Saturday, October 10, 2009

Home Stage And Get Your Home Sold Fast

By Sam Stoker

Are you considering putting your house up for sale, but not sure where to start? Afraid it will take too long to sell, or that you will not get the price you want? Think about staging your home, or in other words, setting the scene for immediate buyer interest in your property.

To be really effective, you need to look at both the outside and the inside of your home. Here are 3 tips to get you started with the outside of your home:

1. Drive up to your house to see what prospects see when they drive up to your house. Notice if any paint is peeling or the landscaping looks terrible. Remember, any negative impression they have of the outside of the house is going to make them think the house was not taken care of. Many prospects will drive by your house and look before even calling your agent so make sure they get a good first impression of the outside of your house.

2. Stand on your front porch just outside your front door and look all around. This is a key focal spot that 70 percent of prospects will also stand here and look around. You want to try and see what they will see. Is there animal waste on the yard, dead grass, cobwebs over the front door? These are not good first impressions so make sure you clean them up.

It is definitely worth it to take some time and clean it up. Want to go a step further? Try a new coat of paint or some new furniture or accessories.

3. Do not forget the backyard. While that might not be part of the potential buyers first impression experience, you still should make sure it is in the best condition possible. Pull up weeds, water plants, do some sweeping (if thats applicable in your case) and maybe even purchase new furniture or accessories (plant pots, bird houses, etc.)

Put yourself in a prospects shoes. What first impressions do you get about your house. What do you see that does not look good. Is your house something that you would buy? What would you ask the seller to fix before putting an offer on the house?

I am always surprised at how frugal an owner will be when it comes to staging his house. Remember, every dollar you spend on properly staging your home will return $2 on the sell side. What other investment can you double your money in such a short period of time? Using proper home staging will sell your house at a higher price and in a shorter amount of time.

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