Are buyers touring your house but not making offers? Or are buyers not visiting your home at all? Either way, you’ve got a problem.

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Trulia says there are 6 Things that may be preventing you from selling your home. Professional Home Staging directly addresses 4 of the 6, and indirectly addresses the other 2!!

1. Is it priced too high?

Oftentimes homeowners determine a “fair price” in their mind for their home based on their emotions, love for the family home, and not necessarily on the market. When you decide to put your home on the market, you need to begin to cut the emotional ties to that home. Your home is now a “product” that needs to be marketed so it can be sold. Your real estate agent can provide you with a fair price for your home based on the current market. Realtors use recent sales of homes that are similar to yours and that are in your neighborhood to determine the appropriate sales price.

Additionally, there are ways to ensure you get a higher price for your home. We’ll discuss a few of those in the next paragraphs.

2. Does anyone know it’s for sale?

Your home is a product, and just like other products it needs to be marketed. Just putting up a “for sale” sign doesn’t cut it today. Statistics show that over 90% of today’s homebuyers do their home searching on line. You will want to choose a realtor who, first, knows the area and who will have well-staged, professional photos placed on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and on major real estate sites such as Realtor.com, Redfin.com, Trulia.com, etc.

Professional home staging PRIOR to having the photos taken will help to ensure that the house has that wow factor your potential buyers are looking for and that it shows well on those sites. If your realtor hasn’t yet gotten the home listed in the MLS and on the real estate sites, make sure you ta
ke the time to properly stage the home before taking the photos. If there are pictures but they are less than inviting, take the time to stage the property and ask your realtor to take new photos for the MLS.

3. Does it have glaring issues?

Today’s homebuyers want a move in ready home. They don’t want to have to fix any issues whether its a big issue (like a failing roof, obvious drainage issues, or slanting floors), or smaller but obnoxious issues that buyers just can’t get past (like the well worn wall-to-wall carpeting, the pink bathroom or the bright blue living room paint). Either way, the fact that your home isn’t selling means buyers are consistently finding something wrong with it.Most buyers today want a move in ready home and are immediately turned off by any area that will need work after they move in. A few buyers may be willing to accept a lower price or credit for a home with a sticking-point issue, but often want double or triple the amount it would take to actually fix the issue.

Your professional home stager will provide you with a list of things that may detract from best showing your home and how to fix those issues.

4. Does it show well?

It is a very good idea to have a Home Staging Consultation BEFORE you put your home on the market. You want to make sure that when prospectivebuyers tour your home, there’s nothing stopping them from falling in love with it and your realtor will appreciate it too!DSCN6434

A professional home staging consultation will help to identify all the things you can do to best present your home. And that includes not only the interior of the home but the exterior as well.

That may mean rearranging the furnishing, updating the paint, adding a few well-placed lamps for lighting, pulling weeds, or freshening up he mulch in the front yard. Or, if the home is vacant, furnishing the rooms that will best display how the home can be lived in.

Additionally they will give you little secrets for showing your home. For example, open those blinds and curtains to let the natural light in, turn on all the lights when showing the home, or put some color on the front porch in the form of a large planter or flowers.

5. Can buyers picture themselves living there?

The more you enable buyers to picture themselves in your house, the more likely they’ll be to make an offer. A professional Home Stager can identify the things in your home that are preventing your buyers from seeing themselves in the home.

This may mean removing clutter or putting away overly personal items like family photos along the stairway and your kids’ artwork on the fridge. Or, if you have already begun to move your furniture and the home feels bare, you may need help with furnishing the home. One of the reasons vacant properties stay on the market 2 – 3 times longer is the inability of the potential buyer to visualize themselves or their furnishings in the vacant house. Or perhaps you just need to add a few accessories and artwork to help give your home that Wow factor buyers are looking for. Your professional Home Stager can help with all of these scenarios.

6. How’s your curb appeal?

More than one buyer has pulled up to a house whose listing they viewed online and liked (with, of course, interior photos), has taken one look at the exterior and has driven away without ever entering the house. It doesn’t matter how fabulous your home is on the inside or if you have updated the entre home; if buyers aren’t willing to step in the door, then you’ve lost them.

A few simple fixes can make all the difference in your curb appeal. In the spring, summer and fall, weed and mulch the flowerbeds, trim the hedges, clear the walkways, and touch up any flaking siding or peeling paint. In the winter, ensure your sidewalks are free of snow or ice. Brighten the area around the house with a little new mulch.

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Consider adding some welcoming touches like a seasonal wreath on the door or a bench on the porch or a large colorful planter. Pay attention to your front door; spruce it up with some color! You don’t need to spend a ton on landscaping; just making the yard (front and back) look like it is taken care of and welcoming can make all the difference. Again, your professional Home Stager can give you several different ideas on improving your curb appeal.

 

If you are getting ready to prepare your home for the market, Colorado Premier Staging would be pleased and honored to provide you with Home Staging services.

Written by Kevin Fletcher