Viewing posts from: November 2000
Sellers – 10 Things to Help Sell Your Home!
- posted in How To's
by Bob Angilella
The housing market is volatile, to say the least. While some regions are showing signs of recovery, others remain on the low end. In many ways, it’s a buyer’s market; if you want to sell your Big Bear home and get as much as you can from it, you need to make it the most appealing option in the neighborhood. You manicure the lawn, put up a new coat of paint, and install some stylish window treatments.
Yet, enticing home buyers is about more than simple curb appeal. Many people choose to go a step further, and turn the inside of the home into a sales floor. Companies that specialize in this kind of interior design are known as “staging” companies, and they’ve been proven to increase the sale price of a home.
Here are a few things staging companies do to help your home get the best possible offer:
- Get rid of visual noise. A cluttered house has a harder time selling than one that’s not cluttered. By “clutter” we’re not talking about cleaning up after yourself or having too many nick-nacks; we’re talking about visual noise. Too much furniture, for example, can create a “cluttered” look. One of the first things stagers often do is remove some furniture. This makes the home feel bigger on the inside.
- Group furniture. Pushing furniture up against the wall doesn’t make the room look bigger, contrary to popular belief. Instead, you want to position your furniture in such a way that the room’s traffic flow is obvious. A living room with all of the couches and chairs up against the wall doesn’t look bigger – it looks emptier. Grouping furniture makes the room seem more usable.
- Use neutral tones. Neutral tones like beiges, tans, honeys, and even the softer blue-green shades make for a great new color for a room. This will help to make up for dated styles and finishes you might have in a given space. Larger spaces should have neutral tones while smaller accents – such as your window treatments, for example – can have bolder tones to accent and define a space.
- Light up the home. One of the best ways to make your home feel warm and welcoming is to add lighting. As a rule of thumb, you want to have 100 watts of lighting in every 50 square feet of space. Use all three major lighting types: ambient, task, and accent.
- Create a new room. If you currently have an extra room that’s not being used for anything (such as a guest bedroom/sewing room/den combination) turn it into a real value-add in the home. Remove the visual noise, and then turn it into an actual bedroom, sitting room, or other room with a specific purpose.
- Vary your wall decorations. In most homes, wall hangings are placed in a virtual circle all around the exterior of a given room. This makes your artwork and other decorations almost imperceptible. Instead, vary their spacing and height so as to draw attention.
- Flowers pay off big. One of the consistent features of a staged home is floral arrangements. If you have flowers in your yard, they make excellent arrangements and they help to reinforce the entire property as a beautiful place. Use flowers and arrangements that are appropriate to the season; when in doubt, orchids are almost always a good bet.
- Make bedrooms inviting. Choose soft colors for your bedroom setting. If you can’t afford to replace a bed, switch out the frame for something more luxurious and use bedding with a neutral pattern. Remove as much as possible from your closets. Storage space is always one of the big concerns on a home buyer’s list of priorities.
- Consider re-facing cabinets. Replacing the cabinet doors and fronts of drawers, as well as knobs, will breathe new life into the kitchen. A well-done paint job will add to the effect. If the fronts of your appliances are dinged up, consider some appliance paint. Alternatively you can cover some appliance fronts with large, decorative magnets designed for that purpose.
- Don’t leave anything unfinished. If you are in the middle of a project, finish it. Make any and all minor repairs you can think of. Buyers notice things that need fixed, and every one is a little bit less they’ll be willing to pay for your home.
With some hard work, you can increase the sale price of your home and get it sold faster.
Yours truly,
Bob Angilella - Big Bear's Top Realtor
