Home Staging Myths Debunked | The Real Estate Spot

Lifting the lid on property staging and sharing the secrets the professionals use, debunking some of the myths that you think should work.

What is professional home staging?

?Home staging? is the term now widely used to describe the action of getting your home ready for sale by ensuring the presentation is the best it can be.

But home staging is much more than ?painting it all white and clearing the clutter!?

For many home sellers and Estate Agents the concept of ?professional home staging? is being increasingly recognised and used to effectively promote and market a home in the real estate selling marketplace.

While Estate Agents are experts in the field of selling houses and closing the sale, many are not design savvy. Estate Agents usually know exactly what factors can help sell a home but it?s not always that easy to get a home into selling condition in a timely manner without some sort of experienced and professional assistance. That?s where professional stylists can really help.

Professional home stagers are practiced in the art of preparing a home for resale. They work with the ?flow? of a home, eliminate clutter, edit out and re-arrange furniture, and even assist in enhancing drive by appeal.

First Impressions

The estate agent industry often stresses that the first impression is the key factor in selling your home. Typically, a potential buyer has made up their mind ten seconds after they step in the front door. They were already forming an opinion as they pulled up outside. That really doesn?t leave too much room for not getting it right first time. Each viewing should lead to a potential offer. If it doesn?t, it?s another viewing wasted and another potential buyer lost. To achieve the greatest possible outcome a home should always be presented at its best from day one.

So what are the Tricks of the Trade?

Each profession has it?s own tricks of the trade but home staging is not about painting the walls white, putting a pot of coffee on and using a three-quarter sized bed in the bedroom, oh no, if you want to really learn what?s behind the scenes of a professionally staged home, then read on.

Top Ten Tricks of the Trade

• 1. Get the right lighting
• 2. Mirrors increase the natural light of a room
• 3. Know the best type of bed to use
• 4. Know how to dress a bed like a show home bed
• 5. Accessories and how to add them
• 6. Get the colour theme and co ordination right
• 7. What flooring to use and what to avoid
• 8. Understand what is too much?
• 9. The great coffee table debate
• 10. Get a man in and fix all those jobs you?ve not got around to doing

Lighting is a key ingredient to any home. You don?t see many dark show houses for sale now do you. New builders ALWAYS have all the lights on. Good lighting, inset spot lights, task lights and soft ambient bedside lighting. This is possibly the most cost effective way to make over any room.

Using mirrors can really increase the amount of natural light in any area. Used particularly in dark hallways and over the fireplace of a lounge. No fireplace, then by adding a floating shelf or console table with a mirror over, you can create a focal point when there is none.

Developers often put in a three-quarter sized bed to their bedrooms, but you really don?t have to go that far if space is limited. By using a metal framed bed, you can open up the space visually rather than using a solid divan, which can look too ?blocky? as you can?t see around it or through it.

Many home sellers I have met just throw the bed covers over their bed in the morning and their bed linen often looks tired and uninviting. For a small investment buy new duvet covers, but make sure you buy new pillows too. We call it ?pancake ? pillow? in the trade. It describes that ?flat as a pancake? look, so familiar in so many bedrooms across the land.

One of the BIG mistakes I see from would be DIYers who think they can stage a home themselves is removing EVERYTHING and going too minimal. There is a knack of using accessories to create balance and tying a room together. We use a principle of 1s, 2s, 3s and 5s. On a single shelf it should never have more than that on it, depending on the size of the object and the length of the shelf. It?s amazing what a few cushions and a co-ordinated rug can do when teamed up with a vase or lamp and a picture or two, sporting the same accent colour.

Flooring is very important to the flow of a home and the easiest trick is to have the same, plain coloured carpet throughout. Having different colours in each room is to be avoided as this just chops the space up in to little pieces. Never put carpet in the wet areas though. Still today, new build developers do this. It?s such a ?no no?. Cushion flooring or ceramic tiles every time.

Most of the homes I see are lived in and that means lots of stuff. But what is too much? Try to keep the window and the door ways clear. People like to move from the door to the window easily. Make sure wardrobes are behind the door away from the window where possible. Badly positioned wardrobes can be the single biggest problem which makes a bedroom look small.

Talking of space and the flow between window and door, NEVER use a coffee table. I know some show homes do use them but if you think about the fact that people often view a house in pairs if not in families then you need as much floor space as possible, so remove the obstacle of the coffee table. If you need to tie the room together, use a rug. It?s much softer on the shins.

There are often a few jobs which you?ve just not got around to doing. Well get around to it. It could be replacing a door, to fitting a new light fitting or re-hanging the gate or fixing the fence. It really does need to be done if you are to present your home like the professionals.

Source: http://www.dschamber.org/home-staging-myths-debunked.html

time magazine person of the year 2011 new orleans jazz fest new orleans jazz fest louis ck michelle duggar heisman cp3