Home staging involves taking the time and effort and yes, a little bit of expense to ensure that your home is a marketable product and that you get the greatest possible return on your largest PEI real estate investment, your home.
Home staging involves presenting your home in a way to take the focus off the less desirable aspects and focus buyers on the reasons that they would want to buy your home. It involves de-personalizing your home and making it suitable for the maximum number of potential purchasers.
Much of homestaging you can do yourself and in fact might even enjoy doing - however, some aspects may require the services of a professional, especially if anything is in need of repair.
1. Curb Appeal - the outside
Make your home the best looking on the block when potential buyers drive up. Remember, on average, island homes are well looked after, so this might be a "tall order" in your neighborhood. Make sure that paths are swept and in winter snow is cleared and paths are de-iced. In spring, summer and fall make sure that at minimum flowerbeds are cleared of old growth, however if the growing season is right plant some flowering plants. Tidy away garbage bins and any derelict items from around the house, and paint the trim in an attractive, complimentary color.
2. Clean & Clutter Free
The next step is to move indoors and give your home a thorough "spring cleaning". That means behind the stove and fridge and all the places people don't see as well as those that they do. Make sure that your home smells fresh. Clean out cupboards and closets of extraneous items. These prohibit the buyers from seeing themselves living in the home. Take the time to de-personalize the rooms as well. Take down family pictures and momentos as these also distract buyers and make the rooms look smaller.
3. Reduce and Arrange
As well as de-cluttering, reduce the amount of furniture in your home and keep only those pieces that suit the decor and are in good condition. Your furniture will also add or detract from how buyers view your home. If you have older furniture that is not in good condition then buy some attractive throws and cover the worst pieces. You should most likely paint unless you did so recently. If your walls are anything other than a muted, pastel shade or white then paint anyway. The more strong or unusual your choice of home decor and colors the greater the need to mute-down your decor.
4. Lighten up
Make sure that during day showings that window coverings are open and during evening showings that as many lights as possible are on. You may want to add a few bright touches in your now muted decor. Choose a potted plant, a nice picture for the wall. a rug - well this is the fun part, right?
5. Security
You are inviting strangers into your home. Make sure that you have removed any items, documents, prescriptions or anything that tells the visitor about you. You do not want them to know anything about you as this could be used in negotiation, ie if a buyer saw a prescription for a certain drug they might know your health issues and realize your need to sell. As you don't know who is coming through your home, these people may have reasons other than purchasing PEI real estate, so play it safe. On the subject of safe, also make sure that the environment is safe for the buyers too. Ensure there are no obstacles in their path, no potentially dangerous items on display (your gun collection for example), and that your pet(s) are secured.
R. Parker works with local realtors to help islanders get into and navigate round the
PEI real estate market. If you are looking to buy or sell
PEI real estate, contact one of his client realtors.
