Seaside Home Stagers LLC

Archive for May, 2010

Here are our top 10 home staging secrets for the townhome we just staged.  Most of these apply to any home that you are planning to stage.

Remember, it’s not about you!  If you are selling, your home is no longer a home, but a commodity that you are marketing to potential buyers!  Be willing to make changes that may not be your cup of tea but will appeal to buyers.  Most people find it difficult to see their home through a buyer’s eye.  A professional home stager can help.

Use neutrals with splashes of color:  Neutrals come in many colors these days–they are the usual ivories and beiges, but they are also light grays, greens and even blues and yellows.  Adding splashes of color with accent walls, pillows and throws creates contrast, interest and a pleasing palette. 

Create cozy, special spaces:  Buyers want to envision themselves enjoying the features of your home.  Create aa few special spaces–a charming reading nook or a breakfast tray on the master bed.   If you can’t afford to stage every room, create a “vignette” in a room with a chair with a throw and a pillow, small table with a reading lamp and a book. 

Less is more–always!!  It’s not just about de-cluttering, although that is clearly the number one “must” when selling a home.  But it also means streamlining everything else as well:  furniture, décor and accessories.  And with small spaces, use less, not more smaller-scaled furniture; that can make a room look even smaller.

This bed is an air mattress!  Great for staging when you are selling and don’t want to buy a mattress and box springs you don’t want to use yourself.  It’s light and easy to use and deflates into its own small carrying case. 

Lighten up! Open curtains, raise or remove blinds, take down heavy drapes and swags, remove screens, light up all the rooms.  Many homes don’t have enough light because the rooms aren’t used that way by those who live there.  Bringing in extra lighting is a real plus.

Create curb appeal:  Don’t forget the outside entry.  Trim the shrubbery, plant flowers, paint the front door a bright color, add a chair or two with a pretty pillow.  

Expand the living space into the outdoors:  Spruce up that screened-in porch.  Add a table and pretty tablecloth, some chairs, some plants and maybe a barbecue, will really show people how much more living space they have.                      

Even minor updates make a big difference:  Updates that make your home “current” are worth every penny.  Replace old light fixtures (especially fluorescent boxes!) and vertical blinds and remove wallpaper borders.  Add a stone or glass tile backsplash in the kitchen.

Upgrade a bathroom mirror with a frame:  We framed this a plain old mirror to give it a new look.  Or you could replace it with two separate silver-colored framed mirrors (one over each sink) to give the bathroom a more trendy look.

Seaside Home Stagers staged a vacant three-bedroom, three-bathroom townhome in the Park West community of Murrells Inlet.  Despite all the competition in Park West and elsewhere, this property sold in just two weeks. 

We employed a three-pronged strategy: 

1)  install selected pieces of rental furniture,

2) paint the bedroom and an accent wall in a soft taupe and

3) add some updates in the kitchen. 

Check out our before and after photos below:

Seaside Home Stagers can help you sell your property faster by staging to appeal to the broadest range of buyers–whether your home is vacant or occupied.  We can take on any challenge!