Showing posts with label Staging. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

8 Secrets of Home Staging

1:56 PM Swee Ng

8 Secrets of Home Staging that You Can DYI

Feature your home’s power, whitewash its flaws and appeal to the greatest possible pool of potential buyers with these amazing home-staging tips.

8 Secrets of Home Staging

Remove Clutter
Getting rid of clutter is the most important thing you can do to prepare your home for sale. Make a rule for the house that every new thing that comes in, an old thing has to be put out. Mostly the house looks cluttered because of the furniture, therefore, it is advisable to get rid of the furniture so that the house looks big enough when customers come to see it. Take a look at what you have and what you can live without.

Furniture Layout
There’s this belief that if all the furniture is pushed to the walls the room has a larger space, but that’s not the case so. Instead, place your furniture away from walls and position the sofas and chairs in a way so that conversations can be done in a better way. This way not only make the space more friendly, but it will make the room to look larger.

Transform your room
If you have a room that has all the junk, replace it with something that will add worth to your home. Just a simple addition of an armchair, a lamp and a table in a proper position will transform it into a comfortable reading spot. Drape fabric on the walls lay carpet on the floor and toss in a few cushy pillows.

Lighting your home
Staged homes look warm and welcoming when highlighted with great lighting. Most of our homes are not properly lighted which is why they do not turn out to be that beautiful in terms of lighting. To solve this problem increase in your fixtures and lamps.

Make It Bigger and Larger
To make a room look larger than it is paint it the same color as the adjacent room. If you have a dining room and a kitchen a smooth look will make both rooms look bigger. Another trick is if you want to make the illusion of a bigger space, paint the walls the same color as your drapery.

Color Experiment
Don’t ever be afraid to use dark paint in your bedroom or your dining room. A deep tone on the walls can make the room look cozier, dramatic and intimate. And it is not necessary that you have to paint it whole rather paint a wall to draw attention to a fireplace or a lovely set of windows.

Modify wall hangings
Most of our homes have the art hung in a high line encircling each room. Big mistake. Placing or positioning your pictures, paintings and prints in common places can render them almost invisible. Display your art creatively so that it stands out and shows off. So break up that line and modify your wall hangings.

Prim and Polished
Have your tiles professionally painted so that it looks brand new. Buyers will feel they are in a spa when they see it. It's a great way to create a polished look, and it doesn't either. So go on and give your bathroom the perfect look.

Selling your home in Gilbert AZ
Contact Us or call Swee Ng at 480.721.6253 today to discuss your potential Phoenix House Value and our comprehensive marketing plan. We will prepare complimentary competitive market analysis (CMA) to find out what your home is worth at today’s market.

What My Gilbert Home is Worth Today?

Swee Ng, Realtor and Phoenix East Valley resident specializing in win-win real estate transaction through great communication and fighting for his clients' best interest. After all, this is more than real estates, this is about your life and your dreams.

If you are looking to buy or sell your home in Phoenix AZ area, we hope you will consider us. Contact us today for complimentary consultation.

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Creating Curb Appeal: 6 Ways to Improve Your Home's First Impression

9:04 AM Swee Ng

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Creating Curb Appeal: 6 Ways to Improve Your Home's First Impression

You've probably heard the old saying, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." That's true in life, and it's true in real estate. If you're in the process of selling your home, take a moment to walk across the street and look at your home with a critical eye. What are potential homebuyers seeing as they pull up? Is your home giving off a good first impression? Does it have good curb appeal?

Real estate agents and home staging services know how important curb appeal is to the home selling process. It only takes a couple of seconds for potential homebuyers to form an opinion of your home based on its curb appeal. Below are six ways to improve your home's first impression.

First Step: A Critical Review
Remember that trip across the street I mentioned above? Well, after living in your home for years, you may not be the best judge. Invite a friend or family member over to give your home a critique. What would they do to improve your home's curb appeal? If they can't make it over, take some photos and email them to some friends for their review. We tend to see things in photographs that we miss when we're casually looking at things. Print your pictures out on 8 ½-by-11-inch paper, draw on them, and make notes about what changes you want to make.

Give it a Fresh Coat of Paint
A fresh coat of paint can go a long way toward improving your home's curb appeal. If a potential homebuyer drives up and sees cracked and peeling paint, what impression will that leave? Not only will the homebuyer think you haven't maintained the exterior of your home, but he is going to wonder what other maintenance items have been neglected.

Make sure the colors you choose fit with the neighborhood and the character of the house. You want your home to have great curb appeal, but that doesn't mean it should stick out markedly from the rest of the houses on the block. If you're selling your home, neutral colors are the best because they will have broader appeal. However, a neutral paint color doesn't have to be boring. Add some pizzazz by painting your front door a more vibrant, complementary color.

