FAIRFAX HOMES FOR SALE SELL FASTER WHEN STAGED--GOOD INFO FOR SELLERS (AND BUYERS)
There is nothing worse than walking into a Fairfax home for sale and seeing it clean, but full of clutter and personal items all around. Personal pictures on the tables and walls, too much furniture in a room, carpets not cleaned, personal things of the owner's all over the house. How can a buyer imagine living in this house? A Fairfax buyer cannot imagine it because the current owner's personal things are all over the house. The home for sale in Fairfax should look like one of those model homes or a nice hotel suite. How can the seller make it ready for sale? By following the proper guidelines of home staging.
Staging is a tool to help the buyer imagine living in the home he or she is viewing.
Staging entails depersonalizing the home as much as possible and getting rid of clutter in all the rooms of the house. It also means taking care of the outside to make sure the outside is spotless, has fresh paint if needed and the bushes are trimmed and the yard cleaned up as much as possible. Excess junk should be put in storage or the garage if possible. After the outside is all cleaned up and "decluttered," it is time to do the inside which in some cases can take a week or more to get ready.
Basic things to do: clean or replace carpeting; make sure all lights work and are "on" when people see the home; pack up collections, books, family pictures (you are going to have to pack up when you sell the home so why not start now?) keep soft music playing at all times for showings; be sensitive to odors: pet smells and especially urine in carpets and mildew odors or cooking odors (You can't sell it if you can smell it!); wash all windows and make sure they work; pack up little things (little things create clutter and clutter is the enemy of a well-staged home); depersonalizing and decluttering should be the main objectives besides cleaning the home.
Living Room: model homes are sparsely decorated because you want to create space for the buyers to mentally move in to the room by reducing clutter and overall number of items. Clear off coffee tables and end tables to just 2 magazines, one nice vase and remove all ashtrays.
Dining Room: remove leaves and tablecloth except for one nice centerpiece. Keep only four or six chairs around the table and put the rest in the garage or storage.
Kitchen: What can you live without? Clear off all the counters to only a few things you have to use every day. Store appliances out of sight or in storage. Put a few large items on the counter like a bowl of fruit or a basket with bread or a bowl of lemons. Remove all things on top of the refrigerator and remove all things attached to the refridgerator like pictures, magnets, ads; remove all items on the refrigerator. Clean the stove and oven, the floor, and keep all cleaning supplies under the sink including towels, soaps, cleaning pads, and push button lotions and hand soaps; and put away the dish rack, too.
Master Bedroom: Make beds in all bedrooms every day; invest in a new bedspread if necessary; clear off bedside tables and chest of drawers; put extra books and magazines under the bed and out of sight; keep closet doors closed; and remove the personal photos on the table and walls to zero.
Bathrooms: clear off counters and reduce toiletries to a few; replace hand soap with a neat bottle of liquid soap; coordinate towels to one or two colors and fold in thirds and hang them neatly and tie a ribbon around the center of each towel (don't use these towels for drying, but use other towels and store them under the sink or closet; clear all things out of the tub except one soap and one shampoo; remover toilet lid covers and keep toilet lids down at all times; remove rugs in the bathroom as they make the room look small.
This will give you an idea of what is needed to sell a home these days, and in a market we are having now, sellers need all the help they can get. But no matter the market, staging a home is a must and can cut in half the selling time and increase the money you will receive from the sale!