Home Experts: Local News
Set the stage
Homesellers: Tilt the odds in your favor by making your home appeal to the greatest number of buyers as possible for a successful sale
Tools
Story Updated: Jun 14, 2011
If you’ve ever been shopping for a home, then you’ve seen a certain kind of living room. You know the one — bowling trophies on the mantle; worn-out, handmade afghans draped on an old sofa; a dusty set of Reader’s Digest on the bookshelf. Not your cup of tea.
But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be your living room. It’s just too difficult to picture your own beloved furnishings in that setting.
So when the tables are turned and you’re selling your home, remember that living room. A home that looks and feels ready for a homebuyer to move right in has a better chance of selling than one that looks like it needs work, says Laura Halverson Dufour, an Anchorage realtor with Dynamic Properties. After all, buyers only know what they see, not what it’s going to be.
Enter “home staging,” the act of highlighting a home’s best features, and downplaying its weaknesses – all in an effort to “appeal to the greatest number of buyers as possible,” says Dufour. Often, such staging will involve eliminating clutter and rearranging furnishings and accessories to enhance the flow of the home and make the best first impression on potential homebuyers.
Studies by Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage and the National Association of Realtors found that staged homes sold, on average, two times faster than non-staged homes. One recent study by StagedHomes.com shows that staged homes sell, on average, in one month, compared to the four months it takes to sell a non-staged home.
A great return on your investment
“Staging a home has become a critical tool to sell homes in today’s market,” says Dufour. The good news? It’s relatively simple and inexpensive to bring a house up to a sales-ready condition, she says. Homeowners just need to be smart and careful about what they choose to do.
“Many people find it hard to see past your belongings and see just the home, which is where a professional home stager or realtor can come into play,” she notes.
Staging an average-sized home can be accomplished for about $500 to $1,500 or more, depending on the extent of the work (painting, accessories, labor) involved, say staging pros. Furniture rental could add more to the bottom line.
Hiring a professional home stager can relieve both the stress and the cost of selling a home, says Tracey Wood of ReFeathering LLC in Eagle River. “We’re not out there to cost the homeowners money,” she says. “We’ll help you sell your home faster and for more money.”
According to ReFeathering’s Web site, sellers can recover almost 200 percent of the cost of staging when selling their homes and, according to a study by U.S. Housing and Urban Development, staged homes will sell, on average, at a 17 percent higher sales price.
Don’t mark it down — spruce it up! If your house has already been sitting (and sitting and sitting) on the market, it’s not too late, says Wood. “When your home isn’t selling as quickly as you would like, a seller’s first instinct is to lower the sales price,” she says.
Before you do, consider a different strategy. “Get someone to come in and look at the house,” says Wood. “It might cost a couple of hundred dollars, but when people reduce the price on a house, they usually come down by thousands,” she says. “Never come down on a price until someone objective takes a look at it.”
Is your house half-empty or half-full?
Before you have anyone look at your home, take care of the basics. While it may sound too obvious to mention, cleanliness is the most important impression that your home can make on a potential buyer. But even cleanliness can be, well, subjective. “Clean enough for everyday is not clean enough for selling,” says Wood. “Make it Q-tip, toothbrush clean from top to bottom,” she says.
Don’t bother polishing the bowling trophies, though. Instead, put them away. Far away, says Dufour. Decluttering is staging’s golden rule, because a crowded house is a house that will sit unsold for months and months. To make your home appear bigger and more open, excess furniture can go to an off-site storage, to friends or to charity, advises Dufour. Half-full closets will look bigger too, so clear out and box up clothing that you won’t need for a while; otherwise, a jam-packed closet will make buyers think it’s too small for them. And that “visual dandruff” – newspapers, mail, laundry, knickknacks – that accumulates in a well lived-in house needs to be out of sight. Also, “pack away personal items such as photos, and minimize items on horizontal surfaces (counters, tabletops, dressers, etc.),” she says. Don’t be tempted to stash them into drawers or closets. “People will peek.”
Above all, says Wood, don’t rely on your own judgment to determine what to keep and what to stash. “Clutter doesn’t look like clutter to the homeowner,” she says, admitting that even she can have trouble de-cluttering her own home. “To me everything in the house is beautiful. So I have to ask myself, ‘Is this decorative? Does it enhance the room?’”
Dufour agrees. “You’re selling your home, not the contents.”
Sound simple enough? Perhaps. But when you consider that Wood recommends removing up to 50 percent of the contents from your home, you may need a strong stomach and a good-sized storage unit.
