Staging Your Home for a Quick Sale

Staging Your Home for a Quick Sale

Staging your home so a buyer can visualize living there can be a key to a quick sale of your Atlanta home. When a potential home buyer walks through the front door of your home, they are more interested in how the home fits their lifestyle than yours.  Staging your home for a quick sale involves de-personalizing the home and decorating it – or staging the home – to fit the intended demographic of the potential home buyer.

For the “do it your selfers” out there our years of experience helped us compile a list of tasks which are easy to accomplish and can help sell your home quickly in any real estate market.

• Remove your personal photos. No matter how beautiful you think that baby picture is, it needs to go.
• De-clutter. On average half the furniture in most homes needs to be removed. Agents with two buyers tagging along need clear open pathways to walk through during showings. This is the heart of staging your home for a quick sale and there is an art to it.
• Remove your “collections” and store them away for the move.
• Replace your worn welcome mat and clean any glass panels on your front door.
• Place fresh linens in the bathrooms and do a quick check for unpleasant smells.
• Replace all the shower curtains in your home.  Old shower curtains inevitably have a mildew smell and new curtains have a fresh aroma – almost like new paint. Most homes also need new shower rods.
• Remove unpleasant aromas from your garbage disposal.  Grind up a lemon to mask any lingering odors.
• Set the dining room table as if you were expecting company.  Tablecloth, china, crystal, silverware – use the best settings you have and make it look like you plan to entertain guests that very evening.
• Keep a bowl of fresh fruit on the kitchen counter.

We do also suggest that home sellers consider having their home professionally staged.  We have a professional decorator who keeps a warehouse full of furnishings and décor that will take your home from dull to dazzling.  Rather than actually buying furnishings that you “think” will make your home more appealing to home buyers.  We suggest using a professional home staging expert to supplement the out-dated décor in your home with spot-on décor for the target market home buyer.  This option also works great for vacant homes.

Staging your home for a quick sale on showing days:

• Put out some fresh cut flowers in the dining room, bedroom or kitchen to wake up your guests’ color senses.
• Simmer some cinnamon sticks or cloves in a boiler pot of apple juice on your stovetop to create a nice pleasant aroma throughout the home. Or, use the William Sonoma trick and put some vanilla on the burners of your range.
• Bake something in the oven just before the open house.  A sheet of ready-to-bake chocolate chip cookies is an easy solution.  The delicious aromas will make your guests feel right at home.
• Use the fireplace in cool months.  Start a small fire in the fireplace and make your open house guests feel cozy and comfortable.

By staging your home for a quick sale in these simple ways, you help a buyer to visualize what the experience would be for them if they moved into your home.  Minor distractions can create a negative perspective of the entire home, giving a buyer incentive to strike yours from a list of properties to consider for their new home. A small amount of staging can help put buyers at ease and let them know that you care about their perception of your home.