Savvy Staging in a Buyer's Market
Calgary is currently in a buyer's market with a large amount of housing inventory for them to choose from. Sellers need to be especially savvy during these times in getting their house ready to help stand apart from their competitors. Following are some staging tips to achieve just that:
1. Depersonalize: In order for buyers to more easily envision themselves living in your house, it's important to remove your family photos, accolades, and religious symbols.
2. Make Repairs: Don't give buyers any reason to make you a low-ball offer, or worse, no offer at all! Address all needed repairs such as torn window screens, cracked plaster, burned out light bulbs, dinged walls, leaky faucets, etc.
3. Clean Clean Clean: Hire a professional cleaning company to get into all of the nooks and crannies in your kitchen and bathrooms. Ensure windows are cleaned, as well as baseboards are dusted.
4. Neutralize Paint: Have a "move-in ready" house by painting your walls in a light, neutral colour such as "griege" (beige/grey) as it will work with all decorating styles. Buyers can later customize the wall colour to suit their own personal tastes.
5. Statement Lighting: A low cost way of adding big impact to your home is adding a new chandelier in the dining room that compliments the style of your home's architecture. You can find beautiful lighting options at any big box store and shouldn't spend more than a few hundred dollars.
6. Clutter-free Kitchen: Kitchen counters should be mostly cleared off to show off the counter space. The only appliances that could be left out are a nice coffee maker. Perhaps add a nice pot of utensils by the stove and a bowl of lemons to the counter.
7. Update Finishes: If your kitchen doesn't have a backsplash, you can purchase some lovely, reasonably priced tile and get someone handy to install it for you. If the existing backsplash is dated, you can use a new product from the Home Depot called "SimpleMat" where you can stick it to the existing tile, and then easily place the new tile on top of it. Since there's no mortar needed, you can grout it right away.
8. Replace Cabinet Pulls: If your kitchen and bathroom cabinet pulls or worn or dated, replace them with more contemporary ones such as chrome or matte black.
9. Fresh Bedding & Towels: Create a luxury hotel look in the master bedroom and bathroom with new light and neutral bedding and pillows. Place nice decorative pillows to the bed and a colour coordinating throw at the end of it, and keep all furniture uncluttered with matching lamps on each night stand.
10. Spruce up the Exterior: Neatly trim bushes, mulch the flowerbeds, and add seasonal arrangements of flowers by the front door. Keep the lawn mowed during summer, and walkways shovelled during the winter.
Getting your home ready can be relatively inexpensive, especially if you focus on the small details. It will surely impress potential buyers in a competitive market!
BEFORE AFTER
