Home Staging
Are you almost ready to put your home on the market? Or are you contemplating a move in a year or two?
Whether you are selling next month or next year, giving your home "curb appeal" is essential if you want a quick sale, fetching the highest price possible. Organize Your Life can help you reach those goals by "staging" your home. Staging is a process of neutralizing, decluttering, organizing, and beautifying. Home Staging is not interior design. It is purposeful, thoughtfully playing up the features of your home with little investment for a major dollar payback. I will tell you what buyers are looking for in their search for a new home. I can give you the right home curb appeal and helpful room editing. It allows potential buyers to picture themselves living in the house. People buy homes with their emotions! By making your home feel welcoming, they will be able to picture themselves living there.
Staging is the very best proven way to get top dollar for your home as you prepare it for sale. Homes that are staged using my techniques sell faster and for more money! This is because staging sets the scene throughout the house to create immediate buyer interest in your property. This will then lead to your home selling for the highest possible price in today's market. Remember, "The way you live in your home, and the way you market and sell your house are two different things."
Out on my first visit you will find:
- What buyers are looking for in a new home
- How to give your home curb appeal
- Which inexpensive improvements will add value to your home
- Which expensive improvements could be poor investments
- Room by room staging suggestions
I also offer assistance after the consultation if you would like help decluttering to create more visual appeal
 This is the way people live |
 This is the way for home staging |
A 1999 Palo Alto real estate survey found that:
- Staged houses sold in an average of 14 days for 6.32% over the asking price
- Unstaged houses sold in an average of 31 days for 1.6% over the asking price
Stage your Way to a Sold Sign
The top goals of all home sellers are to sell quickly and at top dollar. Staging a home appropriately can easily increase the selling price of your home by $5000 to $50,000 with minimal investment. Following the steps below will make your home stand out above others, getting you on your way to a successful sale.
Disassociate. It is important to look at the property no longer as your home, but as a piece of property that will make potential buyers reach for their checkbooks. Say your good-byes and picture yourself handing the keys over to the new owner. After you have let go of the emotional attachment to your home, you can more easily stage the house to appeal to the largest audience.
Depersonalize. Remove all personal items, including pictures and personalized décor items. Potential buyers need to be able to walk into your home and see themselves and their personal items there. Don’t let them be distracted by your child’s artwork, banners of your favorite football team, or a picture of your Great-Aunt Mitzie. Colors and decorations should be neutral
IT PAYS TO STAGE!
There was a period when people believed stuff meant something. They thought that if they have matching side chairs and a sofa that harmonized and some beautiful lamps to light them, then you would have a home, that elegance signaled happiness. They fooled themselves into thinking that House Beautiful should be subtitled Life Wonderful. I don’t know why they thought this, since the homes in which many grew up, were always pretty topsy-turvy, the dining room table usually turned into a fort with stuff piled on top and many had to clear it when company was coming over so they shoved it in a closet in a bag that they will get to another time. Statisticians say our houses are almost twice as large, on average, as they were 40 years ago, but we all understand that that doesn’t mean the people inside are any more content. We understand the truth about possessions, that they mean or prove or solve nothing. Stuff is not salvation.
Cynthia Braun is a certified professional organizer for Long Island, New York
