Home staging aids homeowners facing foreclosureForeclosure is an unpleasant topic, but one that some of us will have to deal with.

According to home staging expert Debra Gould, the key to avoiding foreclosure is to be proactive. “If you know that you will have difficulty making your mortgage payments in the near future, contact your lender immediately,” Gould states. “Explain your situation politely and clearly, and ask if you can negotiate a modified mortgage payment plan. Don’t be embarrassed to take this important step. Lenders are much more likely to work with you if you have contacted them before the foreclosure process has begun.”

Many people facing the prospect of foreclosure will decide that the best solution is to sell their houses. If this is the only viable option for you, then you have a particularly strong incentive to sell your home as quickly as possible and for the best possible price.

 

This means hiring the best agent for your area. Your agent should have an intimate knowledge of your neighborhood, be able to identify comparable home sales and make this information available to you. Additionally, he or she should disclose the current market conditions and have extensive networking abilities as well as solid negotiation skills.

If you have decided that selling your home is your best option, you will need to prep your home for showings. Hiring a professional home stager is the single best way to outshine your competition. It might seem counter intuitive to hire a professional stager when you’ve tightened your budget and are facing the sale of your home to avoid foreclosure; however, it has been proven time and time again that staged homes sell faster and for a higher price than homes that are sold “as is.”

The real estate market continues to see a great number of homes going on the market, and your home needs to stand out among the rest. You want your home to be the one that people fall in love with the moment they enter, and a home stager helps make that happen.

When hiring a home stager, remember that home staging is not a regulated field. Anyone can claim to be accredited or certified, and many present portfolios of their work that they bought as part of a course. When hiring a home stager, ask questions about any before and after photos you are shown, look for a demonstrated understanding of the local real estate market and don’t make a decision based solely on price. You often get what you pay for, and in a serious situation like the sale of your home, you need the very best professional advice available. Hiring the right real estate stager can mean an extra $10,000 to $70,000 in the selling price of your home.

When you are facing foreclosure and must sell your home quickly, pricing your home correctly and marketing it effectively are not always enough to get a quick sale in this market. You must go above and beyond other homes for sale in your neighborhood to catch the eye of potential buyers. By using the services of a professional home stager, your house is much more likely to be one that sells.

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould is president of Six Elements and creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program with over 4,000 students worldwide. Gould is the author of four home staging guides and offers a Directory of Home Stagers to help homeowners and real estate agents locate home stagers who will decorate homes to sell quickly and for top dollar. To learn more, visit www.stagingdivadirectoryofhomestagers.com

Written by internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva^®, www.stagingdiva.com. © Copyright Six Elements Inc. Used with permission.

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Home stagers can make a number of small changes to a property that can dramatically shorten the time it spends on the real estate market while also increasing the final sales price. Home staging expert Debra Gould shares her five favorite tips for getting a house ready to sell:

1. Reduce drive-bys

Imagine you’re a homebuyer on a house-hunting mission. Your real estate agent has ten properties to show you on a Saturday afternoon. When you drive up to what could be your dream home, you see a rusted-out mailbox, broken handrail and children’s toys strewn across an un-mowed lawn. You don’t have any time to waste, so you’re probably going to say, “Let’s move on,” skipping the showing appointment entirely.

Curb appeal helps draw prospective buyers into your home. If the outside of a house looks unkempt, it creates an impression that the property is not cared for. To enhance curb appeal:

• Ensure the lawn is freshly cut and that leaves are raked. In winter, snow should be shoveled from the driveway and walkways.

• Make the entrance more welcoming with a seasonally appropriate planted urn or hanging plant.

• Repair or replace any obvious defects. Often this is cheaper to do than a prospective buyer will imagine.

• Make sure the walkways and porches are swept clean and garbage and recycling containers are tucked away at the rear of the house or in the garage.

• Ensure the exterior gets a good pressure wash and the decks are scrubbed clean. It’s a good alternative to painting. Once everything’s clean, you might discover it doesn’t need to be repainted at all; perhaps just a touch-up will do.

2. Stash your keepsakes and keep your home clutter-free

Your treasured keepsakes may look like clutter to potential buyers. It distracts them from appreciating the house itself and can lead home buyers to reject your property. De-cluttering is essential. Tackle one area at a time so the task isn’t so overwhelming.

You’ll probably have to go through each closet more than once to get its contents down to the absolute essentials, but it will be worth the effort. Try setting a timer for 60 minutes and it will no longer seem like an endless task.

If you’re having a tough time parting with things, rent a storage locker so you can keep your beloved items while you’re selling the house, and then have them delivered to your new address after your move.

3. Avoid wandering eyes

You want to make sure that little problems in a room won’t cause a potential buyer to focus on one flaw after another, thinking about all the work they’ll have to do and how much less they should offer you because of it. You want them to see the bigger picture and imagine themselves living there.

