The Southwest Voice

Have you ever struggled to sell a property that didn’t have the qualities of a showcase house or the benefit of location-location-location?
Do you anticipate putting your home on the market and are concerned about how it looks or how long it will take to sell, if it doesn’t look as good as others in the same locale?
How long does your house get to make a first impression on a potential buyer?
Here’s the answer: A prospective homebuyer makes her buying decision within 15 seconds of walking into a house! “Yes or no,” just that quick!
Any good interior designer knows when walking into a space whether or not that room is working — and so do your would-be buyers.
If your property doesn’t make it through the subconscious screening process going on in a buyer’s head from the curbside through just inside the front door, it’s going to be on the market longer than you would like and cost you money.
That’s the No. 1 reason 76 percent of this nation’s Realtors are now advising their clients to hire staging or merchandising professionals.
Homes have been proven to sell more quickly and at higher prices when they’ve been staged for resell. It’s like putting on your best face when meeting your fiance’s parents.
These are not the things to be implemented leisurely, if you are serious about getting a piece of property sold quickly and at full retail. It’s all about creating ambiance that sells!
Here are five proven real estate staging strategies, the basics to staging a home for sale:
1. Clean it
2. De-clutter it
3. De-odorize it
4. Rearrange it
5. Price it right
These are no-brainer tips that all Realtors know and recommend, but many Realtors complain that their sellers won’t follow through with them. That’s why a Realtor will hire a staging professional, or encourage you to hire one.
A staging professional is an emotionally unattached expert, who sees the home as a product to be merchandised and displayed to its best advantage, making it more sellable; just like a product for sale in a store is merchandised to show it off and attract the right buyer.
Here are the details to the five strategies:
1. Clean it! Who gets the last say on cleanliness? Assuming that your definition of cleanliness fits everyone else’s is a common problem when staging a home. Over-clean it, at least at the beginning of your staging strategies. A house and yard can never be too clean. Pay special attention to the parts of the house that have to do with hygiene: sinks, toilets, showers and tubs, but also the kitchen and laundry room appliances and the pet dishes!
Subconsciously, a buyer thinks that if you can’t keep it clean, she can’t keep it clean. If your stuff looks good here, then her stuff will look good here!
If you’re ever going to throw money at a problem to make it go away, this is the place to do it: hire a professional cleaning crew. 
2. De-clutter it! Have you ever been in a home where the owner was oblivious to the clutter going on around them? Clutter accents the flaws in a space! Buyers subconsciously see clutter as deficient storage in a house. Rein in the clutter, rein in the buyer.
3. Deodorize it! What do you smell when you come through your front door? Can you detect the diffused and subtle blend of morning coffee, hair gel and pet dander?
Living in a house for any length of time at all, homeowners are used to and oblivious to how it smells. And even what smells like comfort to you may turn up a buyer’s nose. Subconsciously buyers will not emotionally connect with a space if the right smells are not there, or if they are being overpowered by what’s unusual or unappealing to them.
Do you think that’s why Realtors encourage us to blow cookie or fresh bread smells through a house?
4. Rearrange it! What are some ways to camouflage flaws in a house to get it ready for sale? How do you showcase its assets?
Professional stagers use “placement decorating” and “interior redesign” techniques to make a house appear more interesting, spacious and inviting, based on three guiding principles: enhance the natural focal point in the space, neutralize the environment and get the furniture into the right place in the room.
 Homes staged with these three principles ALONE are on the market nationally an average of 18 days less than non-staged homes. In fact, nationally, 70 percent of the homes that resort to these staging basics do so because they’ve already sat on the market anywhere from three months to two years.
When finally staged, only 20 percent of those had to be recarpeted and 25 percent repainted.
According to Sound Money Tips, staging provides an average 251 percent return on your investment.
The best furniture placement techniques come from the pros. Having your furniture placed professionally helps potential buyers connect with your space emotionally.
How do you neutralize an environment? By using neutral color schemes in the space and by removing any and all homeowner personal reference paraphernalia (like family photos).
Just for safety, don’t leave the names or photos of your children exposed while the house is being shown.
Draw attention to the natural focal point of the home — that’s the one that doesn’t get up and leave with the seller when she moves out!
5. Price it right! Establishing the right price for your property is important to your success, so seek professional help from a Realtor.
These are proven techniques that will make your house appear much more harmonious, beautiful and sellable, even if you’re using elements in the space that are technically not perfect!
First impressions checklist from the curb to the front door:
1. Do I need to install a new mailbox or mailbox post?
2. Does the driveway or house need pressure washing?
3. Have I committed to keeping newspapers and flyers picked up?
4. Do I need to repaint the house exterior or retouch the trim?
5. Do any fence boards need replacing, painting?
6. Have I committed to keeping toys and bicycles out of sight?
7. Are there any old, rusted items in my yard that need to be removed (swing sets, basketball hoops, lawn furniture, grills)?
8. Are the garbage cans stored neatly?
9. Am I committed to keeping the lawns and shrubs trimmed?
10. Do leaves and pine needles need to be removed from the lawn or roof?
11. Does the lawn need to be edged?
12. Does the lawn need a quick greening fertilizer added?
13. Do the flowerbeds need to be mulched to improve their appearance?
14. Do I need to add flowers for garden color & appeal?
15. Are the rain gutters clean and functioning properly?
16. Do any roof shingles need replacing?
17. Are the shutters clean?
18. Do the shutters need to be repaired, replaced or painted?
19. Are the windows clean?
20. Have I committed to keeping the front porch clean?
21. Do I need a new entry-door welcome mat?
22. Are there any squeaky doors that need oil?
23. Does the front door need attention?
Debra Blackmon, Southwest resident and local interiors expert, is a member of the Interior Design Society, American Society of Feng Shui and Interior Redesign Industry Specialists. E-mail Debra at: debrab1952@yahoo.com 
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