Make it Welcoming
Whether it's a decorative wreath on the front door, some decorative pots with brightly colored flowers, or simply great porch lighting, make your front door visible and inviting. Don't overdo it. Keep things simple, but make it easy to spot your front door. If you have overgrown shrubs blocking the view to your home, it will feel less safe. Trim shrubs back to eliminate any areas where predators could lurk, and make sure your house number is clearly visible.

Get Rid of the Junk
"One man's trash is another man's treasure" applies to garage sales and antiquing. Improve your home's curb appeal by putting things away and storing items that don't enhance your home's first impression. The less clutter you have around your front door and in your front yard the better.

Maintain Your Lawn
If you have a home with a lawn, the best thing you can do to create great curb appeal is to keep it maintained. Mow your lawn to a height of about 2 inches. Many people believe that mowing a lawn shorter is better, but with a blade height of about 2 inches, the grass is long enough to provide some shade for the roots, which helps the roots retain moisture and promotes stronger root growth.

Manually remove weeds as soon as you see them to prevent them from going to seed and becoming a bigger problem. Weeds generally show up in areas where the lawn is weak or lacking in nutrients. Over-seed any areas where the grass is thin and use an organic fertilizer to provide nutrients and maintain healthy soil.
Near sidewalks, driveways, and planting beds, edge your lawn with a line trimmer or straight spade to maintain a nicely manicured edge. There is no need to buy plastic lawn edging. It rarely holds up over time. A spade and a little muscle can do the trick. However, if you find you really want a built edge to your lawn, use aluminum edging. It is far more durable than plastic and will cut down on some of the maintenance needed to maintain the shape and size of your planting beds.

Oh, the Pressure!
Maintaining concrete driveways, sidewalks, and patios is always important for providing safe walking surfaces. However, if you are selling your home, what is the one thing a potential homebuyer is going to do? They will walk up your sidewalk or driveway to your front door. If you want your home to make a great first impression, fix any major cracks and make sure your entry sidewalk is free of debris, moss, and uneven edges. Pressure-wash concrete surfaces to remove any built up dirt and moss.
As you can see, most of these tasks are things you are probably already doing, but when neglected, they can take away from your home's curb appeal. Creating great curb appeal really just comes down to maintaining your home. Performing these tasks on a regular basis means you'll never have to worry about your home making a great first impression.

5 Dirt-Cheap Home Staging Ideas

6:18 PM Swee Ng

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When it comes to selling your home, appearance is everything. But hiring a professional "stager" to prepare the home for prospective buyers can cost anywhere from $50 to $150 per hour, according to Jessica Page, a Realtor with Innovative Real Estate in Denver.

Fortunately, homeowners can take matters into their own hands.

Page, along with veteran Florida Realtor Jennifer Radice, of Coldwell Banker in Boca Raton, share expert tips for staging your home that cost next to nothing.

Pack away personal items
Packing away personal items is one of the simplest -- and cheapest -- things you can do to sell your house or condo quickly, according to Page and Radice.

"The reason you want to 'de-personalize' your home is because you want buyers to view it as their potential home," Page says.

Prospective buyers won't be able to picture themselves in the house if they're surrounded by dozens of photos of your children and grandparents.

"Pictures are extremely distracting. You cannot believe how long potential buyers will stop and stare at people they do not know in photos," says Radice, who also recommends removing any religious items from plain view.

"You want your home to show like a model," Radice says.

In addition to attracting the buyer, "you want the buyer's agent to enjoy showing the home. You never know whom they may have, if this particular buyer is not interested," says Radice, who is in the top 1 percent of Realtors nationwide.

The cost: $2 to $3 for a roll of packaging tape. You already have the scissors on hand and you can often score the boxes for free from a neighborhood store.

Clear away clutter
Ridding your home of clutter is another simple way to get buyers to focus on the bones of the house, not the titles in your CD collection.

"This is the hardest thing for most people to do because they are emotionally attached to everything in the house," Page says.

"After years of living in the same home, clutter collects in such a way that may not be evident to the homeowner. However, it does affect the way buyers see the home, even if you do not realize it. Clutter collects on shelves and countertops, and in drawers, closets, garages, attics and basements," she says.

Radice recommends removing items from countertops in the kitchen and bathrooms.

"If you have kids, get rid of the toys all around the house. For all you know, the buyers could be empty nesters," Radice says.

She suggests putting things in boxes and neatly stacking them in the corner of the garage. Anything extra should go in a small, rented storage unit.

Even better, ask a friend or relative to hang onto your items for free.

"Pack up 90 percent of your home," Radice says.

The cost: The price of a storage unit varies (around $45 a month for a 5-foot-by-5-foot unit).

Rearrange and neutralize rooms
Rearrange the rooms in your home to reel in prospective buyers. Make sure each room has a distinct, useful purpose.

Page suggests touring builders' models to see how the rooms are furnished.

"Builders are experts on preparing their product for prospective buyers," she says.

Radice says closets should be "neat and organized."

