Preparing Your Home For The Market

Preparing Your Home For The Market

     You love your home and it’s many memories, but now you would love to sell it!  Whatever your personal reasons for selling a home there is a lot of preparation that will need to be done to have the property ready to compete in today’s market.  There is more to selling a home then putting up a “for sale” sign and waiting for the buyer to hand over the money.  With the multiple television shows airing about real estate home staging the buyer has become more discriminating in their selection of potential homes to purchase.  The buyer now expects a great deal more from the seller. 

     With all the competition in the market and money difficult to acquire, it means the home needs to be in complete repair, clean, attractive and eye catching in order to attract the buyer.  The goal is to set the stage to entice a buyer to utter those magic words, “I love this house, I want to buy it!”  There is one more important point that comes into play, the home needs to be priced correctly. 

     To assist you in preparing your home to look it’s best and be priced correctly, requires the assistance of a professional home stager and real estate agent.  The manner in which you live in your home and the way you should present your home to perspective buyers are two different things.  The home stager and Realtor* work together to provide vital information for preparing your home for the market.  When your home looks great online and is priced correctly, it will receive more showings than other competing homes on the market. 

     For a complete guide on preparing your home, check out my book “Showing Well, Selling Well”, which may be found on www.lulu.com.  

Create attractive vignette's.

 

 Color and design style should carry through from room to room.

Think Spring

Think Spring

     Doesn’t the home always look bare and dull after we put away the Christmas decorations and lights?  It’s nice to create a new display with something you already have...  just take a look outside for inspiration.  I created a new accessory for the mantel that was inexpensive and easy to assemble.

     

1.     First I cut two small branches from a birch tree.  I like the birch tree because of it’s thin branches with multiple shoots. 

 

2.     Next I took a small block of green floral foam, glued it to a base of cardboard, and stuck the branch in it.  I discovered the block was not evenly balanced and leaned forward.  To balance it I hollowed out the back of the foam and glued a small rock to it. 

3.     Then I cut a piece of natural burlap into a square large enough to cover the base and fringed out each side about an inch.

4.     I placed the foam block with the branch in the center of the burlap.  I then put fiber fill around the base to fill it out a bit and gathered the corners of the burlap, tying them around the base of the branch with a piece of jute. 

5.     For the perfect finishing touch, I purchased a nice looking bird from a floral shop and hung it on the branch.