengths to make an awesome first impression. There’s more to staging a home than cleaning, although that’s an essential part of it. If you are thinking about staging a home yourself, follow these 5 hot tips from home staging experts to ensure that you sell your house fast and for the most money.

So how can you stage your home yourself?

1) Get Rid of Excess Furniture

“When professional stagers descend on a home being prepped for market, the often whisk away as much as half of the owner’s furnishings, and the house looks much bigger for it. You don’t have to whittle that drastically, but take a hard look at what you have and ask yourself what you can live without,” says Leah Hennen of HGTV.

2) Add Modern Accessories

“Plain wrought iron lamps with ivory shades for table tops or floors can offer a modern edge to a room. So can table lamps with more flair, such as metallic or glass lamps that have colorful, patterned lampshades,” says Melissa Dittman Tracey of REALTOR®Mag.

3) Depersonalize Your Space

“Pictures are extremely distracting. You cannot believe how long potential buyers will stop and stare at people they do not know in photos,” says Jennifer Radice at FrontDoor.com. Take down all your personal effects so that people can envision their belongings in the space; that can lead to more positive feelings and a greater likelihood of making the sale.

4) Aim For Curb Appeal

“Many people thinking of touring your home will do a quick drive-by first, often deciding on the spot if it is even worth a look inside,” says Laura Gaskill at Houzz. She suggests power washing, planting blooming flowers and making your porch inviting by adding a clean doormat or neat porch furniture.

5) Go Gender-Neutral

“A master bedroom should appeal to both sexes. When you are selling, your master bedroom should appeal to buyers of both sexes. Get rid of features that seem too gender-specific. Paint the walls a neutral color, and choose bedding that matches. Then accessorize with items that complement the overall color scheme,” says Lisa LaPorta of Designed to Sell on HGTV.

Before & After Home Staging Photos

Before and After Home Staging Photos
It’s clear to see in this before and after home staging picture the difference a professional home staging expert can make. With a little extra work, a few home staging props and some quality lighting, this before and after home staging picture says it all!

Are You Selling A Home in Dayton or Cincinnati?

Contact the Ohio Real Estate Guys at 937-490-9743 or send us a note. We have plenty of staging tips, and you’ll love our innovative marketing techniques that get your home in front of all the right buyers. We’ll guide you through the entire process, from start to finish, and make sure you’re completely happy with the entire transaction.

Contact Us About Selling A House In Dayton or Cincinnati Ohio

8 Mistakes to Avoid When Listing Your Home for Sale

Avoid these 8 mistakes when listing your home for sale, you have a lot on the line. A single mistake could cost you the sale of your home, particularly when you do something that drives away potential home buyers before they ever see your home in person.

Some of the biggest mistakes sellers make are actually small in the grand scheme of things. So what pitfalls should you avoid when you’re putting your home on the Ohio real estate market.

Virtual Tours

Including a virtual tour. Virtual home tours don’t let people experience the full spectrum of your home’s details. There are too many “little things” that can cause potential buyers to scratch your home off the list without giving it a second thought, and a virtual tour can highlight all of them.

Bad Real Estate Photography

Being careless about your listing photos. Good listing photos don’t include personal items, clutter or boxes. It’s okay to have a photo with your furniture in it (a dining room table set for a dinner party is a great way to show that your home is perfect for entertaining, for example), but a curio cabinet overflowing with collectible trinkets is probably a bad idea. Further, your listing photos need to be sharp, clear and in-focus – and they need to be high-resolution.

Becoming Emotionally Involved

Allowing yourself to be emotionally involved in the transaction. It’s probably a good idea to start viewing yourself as a third-party businessperson when you put your home on the market, and that means looking at the entire transaction in black-and-white terms. If you’re emotionally involved in the sale of your home, you won’t be able to make the most rational decisions. For example, the color you chose last year for the bedroom might not be right for the new buyers; if you’re emotional about it, you may resist the idea of repainting because that was the color that worked for you.

Not Trusting Your Local Real Estate Market

Setting a price based on what your home is worth to you, rather than what the market will bear. Again, emotional detachment is important here. We all want to make a profit on our homes, but when you’re selling your house, you need to be mindful that what you think it’s worth and what it’s actually worth may be two very different prices.

Intentionally Hiding Known Problems

Trying to hide big problems. Smart buyers will have a home inspector check out the property, so if you’ve hidden a big issue, it will come out then (and it will probably cost you the sale). You can either fix the issues before you put your home on the market or give buyers a credit for fixing it themselves.

Staging Your Home To Sell

Neglecting to stage your home. You don’t have to hire a professional home stager, but you do have to minimize clutter, fix small issues and in some cases, apply a fresh coat of paint. You want people to envision their belongings in your home, but they can’t do that if your home has an extremely “lived-in” look.

Everyone Loves A Clean Home

Not going out of your way to accommodate potential home buyers. It’s not easy, but you need to clean your home and make it show-worthy every time someone wants to see it… even if it’s inconvenient for you.

Who’s Your Realtor

Working with the wrong Realtor. Take time to carefully choose a Realtor with a proven track record of listing homes and selling homes in your area. Enlist the help of a real estate professional who has extensive knowledge of the local real estate market and sales expertise.