Home sellers have always been coached to show off two rooms in their house to the very best advantage: the kitchen and bathroom. Conventional wisdom says that these areas can make or break a house deal.
While we wouldn't be so rash as to suggest otherwise, there is a third room creeping onto the horizon as a pretty darn important location too. You've probably already guessed it - the home office. Whether for full time work or part time income, more and more families find a sizable chunk of their work lives centered around a home office.
These days a home office routinely features all the amenities one would expect to find in a traditional office space. While it doesn't have to be a large room, it does need one thing to the extreme. Organization! It's not so much that you have to actually do work in there but you should include the basic furniture: desk, chair, shelves. In fact, it probably shouldn't look like you're using it. Don't make the mistake of leaving pens and papers lying around. The whole point is to make Mr. or Ms. Home Buyer be able to see themselves working in there. Your main goal is to provide a space with a hint towards business operations and let their imagination fill in the details.
Chances are, at least one person in a buyer's family is going to need a serious home office space. Failure to provide that can be a serious drawback. The home office is also a good place to strategically place a few green plants. Nothing overwhelming but enough to break up what can sometimes become an almost sterile environment.
Need a visual? Think about how an upper end store would display a set of office furniture it wanted you to buy. They'd have a nice set of shelves in the background, a good desk, preferably without a computer hooked up (all those electrical cords running everywhere can be distracting), and a nice lamp. Maybe one of those fancy banker's lamps. Don't blow a house sale because you didn't pay attention to the home office.
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