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72 Comments on We'll Leave the Light on for You! (And the heat, too)
You are so absolutely right!! Great post!! Love your staging. as always it is stunning.
I agree with you and I understand your point, since I'm from Seattle too. I wished all of my clients would follow this advice. I always remind them, but sometimes, few clients feel that it is important to keep everything off and lo to save money. However, it is all about that first impression!!!! Thanks for the post.
Great post with good comments! We always supply timers for our (unoccupied) staged listings - on at 10, off at 6. BTW, we previewed a house today for a potential staging that had the electricity turned off! Poor thinking from the seller. If and when an offer were ever to come, it's going to be really low. It's not about the selller, it's all about the BUYER. Woo the buyer, and the offer will come! (My tagline, ad nauseum!)
Amen! great reminder during these winter months.
Beautiful room, and good advice. It's unfortunate that many people hesitate to leave all those lights on because of the increased electricity costs !
I have often showed houses in Virginia in the winter and it was frigid inside. Also, when I was an agent in Florida and showed houses with no utilities in the summer, the buyer could not stand the heat long enough to get a good look!
Here in Florida, we have to turn up the a/c during showings in the summer, LOL. They'll stay longer if it's really cool inside!
I'm overwhelmed by the response to this humble little post! Thanks for sharing, everyone!
Most important to leave lights on, especially in basements where it's dark and you have to feel around for a switch. Not only is that annoying it could be hazardous.
A nice reminder to leave the temp and everything else at a comfortable setting for prospective buyers!
Congratulations on your feature! You've given some very good advice. Rarely do I see lights on timers in vacant homes.
I am so tired of showing freeing homes.. guess how long the buyers want to stay??? We have had -20 to -40 degrees..... NEXT ... let's try a warm home.
Diana - We definitely need the heat on today. We're in the middle of an unheard "blizzard" warning. The following photo is of my back yard a few minutes ago. We've got a foot of snow on the ground and another foot coming. First time since the 1800's that the Washington DC area has had this much snow so early.
No staging jobs today! It will probably take several days to dig out.
"the devil's in the details" ! Always fascinating how the simple things make such a huge impact - and are so frequently forgotten ! Timers, and energy efficient bulbs are priceless. Congrats on the featured post.
Amazing how some of the simple things are forgotten. I've always put up timers so the house doesn't look vacant. I thought it was normal part of staging a vacant home.
Turning the heat down real low actually hurts the house. The humidity builds up in a hous when the temps are too low and that's bad for the house.
Hi Diana,
I think half the goal of staging is to get the buyer to come in, sit down and experience the house.
Nobody wants to experience a meat locker.
Susan - You are so right about the goal of staging. The "meat locker" comment ed me up! My first "real job" was at Baskin & Robbins (ice cream store) when I was 15 years old. None of us who worked there looked forward to going into the walk-in ice cream freezer. Ah, memories!
Great post Diana. There's nothing worse than taking prospective buyers into a cold, dark house.
So very, very important! We staged a home that was freezing (prompting us to include "home must be maintained at a reasonable temperature" into our contract) and it turned out the furnace wasn't working right. The Realtor had no idea until we asked for heat!
We go to great lengths to make sure there is pleasant, warm lighting but we fear most Realtors don't turn them on. Oh, well, we can only try.
A cold house is never good. I try to put at least 2 lights on timers.