Troubleshooting odors, wet shoes and dead plants
“If you can smell it, we can’t sell it,” goes a popular saying by Barb Schwarz of StagedHomes.com. It’s true: When a prospective homeowner gets a whiff of an odd smell – whether it’s from a cat’s litter box, or dogs, or exotic food – it can easily be a deal breaker. Does your home have a distinct smell? Ask someone you trust to give you an honest answer, then attack the problem by steam-cleaning the carpets and furniture, moving litter boxes elsewhere, scrubbing the kitchen, etc. But don’t try to mask anything with potpourri or air freshener. Consider investing in an air purifier or just open windows a few minutes before a showing to let in fresh air.
Now that your house looks good and smells good, you’re ready to greet your buyers. But first, picture your home after a parade of buyers and realtors have gone through it with wet shoes. “In Alaska,” says Theresa Piech of Peaches by the Beach, “people are used to taking off their shoes at the front door.” So you need to be prepared to accommodate them. “Pretend you are having a party,” she says. Instead of one floor mat, use several, and make a lot of room for the shoes. Put a coat rack near the front door. If you really want to go the extra mile, advises Piech, you can roll out a long outdoor mat for prospective buyers.
Winter presents special challenges for making your home attractive. “Make sure all draperies are open to maximize light entering the home’s interior,” Piech says. “Check the views out each window and glass door — you may need to tidy up outside.” Fresh plants near the windows can help brighten the gloom of inclement weather, but make sure they are well cared for. “You don’t want the nickname for your house to be ‘that one with all the dead plants.’”
Minimal money for maximum impact
If you’re still not convinced that you can afford a home staging pro, you can’t afford not to take some of their advice.
Consider a limited arrangement with a home stager. “We’ll come in, evaluate the whole house, and tell you exactly what the problems are and how you can fix them,” says Wood. The advice itself is often economical. “Sometimes it’s just, ‘move this couch,’ or ‘make a focal point.’ We only recommend the things that we believe will help the house sell faster and for more money.”
“If you’re selling the home vacant, try filling the house with a few items to create a warm, inviting feeling,” says Dufour. “Consider towels and floor mats in bathrooms, simple decorations such as candles or artwork on a fireplace mantle, a place-setting on a bar top, a decorative wine bottle with wine glasses on a countertop, a vase with silk flowers or a silk plant in the entry or corner of a room.”
Wood suggests visiting model homes. “That’s what you should be striving for,” she says. “That’s the best way to see what an unlived-in, but decorated home should look like.”
Live for today — good advice for you and your house
Perhaps Dufour offers the best advice: Love your house while you’re in it. “Even if you are not selling your home, pretend that you are. If you’ve been in your home for a while, use (these suggestions) to make a few changes. There’s no reason to wait until you decide to sell to enjoy your home to its fullest.”
But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be your living room. It’s just too difficult to picture your own beloved furnishings in that setting.
So when the tables are turned and you’re selling your home, remember that living room. A home that looks and feels ready for a homebuyer to move right in has a better chance of selling than one that looks like it needs work, says Laura Halverson Dufour, an Anchorage realtor with Dynamic Properties. After all, buyers only know what they see, not what it’s going to be.
Enter “home staging,” the act of highlighting a home’s best features, and downplaying its weaknesses – all in an effort to “appeal to the greatest number of buyers as possible,” says Dufour. Often, such staging will involve eliminating clutter and rearranging furnishings and accessories to enhance the flow of the home and make the best first impression on potential homebuyers.
Studies by Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage and the National Association of Realtors found that staged homes sold, on average, two times faster than non-staged homes. One recent study by StagedHomes.com shows that staged homes sell, on average, in one month, compared to the four months it takes to sell a non-staged home.
A great return on your investment
“Staging a home has become a critical tool to sell homes in today’s market,” says Dufour. The good news? It’s relatively simple and inexpensive to bring a house up to a sales-ready condition, she says. Homeowners just need to be smart and careful about what they choose to do.
“Many people find it hard to see past your belongings and see just the home, which is where a professional home stager or realtor can come into play,” she notes.
Staging an average-sized home can be accomplished for about $500 to $1,500 or more, depending on the extent of the work (painting, accessories, labor) involved, say staging pros. Furniture rental could add more to the bottom line.
Hiring a professional home stager can relieve both the stress and the cost of selling a home, says Tracey Wood of ReFeathering LLC in Eagle River. “We’re not out there to cost the homeowners money,” she says. “We’ll help you sell your home faster and for more money.”
According to ReFeathering’s Web site, sellers can recover almost 200 percent of the cost of staging when selling their homes and, according to a study by U.S. Housing and Urban Development, staged homes will sell, on average, at a 17 percent higher sales price.
Don’t mark it down — spruce it up! If your house has already been sitting (and sitting and sitting) on the market, it’s not too late, says Wood. “When your home isn’t selling as quickly as you would like, a seller’s first instinct is to lower the sales price,” she says.
