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Home Staging
Preparing Your Home to Sell, Inside and Out
By Teri Brown
When potential buyers are walking up to your home they are imagining what it would be like to live there. It is your job as a seller to make that very easy for them.
"First impressions count," Slaughter says. "You don't want a prospective buyer to keep on driving by because the look of your home is lacking in curb appeal. Quick and easy modifications can take your home from drab and old to sold, in a matter of minutes."
Slaughter says that adding a fresh coat of paint to your mailbox, front door and door trim will make your home appear fresh and new. Scrubbing your driveway and sidewalk will also make your house look well tended to.
"Place a pot or two of flowers by the front door," Slaughter says. "Even colder weather climates have flowering shrubs or cabbage that will add warmth to your front door. Yellow is one of the most welcoming colors."
Home staging is making your home look as attractive and welcoming as possible. From fresh flowers, the perfectly tossed throw or a plate of homemade cookies, home staging helps sell homes.
Nanci Rands is a principal and associate broker at Snyder, Kinney, Bennett and Keating, a real estate agency in Birmingham, Mich. Her advice to home sellers is to walk through their house as if they are doing it for the first time. This will give you an idea of how it looks to others and what you need to do to make it as eye-catching as possible.
"Many people don't see or visualize their homes," Rand says. "When it is time to sell their lived-in and loved home, owners forget to look at their house not as the place they have called home for years, but as a stranger or guest who is seeing it for the first time."
Rand says attention to detail brings big returns. She suggests that homeowners cover or refinish any worn wood and give the interior a fresh coat of paint. "Have a plumber check your pipes and faucets," Rand says. "Fix loose doorknobs, squeaky hinges or sticky windows and try to keep pets and their odors out of sight. They can be distracting."