Staging Your Home for a Quicker Sale

In today’s real estate market, it’s a buyer’s market. If you are selling
your home and want to sell in a reasonable amount of time, your house should stand out from the competition. With that in mind, here is my top ten “to do” list before putting your house up for sale.

1. Curb Appeal
· should be clean and attractive
· add some flower pots for color
If buyers don’t like what they see outside, they may never come inside

2. Clutter
· clean out and depersonalize all the stuff
· clean out closets and cabinets to show there is enough storage

3. Clean, Clean, Clean
· buyers don’t want to see dirty bathrooms or kitchens
· get rid of foul odors (garbage, mold, cigarette smoke, pet odors)

4. Take care of deferred maintenance.
· little things like: cracks, broken tiles, light bulbs out, etc.
When buyers see small repairs not fixed, they wonder if the house has major deferred maintenance.

5. Remove wallpaper
· wallpaper is frowned upon today
Some buyers will go as far as not buying a house if there is too much wallpaper.

6. Paint if needed
· go neutral
· neutrals appeal to more people

7. Fireplace (everybody loves a fireplace)
· clean it up
· paint fireplace wall an accent color
· make it the focal point in the room

8. Furnish for selling
· don’t overcrowd rooms with furniture
· too much furniture makes a room look small

9. Lighting
· each room should have a sufficient amount of lamps
· no one likes a dark house

10. Define each room
· no valuable square footage should be shown as a storage room

The worst thing you can do is to put your house on the market without fixing it up at all. You should know your competition. Go to “open houses” in your area, and PRICE TO SELL.

Copyright 2009

Rearrange It ! Redesign & Real Estate Staging
Marie DiCara
508-946-4328, rearrangeitredesign@comcast.net
Member of ADE (Association of Design Education)
Graduate of Academy of Design & Decorating

What is Redesign and Staging?

Redesign is the rearrangement of your furniture and accessories to make a room more functional and stylish. You probably have had your furniture arranged the same way for years in a conventional manner. Redesigners can usually see several ways to arrange the furniture in a room. In a few hours to a half day, your room can be transformed. Redesign is a "green friendly"
service.

Staging is the process of getting your house ready to sell. Statistics show that houses that are staged sell faster. Cleaning, clearing away the clutter and redesigning rooms are some of the procedures of staging.