When you want your high ticket home to sell quickly and for a really good price, many real estate agents would tell you that staging is the way to do it. What is staging? It is when you move out and refurnish the house in a way that is really modern and attractive. Or rather, you hire someone else to do it, since not every homeowner has the necessary decorating skills to do it right.
This will cost you quite a bit, but you can add the cost to the sale price of the home and are likely to get it, because the home now looks stunning. Of course, if it needed painting or other repairs, that should be done first. The furniture and other things that have been used to add that unique selling point to the home are not sold with the home. They have done their job of making the sale, so are removed by the decorator when the settlement is done.
So why would people pay the extra price for a home they love when they know that the furniture and so on are not going to be part of it? Funnily enough, it makes them fall in love with the home and gives them a good idea of how they can decorate it similarly. This proves that the look of the home is really more important to get the sale than simply offering a sound structure and taps that work.
But what if your home is not in the high ticket bracket that makes staging possible? You can actually do this yourself for not much cost and you don’t have to have the skills of a home decorator to do it. There are plenty of pictures in various home decorating magazines you can copy. Anyway, it is often the accessories that give the most oomph to staging.
For instance, you could use almost any bed – even one from a garage sale – and dress it up with fabulous linen, or doona and pillows. Then when the house is sold you can sell the bed and keep the linen. Or if you don’t want it, sell it on eBay or Gumtree.
In the kitchen, it is easy to add a few bright accessories and a vase of flowers. These don’t cost much, but can give an amazing impact. You can source lots of goodies from op-shops, garage sales and even Gumtree, where some things are offered for free if you will come and take them away.
You just have to make sure they are not damaged and are not old-fashioned – unless you are staging a period home with the appropriate furniture. Staging is fun, but just remember, less is more. You don’t want your house to look crowded and crammed.