"The pair of shoes that you haven't worn in 10 years, get rid of," she says.

If your home has been painted recently, consider yourself ahead of the game. If not, take a paintbrush to the rooms that need it most. Sellers who paint the interior of their home will see a large return on the investment, Page says.

"Fresh, neutral paint on the walls, trim and doors is worth its weight in gold -- it makes everything appear clean and new," she says.

The cost: Anywhere from $12 to $50 per gallon for paint, plus another $10 to $50 for other painting supplies (primer, brushes, drop cloths, etc.) You can get back some of that money as a refund on your taxes for any items you donate to charity (such as those extra shoes in the closet).

Scrub and deodorize
No one wants to look at a dirty, smelly home -- especially not prospective buyers. So make sure your house or condo shines from top to bottom.

Page says cleaning and deodorizing a home before every showing "should be first and foremost."

The goal is to help buyers imagine themselves living in the home, Page says.

"When buyers see an unkempt home or smell something when they first walk in, they become turned off immediately," Page says. "They can rarely see past it to look at all of the great features in the home."

Radice suggests having the house professionally cleaned so that everything is spotless -- windows, sliding glass door tracks, garage, basement, ceiling fans, etc.

"This is worth the money spent," Radice says.

She also recommends baking cookies in the oven, bringing cinnamon sticks to a slow boil in a pot of water or using air freshener to mask smells before each showing. Ridding the home of litter boxes is also a must.

The cost: Varies by the location and size of the home cleaning service, but typically less than $100 to clean a four-bedroom, 2,500-square-foot home. Cookie dough runs about $3.

Enhance curb appeal
Whatever you do, do not overlook the home's exterior when selling.

"Curb appeal is just as important as cleaning the inside of the home -- it's the buyer's first impression of your home," Page says.

Radice agrees. "You only have one chance to make a first impression. There are so few buyers out there -- you want your home to stand out."

Mow the lawn, make sure the sidewalk and driveway are free of clutter and debris, and ensure the house number is easily visible.

It may also be beneficial to pressure-clean the exterior of your home, driveway and sidewalk, if needed.

Another valuable low-cost solution? Mulch.

"Mulch is cheap and covers a multitude of sins. It makes everything look trim and neat," Radice says.

The cost: Mulch costs around $3 per bag.The cost of renting a pressure washer varies, but you may be able to get one from a local hardware store for around $50 per day. It may cost double that to purchase a pressure washer. Professional cleaning with a pressure washer for a 2,500 square-foot-house may set you back about $250.

via bankrate

6 Ways to Give a Home a Budget-Friendly Makeover

9:32 AM Swee Ng

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Just the sound of “home makeover” is enough to make some people cringe. The idea of spending lots of time and money painting the house, shopping for new furniture, and replacing the carpet is not something many people want to do during their free time.

But not every home makeover has to be so exhausting. In fact, there are many small alterations and additions you can make to your home that have big results for very little money and effort. If your home is in need of a new look, but you don’t want to spend an arm and a leg to do it, then try these six simple ways to give your home a makeover for cheap.

1. Paint the furniture.
An easy way to shake up a room is to paint your furniture. Go bold with a red accent piece or lighten up the room with a white finish. You can also skip the paint altogether and opt for a simple stain. The color options are endless and the cost for this project is fairly cheap.

2. Add indoor plants.
It’s amazing how much a simple plant or two can dress up a room and add an unexpected pop of color. Not only do real indoor plants purify the air inside your house, but they also bring a remarkable amount of life to any room. Aim for low maintenance plants that have a variety of colors and textures and can be displayed in unique ways, like inside a non-working fireplace.

3. Accessorize
A cheap and easy way to spice up a dull room is to accessorize with colorful pieces, such as throw pillows for the couch, bold frames, or an eye-catching mirror. To keep it affordable, use the items you’ve already got or restore them with a new coat of paint or embellishments. You can also find cheap accessories at antique shops, flea markets, and thrift stores.

4. Create an accent wall.
An accent wall can take any room from blah to beautiful in a matter of hours. Whether you paint one wall in a contrasting color or use whimsical wall decals, an accent wall can make your home appear bigger and brighter than before.

5. Rearrange the furniture.
Before you go buy new furniture or start knocking down walls, try rearranging your furniture first. Move your bed to another wall, reposition your couches, and switch up your artwork. With the right rearrangements, your room will feel and look brand new to you and your guests. Best of all, this makeover will cost you nothing, except for maybe an achy back after moving heavy furniture.

6. Organize the clutter.
Organizing your clutter may not sound like much of a makeover, but it actually makes a huge difference in the overall look and functionality of your home. If you’re like most people, you probably have a drawer or closet full of unorganized junk. By going through your clutter and finding a new home for the things that are actually worth keeping, you can free up this storage space for other important items. This project will cost virtually nothing, except for maybe a few cheap storage bins or baskets.

via Realtor Magazine