Kyle Hislop

  Today I want to talk a little bit about home staging your property for sale.  In the current market, where the number of listings is much greater than the number of buyers, the competition to sell is massive.  You may feel when you list your property you are simply looking for a buyer, but really you are competing against other properties.  For example, if there are 4 buyers for your particular style of home, but there are 15 homes just like yours on the market, you are competing against those other homes.  And just to add to the mix, for every month that passess, new houses come on the market trying to steal your buyers.  This is where home staging comes into play, so let's talk about it.  Oh, by the way the pictures used in this blog are currently listed properties, click on these links to view them.

http://www.kylehislop.com/ActiveListings.php/Details/98#viewdetail

 

 

  A great place to start talking about home staging is "the feeling".  As a REALTOR®, I have gone through thousands of homes over the years with potential buyers and other agents and every time "the feeling" comes up.  Let me paint you a picture.  My clients and I walk up to a perfectly lovely home, walk through the front door and are greated with nothing but clutter.  Not mess.  Not stink.  Not beaten up.  Clutter.  As we attempt to navigate our way through the home, we find ourselves turning sideways to complete the journey from living room to dining room.  We move items out of the way to see what is behind them.  We crowd and bump into each other cause there's just not enough vacant floor space for the 3 of us.  As I turn to my client and ask, "what do you think?"...I hear, "it just doesn't feel right".  Doesn't feel right!  Just so you know..."doesn't feel right" won't get you an offer.  "Doesn't feel right", means, Kyle get us out of here and find us something else.  This feeling is not reserved for the cluttered houses alone, nor is it reserved for buyers only.  The other day I was on a REALTOR® tour, which means we look at a bunch of homes on a Thursday morning.  As we were walking through a perfectly, non-cluttered home, myself and another agent said at the same time, "it just doesn't feel right".  It wasn't really anything we could describe with words but it just didn't flow like it should.  And that feeling means no offer.


  So back to clutter for a moment.  De-cluttering a home is essential.  Essential!!!  Less is more.  I could write for days on this subject alone but let me just highlight a few ideas.  Bookshelves are not just for books and magazines.  Stop cramming every book you've ever purchased into your bookshelf.  No one cares that you own every National Geographic since it's first publication on October 1888.  (Actually that would probably be worth a lot of money)  But still, a few books, some properly placed show pieces and leave some space.  Space is good.  Coffee tables should only be accented with one main item...a focal point.  Side tables, maybe a lamp and one other item.  In the kitchen...put the toaster away!  Clear off the counter so people can see how big it is.  Seriously, this could go on and on.  Let me end by saying you want people to see your stuff, but be able to replace it with their stuff in their minds.  If there is too much crap stuff everywhere...that is impossible...and then "the feeling" comes back.


  For some, clutter isn't an issue.  Like the house we saw on tour that just didn't feel right; there was no clutter but the house didn't flow well.  Now I'm not a a Fung Shui guy, but furniture placed in the proper place does make the home feel more inviting.  The best advice I can provide is, give every room a purpose.  If you have some vacant space that looks awkward make it a nice sitting or reading area.  Try moving furniture around, taking pieces out, putting pieces in.  Here's a couple personal examples.  I had clients that wanted to sell there home so they invited me over to see what they should do before they listed it.  We went top to bottom with the home owner taking notes on his clipboard.  When I came back to see everything done the place looked amazing.  We listed it and during the negotiations of a really good offer, my clients actually changed their minds and decided to stay in the home.  Now that sucked for me, cause I didn't make any money, but maybe that's all you need is a little home make over, not a new house.  My other example, I re-arranged my clients furniture (which hadn't been changed in 12 years) and when I was done her house looked twice as big and she loved it.  Thankfully for me she still sold :)


Louise has lots of before and after pictures showing you how a home can and should look.  She also provides tips, advice and tons of information about getting your property ready for sale or even just a home make-over for you to enjoy yourself.


  Some final thoughts.  When I take clients out to look at homes, typically we look at 6-8 homes at a time.  With that many homes trying to remember everything about each and every one of them is impossible.  When I sit down with my clients at the end, often what happens is they begin to label the houses, not by their addresses or style of home but by what stood out to them.  At this moment in time, you don't want to be labelled as the cluttered house, or the smelly house, or the one with the weird green goo on the wall.  You want..."remember the one with the great brick feature wall?", or "I loved that one with the big living room".  Remember, you are competing against other houses for sale who are putting in the extra work to get there house sold.  It's a buyers market right now, and unfortunetly, getting an offer can come down to something as arbitrary as "the feeling". 

Kyle Hislop
RE/MAX Nyda