Tag Archive for: homes

Staging on a Budget…5 Essential Rules and Tips

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If you want potential buyers to choose your property over the competition, staging your home can make your house stand out from the crowd.

Staging is a new concept for most sellers, but a crucial step in getting your house sold. Presentation is everything!

As a marketing tool it helps to get people in the door. Today’s buyers look on the Internet before contacting a realtor to show them the house. If you don’t have beautiful pictures of your property they will not take the time to visit your home.  It also adds perceived value to your home which can translate into a higher sales price.

Home owners can make the changes themselves or hire a professional home stager. Professionals have an expertise that the home owner may lack to successfully stage their home.  They comes into the home with an unbiased eye. They are not emotionally attached to the home or the objects within it, allowing them to be objective, which is essential for a successful stage and ultimately a quicker and profitable sale.

Should you choose to do it yourself, here are some rules and tips to follow.

Rule # 1:     DE-PERSONALIZE

People want to envision themselves in the house – not you. Children and wedding photos may be important to you, but are a distraction to the buyer and prevents them from seeing their family in the home.

staging mantle - depersonalize

Rule # 2:     MAXIMIZE

Declutter and organize. This will maximize the space in your home. Children’s toys strewn about and rooms stuffed with that extra table or chair make the place seems small.   Closets packed tight with clothes gives the illusion of a lack of closet space. Consider temporary off site storage.

staging closet 2

staging kitchen

Rule # 3:     SANITIZE

The easiest and cheapest way to stage your home is to just clean it. Dirty dishes in the sink, pet and garbage smells and grim in the bathrooms are a turn off for any buyer. Nothing is better than walking into a house that smells and looks fresh. Take the extra time to wash down walls, floors and baseboards. Clean, sparkling windows brighten the space.

Rule # 4:     MODERNIZE

Unless you live in a new construction (2009-2014), or have done a recent renovation, every home can benefit from a little updating. Buyers will offer a lower price if they feel the house is dated. Simple changes such as replacing the kitchen and bathroom hardware from brass and gold to nickel or chrome creates a fresh, contemporary look. A new coat of paint, or stain, on those dated cabinets will dramatically transform the space. Organize cabinets inside as well as out.

staging kitchen cabinets

staging kitchen cabinets a

staging kitchen

Rule # 5:     NEUTRALIZE

Color can make or break a buyer’s interest in your home. Your daughter may love her shocking pink walls, but the buyer will only see $$ signs if the colors do not match their own style. A new coat of a gender neutral color is one of the most inexpensive ways to change a look and also to modernize. Consider removing or raising window treatments to allow the light in which makes a room feel spacious and inviting.  

staging living room

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staged living room

 

Here are a few related articles you might want to read prior to putting your house on the market.

 

 

Signs Of A Recovering Real Estate Market

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With temperatures chilly real estate sales grew hot in the first quarter of 2013. The number of buyers has out paced the inventory of homes available (currently 222 offered down approx. 12% from last year) and many sales went to multiple bids.  We are starting to see some modest price increases and sales where the average sale price was higher than the average list price. Sales are up about 25% with an average sale price of $1,696,000.

Value, updated amenities and close to the center of the town continue to lead buyers’ wish lists. There are 66 houses with contracts signed as well as 9 condominiums pending which is up approximately 26% from last year. What does this mean to you? The housing market is gaining strength locally as well as nationally. Below is a sampling of some of the homes sold in the past couple of months.

Home Sweet…. Whatever

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Adding an addition to my own home sent me to the internet for ideas. Typing in the words sustainability and recycling materials sent me down a few rabbit holes….see for yourself.

It seems Francie Rehwald wanted a home with curvilinear, feminine shapes for a 55-acre property in the Malibu, Calif., hills that overlooks a mountain range, a valley, and the Pacific Ocean. In fulfilling her dream, architect David Hertz designed “Wing House” … and recycled a Boeing 747-200 to do so.

According to an article by Susan Galleymore:  “That airplane was selected from among the hundreds of retired airplanes that sit in California’s deserts. They are typically sold for the price of aluminum. This purchase — an aircraft measuring more than 230 feet long, 195 feet wide and 63 feet tall, with more than 17,000 cubic feet of cargo area — cost less than $50,000 dollars.

All of the structures on Rehwald’s property incorporate components and pieces of that aircraft. Both main wings and two stabilizers from the tail section — more than 2,500 square feet to scale — make up the roof for the master bedroom.

A fire pit and water element are constructed out of the engine cowling. A separate art studio uses a 50-foot-long section of the upper fuselage as a roof. The roof of the guesthouse incorporates the remaining front portion of the fuselage, and upper first-class cabin deck.

The lower half of the fuselage and cargo hold forms an animal barn, while a separate meditation pavilion made from the entire front of the airplane is 28 feet in diameter and 45 feet tall — the cockpit forms a skylight.”

The trend in recycling structures not traditionally considered “real estate” spans the gamut from residences to restaurants to luxury hotels and is not limited to airplanes — it also includes shipping containers, retired railroad cars and locomotives, among other creative conversions.

Even Bob Villa has gotten into the act, posting on his website an article about how to transform shipping containers into Home Sweet Container.… “Steel shipping container homes, also called storage container homes, offer a fast, green, and sustainable approach to building. These inter-modal steel building units (ISBUs) are manufactured in a factory-controlled environment so they are standardized and reliable. They can be used to build an average-sized home with almost no wood.”

You can use four 40x8x8-foot ISBUs laid side-by-side to create a three-bedroom, 1,280-square-foot home without a hint of its original corrugated-steel exterior or get creative with unconventional shapes and layouts.

Speaking of unconventional shapes: people have been thinking outside the box for years when it comes to their own abode…consider the Mushroom House in Ohio or the Bubble House in Cannes, France. All over the world there are some interesting and strange dwellings. Just remember, Falling Water by Frank Lloyd Wright was once considered bizarre. For other interesting and whimsical homes visit http://www.oddee.com/item_96556.aspx

Wonder what our Planning and Zoning Department would think about some of these….

Information contained herein is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. 
Wendy Dixon Fog specializes in New Canaan real estate, a top listing and top selling agent assisting buyers and sellers throughout the area. Access the MLS, receive a free home evaluation, and subscribe to daily home listings updates . Call or text 203.979-6277, email wendy@wendyfog.com

Tag Archive for: homes