Do a walkthrough to spot these typical problems. Look for chipped paint on the door frames, which can be filled in with “white out.” Peeling wallpaper should be glued back down. Ensure there are covers on all electrical outlets and light switches, and replace any that are cracked. Repair dripping taps and moldy caulking. These little things make a big difference in the buyer’s mind!

4. Color is your friend when it’s time to sell a house

In most cases, white walls look cold and sterile. If you have to repaint a home’s interior or some rooms in a home, choose a pleasing color palette that allows each room to flow nicely into the next. All colors should go together.

Try to repeat one signature color throughout a home. Maybe the feature color in one room can be used as an accent in the others, through accessories or throw cushions.

5. Make a big impact with a little art

By strategically using art, you can enhance a home’s perceived value, draw the eye away from tiny flaws, give an otherwise uninteresting space a focal point and replace personal memorabilia.

Don’t just throw things on the wall where an old picture hook happens to be. Position art at eye level and use pieces that are appropriate to the size of the wall. Art with a large frame on a small wall can make the entire area seem smaller. Avoid religious art or anything edgy that could be offensive to some potential buyers.

These are just a few of the many things that can be done to improve your home’s appearance and to make it more appealing to homebuyers. While the steps can be time consuming, the results are worth it. A professional home stager makes the job much easier and can give you the specific steps you should take on your own. Stagers bring total objectivity and a creative eye to the process of decorating your house to sell. This increases your chance of selling your property faster and for more money.

 

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould is president of Six Elements and creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program with over 4,000 students worldwide. Gould is the author of four home staging guides and offers a Directory of Home Stagers to help homeowners and real estate agents locate home stagers who will decorate homes to sell quickly and for top dollar. To learn more, visit www.stagingdivadirectoryofhomestagers.com. Written by internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva^®, www.stagingdiva.com. © Copyright Six Elements Inc. Used with permission.

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 Home buyers have less imagination than you might think. That’s why home staging can make such a difference in the selling price of a home and the length of time it takes to sell. During the few minutes that homebuyers typically spend in a house, most of them aren’t able to look past ugly, crowded and disorganized rooms, or figure out that the missing dining room is actually masquerading as a family room. In a house with few bedrooms, most buyers won’t look past a desk and imagine a bed in its place. What you do with a “spare” bedroom can have a huge impact on how the house does in today’s real estate market.

A professional home stager will not assume that the rooms in your house are already furnished for the right purposes, and will be able to envision what homebuyers want to see. A home stager’s job is to lead a buyer down the garden path of how a property can look and show them exactly how they can live in it.

Add a bedroom
Debra Gould, founder of the Staging Diva® Home Staging Business Training Program, has encountered this scenario countless times since she started her home staging business,  Six Elements Inc., in 2002. “I once staged a house that had only two bedrooms, and one of them had dark paneling, no closet and was set up as a home office,” says Gould. “Consistent criticism after showings told the homeowners that it was being perceived as a one-bedroom house. For staging, I took out the desk, put in a bed and turned it into a guest room. The house sold within days.”

Add a child’s room
Home stagers pay special attention to whether or not a home might be a popular choice for young families. This is where knowledge of the local real estate market comes into play.

“If a home is in a family-oriented neighborhood and the existing owners do not have children, at least one existing bedroom needs to be transformed into a child’s room,” remarks Gould who is also known as The Staging Diva®, “When a couple with a young family walks through a childless home, it’s hard for them to imagine how their own family will live there. Are the bedrooms appropriate for their kids? Where will they play? Professional home stagers always keep the target market of a house in mind when staging. This helps paint a picture for the potential buyer by staging the house the way it would be lived in by them. With minimal furnishings and a few props, it’s easy to show a child’s bedroom!”

Disguising a small bedroom
“If you’re staging a four-bedroom home that has an exceptionally small bedroom without a closet, consider styling that room as a craft room or home office. Homebuyers would only see how tiny it is and that could put them off,” warns Gould. “If possible, include a loveseat with end tables and lamps so buyers will envision it as a fold-out bed. This will help them visualize how the room can double as a guestroom.”

The important thing to remember is that home buyers are in a house very briefly and won’t struggle to imagine how they can change the property to meet their own needs. When they go to a showing, they want to picture themselves living in that home. With good staging, they don’t have to imagine their lives there; they should already feel like they’re home. That’s what sells homes faster and for more money.

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould is president of Six Elements and creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program with over 4,000 students worldwide. Gould is the author of four home staging guides and offers a Directory of Home Stagers to help homeowners and real estate agents locate home stagers who will decorate homes to sell quickly and for top dollar. To learn more, visit www.stagingdivadirectoryofhomestagers.com
Written by internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®, H© Copyright Six Elements Inc. Used with permission.

NORTHERN LIGHTS HOME STAGING AND DESIGN PROVIDES YOUR LOCAL EXPERTISE IN ALASKA HOME STAGING FOR  SEWARD ALASKA AND THE KENAI PENINSULA. CALL 1-907-362-0065 TODAY. OR EMAIL US AT info@northernlightsstaging.com. 

 

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