Real Estate Information Center

Yes, we all have secrets, some we can afford to make public, but some others should be kept under wraps. When selling your property you should ensure that none of your personal and private items are left out for prospective buyers to view.

Sure, your stager would have advised or helped you to depersonalize your space; but somehow the day to day items that you use or newly received are left in areas that prying eyes can view.

1. Rumour has it that very many normal people peek into medicine cabinets. Do you really want the prescription medication or medical equipment that you or your family use to be viewed by complete strangers? Those items could send the wrong message to the buyer.

Continue reading ‘3 Things You Really Do Not Want Buyers to Know About You’ »

There are many successful home stagers that are not certified and do quite well. Typically, they have been professionally staging homes for a while and have developed a list of realty clientele who utilize their services on a regular basis. If you are fortunate to be amongst this group of professional home stagers, then obtaining certification is probably not on the top of your priority list. However, if you are fairly new to the home staging business, just starting out or haven’t been able to develop a large customer base, professional certification may be something you should consider.

Obtaining certification credentials will identify you as a professional, a master of your trade with the expertise to get the job done. Realtors look to home stagers as a way to boost their showings to sales conversions. If a realtor has never used a home staging service before, presenting as a certified specialist in the area will gain you additional credibility. Just as home inspectors have become the trusted standard to use in evaluating the worthiness of the purchase price; accredited home staging professionals are becoming the standard that realtors look to for moving homes on the market.

Continue reading ‘Should You Consider Home Staging Certification?’ »

There are many creative and colorful ways to use cookbooks right out of your own home library to stage your kitchen. I would like to show you how you can “kick it up a notch” and actually create a theme around the cookbook you choose. Let me illustrate and explain two examples for you to model.

As one kitchen example for the counter space you can display a pasta cookbook and carry the theme along with decorative oil bottles or a bottle of olive oil with a more traditional Italian packaging. You may also chose to include a pasta dish towel, and a pasta bowl filled with faux tomatoes, onions, garlic and dried pasta.

A more professional and polished look will use the pasta theme throughout the kitchen area. For the bar area you will need to set out bowls of tri-colored corkscrew pasta and add a faux red tomato in the center. These colors really pop against countertops. To refine this setting, I would add a colorful placemat under each bowl to complete the look.

Continue reading ‘Colorful Kitchen Themes For Home Staging’ »

So you are trying to sell your home, but it just does not seem to be attracting any real interest from buyers; you have had a few prospective buyers walking though your doors; but, you have had no offers. There are hundreds of homeowners who know exactly what I’m talking about. Having your house sit on the market for many months will surely leave you wondering what you can do to get someone to sign on the dotted line.

Here are some of the questions you are probably asking yourself:

* Take it off the market for awhile?
* Lower your price?
* List with another broker?
* Fix it up, and then relist it at a higher price?
* Pay to fix it up and leave it at the same price?

Continue reading ‘Don't Reduce Your Price – Recreate Your Space’ »

Real Estate Staging is the process of preparing a home for sale. Staging is really about un-decorating and removing years of living, collecting & decorating so a buyer can visualize themselves living in the home. When a seller “lets go” of some of their own things, it then gives permission for the buyer to buy! There are many benefits of staging your home for sale, but here are the top 5.

1. Staging is always less than your first price reduction- The first price reduction can be $20,000 or more, depending on where you live. Staging a home can be a fraction of this figure. Consider this; you have reduced the price for your “empty” property and guess what? It’s still empty. Or imagine that you’ve reduced the price of your home, but the buyers still cannot see the positive features because you still have too much furniture and clutter. Staging your home will ensure that buyers are seeing all the amenities the home has to offer.

Continue reading ‘The Top 5 Benefits Of Staging Your Home For Sale’ »

Have you ever pulled up in front of a home or driven pass one and just thought to yourself, “Oh Wow!”

The WOW factor is priceless when it hits someone from curbside and that is exactly the appeal you want to accomplish when listing your home for sale. If you “don’t get them” at the curb, you may as well kiss your chances of seeing them walk through the door goodbye. A perspective buyer’s connection to your home can be rather immediate and if they don’t feel one with your home the competition in your neighborhood will be their next focus.

Creating curb appeal does not have to cost a fortune but it will take a little bit of planning on your part before you post that For Sale sign on your front lawn. Approach your home with the eye of a shopper. You may want to scope out those other homes in the general vicinity also up for sale and see how your home compares to them. Be honest, critical and leave your ego at the door. What makes them stand out? What can you do to compliment the outside look of your property?

Continue reading ‘WOW Them From Curbside’ »

There’s no doubt about it, property markets around the world are going through the hardest times seen in decades. And here in Australia the situation isn’t a great deal different. Our property market too, is in the doldrums.

But guess what? In all that doom and gloom there is some good news for home owners trying to sell property in a buyers’ market. With these 10 no cost home staging tricks, you can add significant value to your ‘For Sale’ property and boost your property’s selling price.

The First Impression

Why?

Continue reading ‘Home Staging – 10 No Cost Ways to Add Value to Your 'For Sale' Property’ »

No matter what state the real estate market is in, did you know there are ways to increase the sales price of your home? With just a few simple steps it really is possible to tempt buyers to pay more for your property.

The technique is called staging and it’s all about presenting your home as a product on the market. There is a distinct difference between the way you live in a home and the way you should stage it to appeal to potential buyers.

Here are some staging tips that will help you sell your home for top dollar:

Detailing Your Home

If you planned to sell your car, you would detail it inside and out. You would polish all the chrome and wax the paint so it sparkled. You’d touch up any chips in the paint job and also make sure the interior was clean and neat and garbage free.

Continue reading ‘Stage Your Home and Sell For Top Dollars’ »

How many times have you heard the news talk about the real estate market not being what it was a few years ago? I frankly am tired of it, and will not allow the news to determine if my client’s sell or not. As a Home Stager it is my job to help my clients’ prepare their homes to be sold quickly and for more money.

It is important for the Homeowner and Real Estate agents to understand why Staging is so critical and that it should be done before the house is listed. Preparing the home to be shown so it looks its best before the Brokers Open House is a MUST DO! Why would you not have the Realtors see the house at its best? They are the ones who determine if they will show it to their clients.

Another reason that you MUST stage the home before listing it is for the value of the virtual tours that the Realtors use as a selling tool. I am amazed at how many homes that have virtual tours and look terrible online. If you are a purchaser and are using the virtual tours to determine which houses you want to look at, you will be unlikely to let your Realtor take you to one that looks terrible online. So if your a Seller, why put yourself in that position.

Continue reading ‘Don't Let the Market Fool You’ »

If you are planning to sell your house you must look at your property as if you had never seen it before. If you can’t do that, your home will probably remain your home because you will limit the number of buyers who may be able to visualize the home as their own.

Curb Appeal

Look at other properties for sale in your area then look at yours as you remember to think like a Buyer. Is there anything you could do to make your property stand out? A few dollars spent in landscaping or simply taking the time to manicure and add some color with flowers may be all that is needed.

Home Staging

Remove personal items, family pictures, knick-knacks, and clutter. Take everything stuck on or sitting on the refrigerator off. Clear off the counters, especially in the kitchen, but do not forget the bathroom counters.

Continue reading ‘Tips For Staging Your Home’ »