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A special thanks to Home At Last Decor for participating in this week's blog. Visit their website for more information! www.homeatlastdecor.com
One of the easiest ways to prepare a home for sale is by having it staged by professional home stager or interior decorator. Home staging simply means that you're decorating in a way that will show off the best features of a home. Many sellers don't realize the huge impact that home staging can have on how quickly their home sells and for how much.
One thing you have to realize as the home seller is that staging does not always create an effect that matches the way you would normally live. Instead, the house actually becomes like a product. A home stager will take your home and turn it into a marketable product that buyers want.
In this week's video, I had a professional home stager take over the challenge of staging a home office to present well for buyers. The goal was to make buyers feel like they could move right into the home and utilize the home office area. We wanted it to be inviting, yet functional.
Here are some tips to use when staging a home office, or any area in your home:
- Depersonalize: It's very important to depersonalize your home office and the rest of your home. The main idea is that you want the buyer to see themselves in your home and not be hung up on all of your personal things. This would include removing things like your personal sports team preferences, family photos and even books that refer to your own opinions such as political or religious texts.
- De-clutter: It's very important to de-clutter your home office area by putting up paperwork and other unnecessary items. Remember that you don't want people to look at your home office as a place where work will need to be done. Instead, it should look comfortable and inviting since most people will use it to sit down and pay the household bills, etc. You don't want them to be completely overwhelmed by the amount of paperwork clutter that you have around your working area.
- Artwork: If necessary, you should change the artwork in your home office to fit the theme of an office. In this particular case, the homeowner had a piece of artwork that really wasn't related to a home office. Our home stager changed that out to give it a more soothing, generic theme.
- Under the desk: It's also critical to remove anything that's under the desk. Remember that buyers are going to look everywhere in your home including closets and under your furniture. You want everything to look organized and clean. If you have a lot of stuff under your desk, it takes away from the look of the room plus it makes the space look smaller.
- Polish the desk: Remember to polish furniture throughout the house to give it a clean look. People often forget this simple step, but it can make a big impression.
- Remove dust jackets: Here's a simple tip that you can use in any home. Remove the dust jackets from hardcover books and put them between two elegant looking bookends. You can put them on a coffee table or on your desk. Removing the dust jackets gives the books a dressier look.
- Add a comfortable chair: Even if you have to make a purchase to do so, add a comfortable, elegant chair to your desk. It will be well worth the money, and you can take it with you when you move.
- Add plants: You may want to consider adding a plant to your desk or even the corner of the room. It adds texture and hides cords.
We asked our home stager to give her biggest “no-no” when it comes to showing at home. She said by far that personal items need to be removed so that people won't be focused on their opinion of you, but will be focused on the house itself. Again, this means removing religious or political books, personal pictures and anything else that might give someone an opinion of who you are. Instead, you want them to focus on living in that home.
As always, if you ever have real estate questions, we are here to help! Just give us a call or drop us an email.
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