Lake of the Ozarks Real Estate Blog

Staging your home for showings is a key element to selling your house.  Staging your home does not necessarily mean the need to spend a lot of money to add new furniture. Here are a few of my favorite tips for sellers that are minimal in cost.

1.Create focal points for rooms:

Find the most visible corner of the room and stick a plant there. Silk trees work real well in living rooms and family rooms.  Set a nice silk tree in a corner and if you can, set a light to shine up on it.  Make sure the tree is not too big.  It should fill the space but not stand out like a sore thumb.

2.Set up a Chat Room: 

If you have two living areas, arrange the furniture to encourage conversation.  Buyers should be able to envision themselves sitting in a space with their guests.  This brings a sense of caring and pride of ownership to your home.

3.Remove Personal Photos:

Remove the photos of your family and friends.  Buyers will tend to stop looking at the home and start looking at the photos.  Their attention should be on the house and not your family.  Replace the photos with scenic photos of the area you live in.  For homes at the lake, use some of the many lake photos that are typically found in calendars.  Remind people that they are buying a home at the lake.

4.Tighten It Up:

Tighten any loose doors, cabinets, knobs and re-stain, re-paint and re-finish any areas that need to be touched up.  Buyers like to open all doors and peak at all corners.  If a potential buyer finds a lot of knobs that are loose or walls that are banged up from door knobs they will have a sense that they house is beaten up and not well cared for.

5.Freshen the Landscaping:

A home needs to make a good first impression.  Buyers will often do a drive by of a home before actually scheduling a showing.  What they see from the outside will drastically affect their desire to view the home.  So you may well be showing the home and not even know it.  Keep the lawn cut, the sticks picked up and the leaves gone.  Plant some fresh flowers and spread some new mulch.  Pick up the kids toys and put them in the garage.  If a buyer sees a yard that is not well cared for they will believe that the house is not well cared for either.

6. Repaint the house:

If the paint on the outside of the house is faded, repaint the house.  Ask your REALTOR what the current color trends in your area.  When painting the house try to differentiate it from your neighbors; if your neighbor’s homes are all blue with a Grey trim, paint your house Brown with a Green trim.  This will help distinguish your home from the neighbors and will make it more appealing.  Buyers don’t want to buy what they feel is a cookie cutter home.

7.Open the Windows:

  Natural light is the best kind of light for showing a house.  The brighter a house is the better for showing it.  Natural light can make a home feel bigger and all buyers like a home that feels bigger then it really is.  Buyers like to be able to see the house and all its features with ease.  A buyer can be turned off of a home if they walk into a poorly lit, dark room.
Each of these suggestions should come at minimal expense and you should be able to complete them without hiring a professional.  When selling your home, you should take a long hard look at it and try to imagine yourself as a buyer seeing it for the first time.  What kind of impression does it make?

-Jonas Farrell
Lake of the Ozarks Real Estate Agent