Before you do, consider a different strategy. “Get someone to come in and look at the house,” says Wood. “It might cost a couple of hundred dollars, but when people reduce the price on a house, they usually come down by thousands,” she says. “Never come down on a price until someone objective takes a look at it.”
Is your house half-empty or half-full?
Before you have anyone look at your home, take care of the basics. While it may sound too obvious to mention, cleanliness is the most important impression that your home can make on a potential buyer. But even cleanliness can be, well, subjective. “Clean enough for everyday is not clean enough for selling,” says Wood. “Make it Q-tip, toothbrush clean from top to bottom,” she says.
Don’t bother polishing the bowling trophies, though. Instead, put them away. Far away, says Dufour. Decluttering is staging’s golden rule, because a crowded house is a house that will sit unsold for months and months. To make your home appear bigger and more open, excess furniture can go to an off-site storage, to friends or to charity, advises Dufour. Half-full closets will look bigger too, so clear out and box up clothing that you won’t need for a while; otherwise, a jam-packed closet will make buyers think it’s too small for them. And that “visual dandruff” – newspapers, mail, laundry, knickknacks – that accumulates in a well lived-in house needs to be out of sight. Also, “pack away personal items such as photos, and minimize items on horizontal surfaces (counters, tabletops, dressers, etc.),” she says. Don’t be tempted to stash them into drawers or closets. “People will peek.”
Above all, says Wood, don’t rely on your own judgment to determine what to keep and what to stash. “Clutter doesn’t look like clutter to the homeowner,” she says, admitting that even she can have trouble de-cluttering her own home. “To me everything in the house is beautiful. So I have to ask myself, ‘Is this decorative? Does it enhance the room?’”
Dufour agrees. “You’re selling your home, not the contents.”
Sound simple enough? Perhaps. But when you consider that Wood recommends removing up to 50 percent of the contents from your home, you may need a strong stomach and a good-sized storage unit.
Troubleshooting odors, wet shoes and dead plants
“If you can smell it, we can’t sell it,” goes a popular saying by Barb Schwarz of StagedHomes.com. It’s true: When a prospective homeowner gets a whiff of an odd smell – whether it’s from a cat’s litter box, or dogs, or exotic food – it can easily be a deal breaker. Does your home have a distinct smell? Ask someone you trust to give you an honest answer, then attack the problem by steam-cleaning the carpets and furniture, moving litter boxes elsewhere, scrubbing the kitchen, etc. But don’t try to mask anything with potpourri or air freshener. Consider investing in an air purifier or just open windows a few minutes before a showing to let in fresh air.
Now that your house looks good and smells good, you’re ready to greet your buyers. But first, picture your home after a parade of buyers and realtors have gone through it with wet shoes. “In Alaska,” says Theresa Piech of Peaches by the Beach, “people are used to taking off their shoes at the front door.” So you need to be prepared to accommodate them. “Pretend you are having a party,” she says. Instead of one floor mat, use several, and make a lot of room for the shoes. Put a coat rack near the front door. If you really want to go the extra mile, advises Piech, you can roll out a long outdoor mat for prospective buyers.
Winter presents special challenges for making your home attractive. “Make sure all draperies are open to maximize light entering the home’s interior,” Piech says. “Check the views out each window and glass door — you may need to tidy up outside.” Fresh plants near the windows can help brighten the gloom of inclement weather, but make sure they are well cared for. “You don’t want the nickname for your house to be ‘that one with all the dead plants.’”
Minimal money for maximum impact
If you’re still not convinced that you can afford a home staging pro, you can’t afford not to take some of their advice.
Consider a limited arrangement with a home stager. “We’ll come in, evaluate the whole house, and tell you exactly what the problems are and how you can fix them,” says Wood. The advice itself is often economical. “Sometimes it’s just, ‘move this couch,’ or ‘make a focal point.’ We only recommend the things that we believe will help the house sell faster and for more money.”
“If you’re selling the home vacant, try filling the house with a few items to create a warm, inviting feeling,” says Dufour. “Consider towels and floor mats in bathrooms, simple decorations such as candles or artwork on a fireplace mantle, a place-setting on a bar top, a decorative wine bottle with wine glasses on a countertop, a vase with silk flowers or a silk plant in the entry or corner of a room.”
Wood suggests visiting model homes. “That’s what you should be striving for,” she says. “That’s the best way to see what an unlived-in, but decorated home should look like.”
Live for today — good advice for you and your house
Perhaps Dufour offers the best advice: Love your house while you’re in it. “Even if you are not selling your home, pretend that you are. If you’ve been in your home for a while, use (these suggestions) to make a few changes. There’s no reason to wait until you decide to sell to enjoy your home to its fullest.”