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Advice From Our Agents

Home Staging 101 – Agents Advice

Our agents are experts when it comes to staging a home and have years of experience. Here are some of their tips on how sell your house as soon as possible. They have been real estate agents in Charleston for a long time and are here to help you!
If all you need is some quick advice, check out our Quick Fixes page.

Too Personal– Eliminate as much of you from the house as possible, it needs to be a blank canvas for the buyer. Need help finding a place to store your pictures? Then visit our Home Staging- Storage page.

  • Remove all personal photos, they have the potential to negatively affect a potential buyers opinion of the actual home. -Charlie Inglefield
  • They want to be able to envision themselves living in the home. Buyers do not want to see the seller’s personal memorabilia all over the home, it distracts the buyer and the buyer cannot envision themselves there. -Melissa Martin
  • Clean, then clean again- You can never be too clean when it comes to showing your home. The buyer wants to feel like they are in a safe and comfortable environment. For more cleaning advice for staging a home visit our Room by Room page.
  • Be overly clean: beds made, no dirty dishes, clothes neatly put in the right place, ect. If small things have not been taken care of (pet hair for example) then the buyer will automatically assume that the home in general has not been well taken care of. -Melissa Martin
  • Bathrooms have to be very clean and neat, so purchase new towels, mats and shower curtains if they are not perfect. -Melissa Martin


What’s that smell?– Right before a showing don’t douse every inch of your home with febreze, the buyer will think you are hiding something. Outside smells can be a bad thing, for advice on how to stage your yard visit our Staging the Exterior page.

  • Do not use heavy fragrance sprays, they buyer will think you are masking an odor. -Melissa Martin
  • The home should smell clean but do not over do it by any means. No need to make cookies but the buyer will notice if the home smells strange. – Molly Conn

 

Common Mistakes– Make sure you avoid these common mistakes when staging your home.

  • This is not a trap!- Home staging shouldn’t be thought of as a way to “trap” the prospective buyer into purchasing your home. Not a cleaver cover-up to damages or poor maintenance, you should fix these problems before you show. Make sure everything works (lamps, plumbing, no holes in the wall…)
  • Too personal- Just because you love the way your home is decorated, that doesn’t mean the prospective buyer will love it. The whole idea of staging is to create a neutral setting where the buyer can envision their own belongings and decorations in the home.
  • Don’t hide your mess- always organize every room in your home, especially your storage space. For in-depth tips on how to organize your storage, visit our Home Staging- Storage page.

Advice from a Professional- Occupied to Sell is a free live in home staging solution. Their services are at no cost to the homeowner, in fact they reduce monthly expenses by covering all maintenance and utilities. Julianne Vadas is a professional when it comes to staging a home offers valuable advice and before/after pictures of her work.
  • Less is more: buyers want a space that is free of clutter so they can visualize themselves in the space.
  • Symmetry is key involving lamps and chairs by creating a calming space which is warm yet peaceful.
  • Buyers can intuitively sense an amateur effort at staging which they call the “Sisal and Crate and Barrel” look. A small rug sitting sadly beneath a stock table does not imbibe warmth or occupancy and savvy buyers are able to pick up on this immediately.
  • Small inviting touches such as bowls of fresh fruit, fresh baked cookies and bottle water set out upon showings infiltrate a buyers’ senses and instantly make an impression after a long day of looking at properties.
  • A buyer stays in a vacant house on average of 5 minutes but lingers in an occupied home on average of 40 minutes.
  • Statistics show that 9 out of 10 people cannot visualize how a vacant property could look at its best.
  • A buyer has an opinion of a home within 15 seconds, make it count.

To learn more or contact Julianne Vadas visit their website Occupied to Sell or via e-mail Julianne@occupiedtosell.com
PH 843-364-9559 for a free assessment of your vacant home. Let them breathe life into your vacant home to sell it faster for more for FREE.