Selling your house? Today's market requires that your house stand out from the competition with details that buyers won't soon forget. Being remembered for the wrong reason, however, can be the kiss of death. One negative detail can be responsible for crossing a house off their list, when it would have been the buyer's first choice otherwise.
I recently did a home staging consultation for a "home school" family. The house is beautiful, but many of it's positive features were being over shadowed by the family's lifestyle.
The formal living room was being used as a classroom. It is one of the first rooms seen upon entering the house, and is crucial to first impression. The walls had a painted mural and the ceiling was a "faux painted" sky with clouds.
Advice: Paint the room and ceiling. Create focal interest on the shelves.
The crown molding, wood floors, and custom shelves are what you want buyers to notice and remember.
Across the room was a kitchen sink and cabinets that the family used for art projects.
The realtor's suggestion: "Try to make it look like a wet bar."
The seller had removed some of the cabinets and this is what remained when I consulted. It was their intention to leave it as a "wet bar" as suggested by the realtor.
After I explained that the odds were slim that any buyer would consider this anything other than a misplaced kitchen sink, in what should be the living room, they agreed to remove it.
The dining room was red with a yellow accent wall. School science items were stored across the top of the dated, oak room divider.
Advice: Paint the room to match the living room. Paint the oak cabinet the trim color and add new hardware. Remove the school items.
The office/study was...a work in progress. They weren't sure whether to finish it or leave it for the new buyers to finish.
Advice: Finish the custom cabinetry. Paint walls and trim. Paint fireplace surround to match trim.
The sellers did an excellent job following my suggestions for improvement. I was very pleased with the results of their hard work.
Now when buyers visit this house it won't be "a sink in the living room" or "science projects in the dining room" that they remember.
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Sharon, great job, what a huge difference!