Staged to Sell...
By Nairn Friemann, Ingenuity & Pizzazz, Inc.
Pricing your home correctly is still key to selling quickly, but
there are many steps that owners should follow before putting their
homes on the market to ensure that they will get the best price possible
in a short period of time. Once the decision has been made to sell,
owners must be ready to shift from how they are used to living in their
home to how they should market the house or apartment to a broad base of
potential buyers. This requires an objective assessment and a
willingness to edit, repair, paint, clean-up and “stage.”
Edit: You’re selling space. Your home is not a furniture
showroom. If you plan on giving away some furnishings before you move,
do it now. And if the pieces are important to you, consider moving the
excess to mini-storage. Rooms that feel spacious with good flow have
high appeal. Pack away all but a few personal photographs and reduce the
number of accessories and knickknacks on display. Worn bedspreads,
shams, mats, towels and shower curtains need to be replaced.
Repair: You will need to call the plumber and have the toilet
that’s been leaking for six months fixed. And all those other “minor
repair” jobs you’ve been putting off need attention. A lot of small
nuisance items can add up to an impression of a house that needs a lot
of work. If you have cracks in your walls or buckling floors, potential
buyers will assume major renovation is required.
Paint: Nothing lifts the energy of a home as instantly as a fresh paint
job. There may be no better short-term investment you can make than to
paint your home in a light color that will appeal to a majority of
buyers before you put it on the market.
Clean up: Get rid of the clutter! Books can be donated to
libraries and charitable thrift shops are pleased to take items of
value. Throw the rest out. Mini-storage is another solution if you can’t
bear to part with make sure the entire home is clean, and that includes
carpets, draperies, blinds and windows. Bathrooms should have a spa
feeling and kitchens should be immaculate. Mustiness, smoke, dampness,
strong food and pet odors are instant turn-offs to potential buyers, but
there are cleaning and air filtering products on the market that solve
these problems.
Stage: Now you’re ready to showcase your home. If you don’t have
enough lighting, purchase additional uplights and lamps. You’ve edited
your furnishings and accessories, so you will probably have to do some
rearranging and rehang some pictures. Don’t overcrowd the walls.
Remember you’re selling the room not art. Add color to your rooms with
fresh or good quality silk flowers, green plants or trees, throw pillows
and bowls of fruit.
Checklist: Go through your home as a potential buyer. Take note
of what you are seeing in
the first 90 seconds – because potential buyers are already forming
impressions during this initial viewing. Are the best features of your
home showcased? Is everything in good working order? Do the rooms feel
light and fresh and welcoming? Your home may look so fabulous you won’t
want to move!
Nairn Friemann, MBA, is an Accredited Real Estate Stager and Floral
Designer living and working in New York City. Her company, Ingenuity &
Pizzazz, Inc., specializes in one-day decorating transformations. Her
work has been featured, on ABC’s Business Week, the CBS Early Show, CNN,
Dow Jones Market Watch and in The New York Times, The Daily News, The
New York Post, New York Spaces Magazine, New York Home Magazine,
Manhattan Living, The Greenwich Time, the Greenwich Post and Stamford
Advocate. As a featured speaker at the 2005 Annual Conference of the
International Association of Home Staging Professionals, Nairn addressed
the membership about the Importance of Floral Design to Real Estate
Staging. Nairn is the Past-President of the New York City Regional
Chapter of the IAHSP. After receiving her certification in floral design
from The New York Botanical Garden, Nairn worked for a top New York
Eastside florist before starting her own business.
www.ingenuitypizzazz.com
nairn@ingenuitypizzazz.com
