[Disclaimer = For some reason, the number of people searching for House for Sell is 3 x higher than House for Sale. Since this challenge is about traffic, it seemed only sensible to use the more popular keyword.]
Here, in New Jersey, buyers are still looking for a formal living room. They may not use it very often, but they want it in a house they are going to OWN. In fact, a "good" living room is one of the more important differentiating features when evaluating which home they prefer. Therefore it made sense to start my 7-part series with a look at staging the Living Room.
Once you have cleaned out the hearth, put away all of your personal items like photos, certificates, trophies and award-type gifts, here are some additional key things to remember about living rooms -
Clean the windows, and only cover them up with a lush elegant treatment if your view is gravely unappealing.
Display your best stuff - it lends a formal yet festive spirit
Make sure you have good pathways THROUGH this room (it's usually the first on the tour, and it's imortant not to get stuck backing up in the very beginning!)
This is an ADULT room. (no toys, not for children and most definitely NOT for pets!)
Use color carefully - to lead the eye left and right - from window to window and then the mantel (or whatever focal point it is that you've identified)
Let me show you some examples of successfully staged living rooms in New Jersey. There are 4 varieties of home staging services, Owner Occupied where you use the homeowner's stuff, Owner Occupied where you bring in rental furniture, Vacant Homes and Vignettes. I no longer believe there's any benefit to vignette staging and so will not be including any examples of it in this series.
Owner Occupied Home ~ Using Their Own Furniture
BEFORE
AFTER
For many older homes, the living room is the largest room on the main floor. It might seem ridiculous to keep the best, warmest and nicest space for just formal occasions. Here, the family has understably used it as a comfy, chaotic playroom!
This makes total sense for the family living there. But it does nothing to help the resale value ~ in fact, had the house gone to market like this, the message buyers would have received is ~
There's no Family Room in this house (there were 2 actually)
There's no formal living room (this IS the formal living room)
It's too small.
Now, the formal living room is restored.
All of the toys have been dispersed between the Sun Room, the Den, the downstairs playroom and the upstairs bedrooms.
The yellow sofa was brought back up from the downstairs playroom, and some wedding presents were finally unpacked and displayed on the shelves.
That fabulous rug was in an upstairs guest room!!
Buyers can now see that
Formal, adult living - really entertaining space, exists in abundance in this, the grandest room in the house,
the length of the room is emphasized, and
a focal point has been highlighted ~ the beautiful brick hearth with gleaming wood mantel!
Owner Occupied Home ~ Using Rental Furniture
BEFORE
AFTER
Two teachers, with all their reading, papers, curriculum materials x 2... PLUS a scrumptious little baby girl!
There's no Family Room in this house (there was a small one in the back, and a basement that could have been finished)
There's no way to entertain (not true, there was a nice formal dining room through the archway)
This looks like a studio apartment.
Now, a casual but comfy living room has been created.
SOME toys remain, but tucked away. The rest are in the Den, the little girl's bedroom and, frankly, storage!
Yes, this really is the same room!
Buyers can now see that
The biggest, brightest room on the first floor has lots of possibilities for use
the length, and brightness of the room is emphasized, and
two focal points have been highlighted ~ the brick hearth and a sunny seating area over by the windows!
Vacant House ~ Using Rental Furniture
BEFORE
AFTER
Empty rooms give a buyer not a lot to look at, beyond the molding, the floor, the windows....
With no frame of reference, they have no idea
how this space could work with their furniture; what will fit where?
how this space might work for their family
Doors start to look huge, and walls small
(The after picture is taken from a different angle because, as you can see in the before, the header beam made it impossible for my flash to adjust and get the furniture highlighted properly.)
Now, a r-e-a-l living room has been created.
Architectural features are highlighted with yummy, huge green ceramic pots with Art Deco motifs (I couldn't believe how perfect they were for this style of home!)
The rental company let me be the first one with a new, fabulously spiffy, elegant sofa suite
Buyers can now see that
Beautiful, lush, elegant entertaining space
Exquisite craftsmanship
a true one-of-a-kind new build for THE discriminating buyer
And indeed a guy sold a $4 million home to buy this one for $2.3. What a spectacular, graceful, sensual home!!
*** ~~~ ***
~ Juliet Johnson ~ has been home staging NJ in the luxury real estate niche (with the predominant home value of $1 - 3 million) for the last 7 years. Juliet is taking the month of August to brush up her internet marketing skills by participating in Ed Dale's 30 Day Challenge with a blog on Property Marketing.
Juliet Johnson Staging provides NJ Luxury Real Estate with staging and online promotion services, and been successfully home staging nj for the last 7 years.
14 Comments on Prepare Your "House For Sell" in NJ with Staging ~ Part 1 Living Rooms
AUG
13
2009
Juliet...great examples and I really like how you set-up this blog post. Easy to read and understand. You're House for Sell disclaimer is very interesting!
Cindy, I think that's because you've still got a lot of new construction in Houston, no? Newer homes have small living rooms and large family rooms. In NJ, we have a lot of older home and they all have these massive living rooms.
Ginger - thanks for noticing. It took forever to figure out and post - A Table. has to be done in HTML. Horribly frustrating! Yeah, I don't understand keyword research. I know I should. I know it's important. But it smells of Math and statistics and I just don't get it. You?
Juliet..HTML>>>WHAT? When in his blog, about the challenge, Bob said to reread Brad's post about keyword search, blah, blah, it threw me for a loop. Don't know if I can handle it. I like a challenge but this might make my brain explode. Still don't know if I'm doing this.
I can't imagine setting up a blog post like yours and still having it look good on localism. Is that where HTML helps? All of my localism posts look different from those here. You must be very patient with yourself!
Terrific examples Juliet! Dramatic photos with excellent descriptions as to why the changes were made. Still can't figure out why "house for sell" is a more popular keyword??
Michelle, I lOVE it that you managed to work gobsmacked into a sentence!!!!!! I love that word, and it's soooo English! And yes, particularly the tired teachers - they couldn't believe it was their home. That's the fun bit of staging isn't it?!
Michele - yeah, the keyword thing. Unfathomable to me. I was researching jams this morning for a potential Squidoo lens or something (I'm becoming an internet geek) and kept running across "peal jam." Ooh, interesting, I thought, peel as in marmalade, apple peel, etc. thinking that was the spelling error. Nope. It was Pearl Jam! You will NOT be seeing anything on Pearl Jam from me in the near or distant future. ho ho!!
It has nothing to do with HTML. I just decided to learn something new so as to make it more interesting ~ for me. After all, how many before and after photos posts have you and I done over the years? Thousands, right? This was a way for me to make it a bit more of a "challenge". That's all.
Maureen's doing it, and so elegantly (as usual) without any html shenanigans. You must too.
Ah, Sheldon. that baby moved on to a bigger house where it's toys could have their own mausoleum and her parents their own living room! {The graphic below says wampi. I read it as Wimpy and suddenly remembered how awful food can be in London!!! Do you miss it at all?}
I truly like this series of "a-blog" style a lot Juliet! It is not just very descriptive but also supported by great examples. It simply shows the purpose of “staging” to both Realtors and home owners!
Once a Manhattan realtor, I have bought and sold 12 homes in 19 years in 4 countries. That, and 7 years of staging homes for sale in New Jersey adds up to a lot of experience. If any of it can help another, I have served my purpose. Thank you, AR members, for your own generous sharing.
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Juliet...great examples and I really like how you set-up this blog post. Easy to read and understand. You're House for Sell disclaimer is very interesting!