SGI Realty One Real Estate Blog

Three words. Buyers Lack Vision. You are helping a buyer see your home in a positive light. Showing them how they might live in the home and enjoy the home. It is the same reason that packaging costs several times more than the product itself. It is the reason why drinking Coke will create world peace and drinking Pepsi will make you young and hip. All products should set the stage for why owning the product will make your life better, and a home is no different.

Here are four ideas to maximize your home’s value:

• People are territorial

Imagine checking into a hotel. You get your key and open the door, and uh oh, someone else’s clothes are on the bed and the shower is running. Would you go in and make yourself at home? Heck no! You would feel embarrassed, like an intruder, and immediately leave. Does your home create this feeling? It is quite possible, you may not even be aware what makes your home, "Your Home", may turn other buyers off. Clear out as many of your personal belongings as possible. The new buyer must walk in and be able to envision it as theirs. This is broad and sweeping statement and takes some experience to apply. When you "show off" a home for a buyer, it is no longer your home. You are making it available for the new buyer. Buyers don't want to know about you. They want to see if the house works for THEM.

• Remove all clutter

This is an extension on rule one. Get rid of stuff, all of your odds and ends, as much as you can. This doesn't mean you have to throw it away, just get it out of the way for the time being. This will make it easier to look at the home and for the prospective buyer to visualize it as theirs. Too much stuff just makes the home look busy and distracts the buyer from what they are trying to buy. If you have a china cabinet, don’t put every single piece of crystal in there. Use it as a display to show off only a few choice items and box the rest. It will look more elegant.

• Create flow

Physical Flow:

Make sure you can walk around your house freely. Space is often deceptive. The chair that you use to watch TV, may be ideally located for viewing TV, but it might get in the way. Buyers will usually be up and walking around the entire time they preview your home. Even heavy items on the wall in a hallway will block flow.

Dining Table:

Consider removing extra leaves and only using 4 chairs. For showing purposes, being able to walk around a dining table to get from room to room is more important than being able to seat extra people.

Extra Furniture:

If your living room or master bedroom is full of furniture, consider removing one or two items. It is more important that your home looks spacious, than being able to seat 8 people in front of your TV.

Visual Flow:

Visual flow is just as important as physical flow. When standing still we only occupy about 1 square foot of space, but what we see is limited only by our sight. So it is important to allow the eye to not be stopped by obstructions. Do you keep the shades drawn? Opening them will make a room seem bigger. Is there a tassel - pull chain hanging from the ceiling fan, that blocks your view? Remove it. Are there bushes in the way of your windows? Trim them back. When you look into the back yard is there some obstruction that stops your eye from looking to the back of the yard?

New Home Example:

Have you ever been to a model home and noticed that many are presented without the interior doors installed? This is a perfect example of maximizing the physical and visual flow over function.

Exception:

Buyers usually just look into a bedroom, they will not need to walk to the rear portion of a bedroom. However make sure there is nothing large on top of a dresser located at the bedroom entrance that blocks your view of the room

Add life

Once you have stripped your home of YOUR personality and removed all of the clutter, your home may seem a little barren. At this point you re-introduce life, but it will be non human life, through plants, color, smells and sounds.

• Plants, plants and more plants: My stager often jokes that she has stock in a plant store, because she suggests A LOT of plants. On top of the refrigerator or kitchen counters. Tall plants with height for in the corner of the living room. Plants make the home feel alive and warm. Just simple house plants will work. Silk plants are ok as well. If you are moving borrow some of your neighbors plants for the time that the home will be shown.

• Color: A fresh bowl of fruit (no bananas - the go bad too soon) can add a nice touch of color to a table or kitchen counter. Use citrus as they last. How about a bathroom that is drab? Colorful towels can spruce up the appeal at no cost.

• Smells: We always recommend scented candles in the bathrooms and the kitchen. Keep it simple with just plain vanilla candles. Having them lit during open houses or broker tours certainly enhance the ambiance.

• Sounds: Music at a low volume throughout the home completes the feeling of inviting warmth. If you have a stereo in the living room and a clock radio, simply tuning to the same station can accomplish this goal. I usually recommend either a classical station or a jazz station. Is your home a classical music home or a jazzy music home.