Staging Tips for When You Decide to Sell

Staging Tips for When You Decide to Sell

As we’ve previously discussed, the housing market is looking up and the economy is slowly making its way back to stability.  If you’ve decided to sell your home, you already know the importance of up to date furniture but how you stage your home for showings is equally important.  We’ve gathered a few important tips designed to make your home look its absolute best!

• There’s a common belief that rooms will feel larger and be easier to use if all the furniture is pushed against the walls, but that isn’t the case. Instead, furnish your space by floating furniture away from walls. Reposition sofas and chairs into cozy conversational groups, and place pieces so that the traffic flow in a room is obvious. Not only will this make the space more user-friendly, but it will open up the room and make it seem larger.
• Clear all unnecessary objects from furniture throughout the house. Keep accessories and objects on the furniture restricted to groups of 1, 3, or 5 items. In general, a de-cluttered home helps the buyer mentally “move in” with their own things.
• When you are selling, your master bedroom should appeal to buyers of both sexes. Get rid of features that seem too gender-specific. Paint the walls a neutral color, and choose bedding that matches. Then accessorize with items that complement the overall color scheme.
• If you have a room that serves only to gather junk, repurpose it into something that will add to the value of your home. The simple addition of a comfortable armchair, a small table and a lamp in a stairwell nook will transform it into a cozy reading spot. Or drape fabric on the walls of your basement, lay inexpensive rubber padding or a carpet remnant on the floor and toss in a few cushy pillows. Voila – a new meditation room or yoga studio.
• Clear out clutter or other personal items that will distract buyers. Paint the walls a neutral tone, and furnish the space to show off how functional it is. When buyers come through and imagine themselves there, you can bet an offer isn’t far behind.
• One of the things that make staged homes look so warm and welcoming is great lighting. As it turns out, many of our homes are improperly lighted. To remedy the problem, increase the wattage in your lamps and fixtures. Aim for a total of 100 watts for each 50 square feet. Don’t depend on just one or two fixtures per room, either. Make sure you have three types of lighting: ambient (general or overhead), task (pendant, under-cabinet or reading) and accent (table and wall).
• Rearranging a room to stage it for your open house? Here is a tip to save time and effort: Instead of lugging the heavy furniture around the room to see what feels best, put outlines on the floor with painter’s tape. Arrange the room according to your outlines, and save your energy for counting offers.
• Buyers are attracted to homes that have a good flow. You can create circulation by replacing square or rectangular dining tables with round ones. Cutting the corners adds room to this maneuver and creates a spinoff effect that adds flow to your home — cash flow, that is.

How you present your home matters when selling so make sure your putting your house’s best foot forward.  Declutter, update your furniture and make that sell!  If you need help with picking out up to date furniture, give us a call or browse our website today!

 

Why Now is the Perfect Time for Long Term Housing Investments

Why Now is the Perfect Time for Long Term Housing Investments

We’re all aware of the slump the economy has been in and for quite a while now.  The United States has been hit hard by the recession with jobs disappearing, fuel and food getting increasingly more expensive and the real estate market being hit exceptionally hard.  A lot of people think that this isn’t the time to make any long term investments like purchasing a house but things are on an upswing and truthfully, now is a perfect time to make these long term investments. It’s also a good time to make an investment in your current home, especially if you’ve been trying to sell it or are looking to sell.  Let’s look at some facts below.

Manufacturing jobs that had major job losses in the recession are now seeing a revival, one that has been happening since last year.  Some of these manufacturing jobs include metal pourers and casters, computer-controlled machine-tool operators for metal and plastic production and engine and machine assemblers.  What do these have in common?  They’re jobs that are related to the types of industries tied to energy, production, technology and transportation. You can find these jobs at such employers as iron and steel mills and steel product manufacturing and machine shops. They are at manufacturers who make machinery for mining, agriculture, engine and turbines, and plastic and rubber as well as manufacturers that make equipment for companies that make cars, motor vehicle bodies and parts, railroad stock and aerospace.

Also on the rise are jobs such as the ones offered in discount stores and the housing and home markets.  Also being added are jobs in construction, jobs in the manufacturing of wooden products and jobs in food services.  Perhaps most encouraging: furniture and home furnishing stores, which were battered in the recession, have added about 7,000 jobs the past three months as rising home sales spark more furniture purchases. After cutting its staff by 17% in the recession to 2,500, western furniture chain R.C. Willey added employees this year — about 55 — for the first time in several years, says President Jeff Child.  In Las Vegas, “People are now buying (homes) to live in” rather as investments, prompting more flooring and appliance sales, Child says. Revenue this year is up nearly 10%, he says.

So how does all of this affect you and your decisions about investments?  For one, home prices rose 7.5% last year, the largest increase in six years and will rise 6% in 2013, market researcher CoreLogic predicted in January of this year.  The same forces that helped propel prices last year will be in play this year, including improved housing demand fueled by good affordability, fewer foreclosed homes for sale and a low inventory of unsold homes, the company says.  Other predictions for the year range from 3% to 6%.  What does that mean exactly?  Well, in a survey of economists done by CNN Money, just over half identified a housing recovery as the primary driver of economic growth this year.

The economists surveyed also forecast that there will be just under 1 million housing starts this year — roughly matching the 28% rise in home building in 2012. Moody’s Analytics is forecasting much stronger growth — a 50% rise both this year and next year, which it estimates, will create more than 1 million new jobs.

“There’s a lot of pent-up demand for housing, and very little supply,” said Celia Chen, housing economist for Moody’s Analytics. “As demand continues to improve, home builders have nothing to sell. They’ll have to build.” She said that growth in building will mean adding not just construction jobs, but also manufacturing jobs building the appliances and furniture needed in the new homes, which in turn drives overall consumption higher.  And this should lead to higher home values.

The housing market is slowly improving and if you’ve been thinking about buying a house but were too worried about what might happen, now is the time.  Alternately if you’ve been trying to sell your current home or even considering it, now is a great time to do so.  But remember, when selling your home, you should invest in it as well.  People are more likely to buy a home full of beautiful up to date furniture and less likely when the rooms are sparsely furnished, run down and out of date.  So invest in home furnishings which will enhance and help increase home value.  If you need help finding what you need, don’t hesitate to stop by our site, email or call us so we can help you get to where you’re trying to go in life!