A Little Staging of Your Katy Home can Translate into More Money
Ready to put your Katy house on the market? If you’re like me, you watch the home decorating TV shows, the real estate shows, and you know a great deal about what makes a home marketable. I don’t have to convince you that a little bit of effort, done before the sign goes in the yard, will be well worth your while.
You know that you should clean everything and get rid of clutter. Aside from that, how do you broaden the appeal of your house? For starters, try to think of it as a “house” not “your home”. Your property has become commodity for which you want to get top dollar; de-personalize it.
No matter the size of your home, it should always look larger. Remove anything that makes a passage way look tight or a room overcrowded with furniture. Pack it, move it to the garage or, even better, a storage facility.
Rid the house of personal effects, and don’t forget simple things like magnets on the refrigerator. Small distractions to the buyers’ eyes will disturb their thinking, preventing them from picturing the house as theirs. The same goes for family photos, only leave one or two. You want the prospective buyer to imagine their family in the house. It should be “their home”; it will increase the price you get once a buyer becomes emotionally vested in the property.
While you want the rooms to look well-decorated and spacious, avoid turning the house into a perfect home. Try to balance the brand-new look with some of its lived-in warmth.
Potential buyers often feel uncomfortable in bedrooms and bathrooms because they are, by definition, personal and private places. To counter this reaction, make bedrooms and bathrooms look like a model home (toss the lived-in feel out the bathroom window). Clear off all surfaces of the bathroom—remove even simple things like toothpaste and soap. Put out nice, fresh towels instead. The goal is to make these rooms comfortable for buyers. When they’re comfortable, they’ll linger and picture themselves in the house.
Walk through the house and prioritize things that, if changed, would increase the value of your home. For example, repainting a child’s bubble-gum pink bedroom may attract more buyers than something not as apparent, such as replacing an old dishwasher.
You can direct a potential buyer’s eye away from something negative or toward something positive. Use artwork or a room’s own features, such as a fireplace, to capture a buyer’s attention. However, there’s a fine line. You want buyers to be able to appreciate the room and not just focus on the items in the room.
Consider hiring a professional to improve your home’s visual appeal. The fee charged by a “stager” can be worth it if the changes bring a quicker offer or a higher sales price. For recommendations on a Katy stager, contace me at 713-818-2404 or juliefuelling@sbcglobal.net.
For information about Katy area homes, you can search the entire Houston MLS from this blog. For questions or to tour any area homes, contact me directly at 713-818-2404. I have specialized in Katy real estate for over 19 years. Experience does count!
Copyright © 2007 The Katy Texas Blog That Never Runs Dry
I would like to add that if you make the effort to stage a home, be sure to take nice photos with a wide-angle lens right afterward for posting on the MLS.
Great point! This would certainly improved the quality of many photos featured in MLS.