Why Stage Your Home?

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How To Sell Your Home Faster and For More Money!

Most homeowners find the process of selling their home time consuming and stressful. The anxiety could increase substantially for For Sale By Owner sellers who don’t have the luxury of receiving useful advice from their real estate professional. There are many studies, including a series by the National Association of Realtors, on the subject of hiring a Realtor or selling a home by owner. Most of the research indicates selling homes through Realtors will bring a much higher price than FSBO, the increase in the sales price most often offsets the customary 6% charged by real estate companies. A Realtor can help you with the staging of your home and offer professional advice on other areas where most homeowners have no experience to deal with:

• Pricing a Home – The risk of incorrect pricing a home for sale by owner can become very costly. While many websites offer estimated prices for homes their assessment through an algorithm most often has been proven to be wrong and mainly less than the true fair market value of the property. A homeowner attempting to save 6% in commission could sell their property 20% below the market!
• Staging a Home – Homeowners tend to either over-improve or under-improve the curb appeal and staging. This could result in spending more money than necessary when over-improving or selling the house for less due to under-improving. Either way, the result is the loss of money for homeowners. Your Realtor, on the other hand, can recommend some simple and budget friendly solutions to bring the best results with spending the least money.
• Marketing Homes for Sale – In today’s internet dominance the marketing of any real estate for sale is of utmost importance. The websites used by Realtors like realtor.com have long been established and highly ranked with millions of visitors per month. This makes it impossible for any homeowner to market their home as effectively as a Realtor regardless of how tech-savvy they could be.
• Contract Negotiation – The negotiation does not stop at the signing of a contract. A typical homeowner does not have the experience or knowledge necessary to negotiate issues arising from the inspection or appraisal. Also, the contract used by Realtors are mostly drafted by the legal team in their association and cover many points which could be missing in DIY contracts. For example, the contracts used by Realtors in Florida, FAR/Bar contracts are approved by the Florida Association of Realtors and Florida Bar.
• Showing a Home for Sale – For Sale By Owners leave the door open to any shady character to come into their house and sometimes they become the prisoners in their own home waiting for potential buyers to show up. On the contrary, Realtors will take over the showing tasks and eliminate the risk of unwanted people entering the home or the need for the homeowners to stay home for showings.

Budget-Friendly Home Staging Ideas

We cannot emphasize enough about the importance of staging a home for sale but this does not mean to spend more than necessary. It is all about the Return on Investment, ROI, after all. Some staging solution does not cost a penny, like decluttering, and homeowners can benefit handsomely with only some elbow work. The followings are some simple ideas for improving the showing of any home for sale:

• Renting Storage Units – De-clutter the entire house including the garage by simply storing them outside the house. If renting a truck and monthly rental costs become more than what is in your budget perhaps store neatly in the basement, attic, or closet depending on content of packed items and location of your home.
• What to Do with Low Ceilings – While more modern homes offer ceilings in 10’ and higher the older homes’ typical 8’ ceilings seem too low. There are a few tricks to remedy the appearance of the low ceilings. One of the most effective ways is replacing the draperies with floor-to-ceiling drapes. There are many ready-made drapes offered in 96” and even 108” lengths as low as $30 which could be ordered online. The drapes with vertical lines and decluttering would add even more illusion to the height of the ceilings.
• Tricks for Older Furniture – Covering older sofas, love seats and chairs with more modern slip covers is a simple and quick solution for improving the looks of older furniture that still have some life left in them.
• Bathroom Makeover – Bathroom remodeling is very costly but there are few tricks to spruce up the older bathrooms. A fresh paint job is a good start to for any bathroom makeover. Extend the painting to older cabinets as well. New paint and more modern hardware are an inexpensive solution for improving the look of older bathrooms. Also, changing the shower curtains to more contemporary curtains is another cost-effective way to transfer an outdated bathroom.
• Touching Up on Decor – Many small improvements will not cost much but they will collectively transform the house to a better version of it. This could include replacing old drapes or installing new house numbers designed to stand out. Planting some flowers and foliage in the front yard will immensely improve the first impression of buyers.
• Make Your House Feel Like a Home – If buyers could imagine they are living in the house you have accomplished your staging goals. Some minor yet important points like fresh flowers on the dining room table, smell of coffee, or vanilla and a current magazine or newspaper on the table will make your buyers feel comfortable to imagine they are living in your house. That said, overdoing the staging will have the opposite effects by taking away the homey feel that staging is intended for.