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Staging is necessary if you really want to sell your house... Really!

In Addition to my Real Estate License, I am an Interior Designer, licensed with the State of Florida

Board fo Architecture and Interior Design. Alot of customers say they "want to sell their home".

Well, if is is going to sell, it has to look like something someone would want to buy! When my customer's

ask me to sell their home, I consider "Interior Design" and Staging to be the most important

factor, in which home, will get the buyer.

I have a few tips that I share with my customer's. It is a fact that "staged" properties will sell about 50 percent

faster than homes stuffed with the seller's personal pictures, collections and years of collectables.

DEPERSONALIZE. Remove even the family photographs. Clutter and too much furniture detract from the

basic "bones of the home".

Create curbside appeal. I know this one is used over and over. But it is so true. I have had

customers refuse to go into a home because of the exterior weeds and unkempt yard. Repaint the exterior

and trim the out of control shrubs. Hire a painter to steam clean and put on a fresh coat of paint.

Make sure your house is clean. Hire a professional team to detail the house, clean the grout and

steam clean the carpets. Hire a professional stager or interior designer to help you. It will be worth

it and in this market "looks do count".

Posted by Janet Wood on 12/26/2007 01:05 PM

Comments (6)

interior designer, staging, painting

Post is included in group: Florida Keys Business
Post is included in group: Remodeling and Remarketing Inventory

6 Comments on Staging is necessary if you really want to sell your house... Really!

Janet - I have always wresteled with the "depersonalizing" of the home. Yes get rid of clutter but do people like to buy houses or homes? To me a house is the structure (bricks and sticks) and the value of selling a home (something that someone is living in) over a house is that it is personalized, it feels warm, loved, and PERSONAL. Therefore I don't ask them to take the pictures down because many people like the house to be clean but they also want it to feel like a home.

12/26/2007 01:16 PM

by John Stauffer MBA, E-pro,CRS, ABR, GRI, SRES

Dear John,

I understand your point, but in our area, many homes are competing with new construction.

Yes, a home should feel like a home, but the buyers may want to feel like they can

move in and bring their own personal items and make it "their" home.

Janet Wood

12/26/2007 01:20 PM

by Janet Wood (Realty World Freewheeler)

I agree, To sell in a buyers market you need every advantage- Staging is an advantage.

12/26/2007 01:28 PM

by Homes for Sale Fall River MA Real Estate Westport MA Karen Ann Martin (American Dream Real Estate )

OMG I just saw you live & work in Islamorada- Lucky! my favorite FLA destination We have a second home in Sebring, FLA

if I had my way it would be Islamorada - but my husband is a fresh water bass fisherman so that would not work.

12/26/2007 01:30 PM

by Homes for Sale Fall River MA Real Estate Westport MA Karen Ann Martin (American Dream Real Estate )

Janet- Very good points, I still find it hard with elderly people and removing the grand kids pictures. Depersonalizing can be a daunting chore.

12/26/2007 04:56 PM

by Mark Horan P.A. "The Resident Chef" at Keller Williams (The Resident Team at Keller Williams At-The-Lakes)

I use to think that staging was a form of trickery in a way, but then I thought about it more and it would be stupid not to. If you don't its like trying to sell a dirty car, why would you do that and take $500 less, or not sell it at all. It seems foolish not to dress the place up in a "model home" way in order to sell it, thus Janet, I completely concur, REALLY!

12/27/2007 01:48 AM

by Lance Winslow (The Car Wash Guy)

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