Home Staging
Tips and Suggestions by Melinda Potcher
I
absolutely love following the staging blog articles on NAR (The National
Association of Realtors) and have developed many of my own staging blog
articles from ideas I have seen there from time to time.
This
article I came across about Top 10 Cheapest Ways to Increase a Home’s Value: http://styledstagedsold.blogs.realtor.org/2015/05/25/10-cheap-ways-to-increase-a-homes-value/
So let’s discuss some of those ideas for our local market,
with a real world example:
Deanna and Eric Dopslaf brought me in to help stage one of
their listings last year (2015) for a homeowner who had his investment property
on the market for some time (many, many months) with a different Realtor and had
received no offers. The cost of the
staging was $1,935.00.
In addition to
staging this vacant home with contemporary and colorful furnishings and
accessories, I had some recommendations which included swapping out all of the
old bright brass ceiling light fixtures with more modern bronze and frosted
glass light fixtures. There were a total
of 5 of these that needed to be swapped out throughout the first and second
floors of the house. The cost per
fixture was around $25 plus tax.
I also
recommended the Owner paint the front door and door trim from a drab dark brown
to a welcoming and rich orange. The cost
for the paint was about $33 plus tax, plus the value of his time to paint the
door and trim work. Deanna and Eric
Dopslaf also had professional photographs done for the MLS (Multiple Listing
Service). The result was an accepted
offer 19 days after listing the property for sale.
With unfinished projects, there are several factors to
consider, including time to complete the projects and the cost to complete the
projects. Know this for sure – your
Realtor and your Home Stager do not want you to spend excessive amounts of
money to get the property market ready.
They DO want you to get the home sold quickly and for as much money
as the market will allow.
Other unfinished projects your Realtor and Home Stager may
have you consider could be;
- · Painting wood trim around the garage door outside.
- · Trimming back trees, bushes and shrubs.
- · Cleaning up the yard of any weeds, replacing missing rock or repairing weed barrier fabric.
- · Replacing broken or worn out exterior or interior light fixtures.
- · Fresh paint inside or outside the house.
- · Having your carpeting professionally cleaned.
- · Making repairs to fascia boards and rain gutters (where exterior walls meet the roof line).
- · Making repairs to chipped, water damaged or missing stucco
- · And other possible small maintenance issues or repairs that need attention like plumbing.
When in doubt, have a pre-listing home inspection performed
and go over the repair items with your Realtor.
Your Realtor will have a list of resources available to assist you in
getting necessary repairs completed by reputable professionals.
Bottom Line; Time is money. The longer
your house sits on the market because there are unfinished projects or repairs
that need to be done, the more money it will cost you in the long run – think
not only of the cost of the repairs, but the return on your investment of
having those repairs completed including the resulting offers to purchase you
will receive and how many less mortgage payments you will make with the house on
the market for less time when it is more marketable because the condition is
better.
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