Actively Raining Thoughts-Room Service Home Staging

My Thoughts; My Blog!

Home Staging in Boynton Beach Florida!

Home Staging in Boynton Beach, Florida.  Take a look at what these Boynton Beach DIY Sellers were able to do after our Home Staging Consultation! If you're thinking about listing your home, you are probably painfully aware that in today's market your house must be able to meet the competition head on.  That means decluttering (or editing), repairing, cleaning and showcasing your home's assets.  

This is where you'll want to enlist the services of a Professional Home Stagerwho can provide a consultation designed specifically for your home. You'll receive detailed notes on how YOU, the DIY Seller can make your home more competitive.

Learn more about Preparing Your Home for Sale In Palm Beach County !

House for Sale
It doesn't have to be expensive and in fact, your investment  in Staging will be LESS than your first price reduction.  According to a recent Home Gain Survey, Home Staging ranks 2nd only to decluttering for Return on Investments. Just take a look at what these DIY (Do It Yourself) Sellers were able to accomplish after our Home Staging Consultation. 

 


After -Boynton Beach Family Room


 The Family Room offers a cozy gathering place.  The lines are clean and the area rug helps to anchor the furniture.  During the consultation, the Sellers worked with the Stager (me) to Reposition the furniture into a more comfortable seating area.








After-Boynton Beach FL Master Bedroom

 

 

The Seller's Bedroom was spacious and full of
light.  Our DIY Sellers Staged this room by removing all personal belongings on the dresser and adding new linens to give the room a crisp up-to-date look!







After-Boynton Beach, FL Media Center


     
Why not get an early start on your packing like these Sellers did?  Books and smaller items were packed ready for the move to the new home.  So, rather than distracting future Buyers with personal photos and collections, this uncluttered media center helped show the room's spaciousness. 

Staged Kitchen

Who wouldn't want to cook in this Kitchen?  The clean countertops let the Buyer actually SEE the space available!

If you're a DIY Seller and are listing your home follow these tips:

1. Talk to a Professional Realtor knowledgeable in your area and listen to their advice when they suggest a listing price!
2.  Hire a Professional Home Stager and at the very least get a Consultation which will outline specifically what you can do to make your home more marketable.
3.  Remove, ReArrange, RePair, RePlace and RePosition any items that takes away from your house being at the top of a Buyer's Must-See list.
4.  Clean, Clean and Clean some more.

For more information on this listing, contact Shelly Rappel at 954-612-0000

 

 

Kathy Streib 
 
Subscribe to room service home staging
 

Subscribe to my blog

 


   Google+    Facebook    Wordpress      Twitter    You TubeRSSLinked In


                                   

Room Service Home Staging 

 

 

Preparing your Home for Sale in Palm Beach County-What to do BEFORE you List your House( Part 4)

 Preparring your home for sale in Palm Beach County-What to do BEFORE you list you house! (Part 4)

             EDIT  Room Service Home StagingDONATE
Room Service Home Staging   STORERoom Service Home Staging  HIDE

Getting ready to list your house in Palm Beach County?  This is the 4th in a series of How to Prepare your home for sale; and hopefully you'll do this BEFORE you list your house.  The first impression you make is critical, so I've outlined a series that will enable your house to compete in this market.

Here's what we've covered so far: 

 Step 1 Start to think of your house as a Marketable Product

 Step 2  Begin to see your house through the eyes of a Buyer

 Setp 3  Repair, Replace  and ReFresh (CLEAN) everything in your house.

 NEXT ON YOUR LIST WILL BE TO EDIT, DONATE, PACK OR HIDE THE EXCESS!

Keep telling yourself this:  You are selling a house, the SQUARE FOOTAGE it has to offer, its ARCHITECTURAL DETAIL, its LOCATION. . . NOT  your things.  Your sofa, lamps, pillows, candlesticks, and mirrors are there to enhance the detail, NOT detract or distract from it.  

This is the hardest step in the whole process.  This is where being ruthless is a Good Thing!  If you need to, enlist a family member or friend to help you decide what needs to go.  Think Carrie Bradshaw sorting through her closet with Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte (Sex and the City for those of you without HBO or a DVR).  

EDIT-  You'll be moving soon so why not get a jump on everything.  Go through every room, open every cabinet, stand in every closet and: 

     TOSS  what you don't WANT

                   what you don't NEED

                        what you can't USE

                              what you can't FIT                                   


DONATE- 

Once you've decided what to keep, this is the perfect time to donate to your local agencies such as Goodwill or the Salvation Army.  For larger items you can always try CraigsList.  

PACK-  This is where you can get a jump on your move.  Pack the items that will be moving with you to your new home but that you won't need immediately.  Once you do, you'll need to consider storing your boxes off-site, NOT in your 3rd bedroom or garage.  Remember, the boxes will take up much desired square footage.

 (*many local moving and storage companies are working with Home Stagers to provide an affordable way for homeowners to pack and store their furnishings until they move.  Call me or your local Stager for more information.)

HIDE- That leaves you with your every day items that you really use and need.  For these items, find a way to hide them when your house is being shown.  You can find cute, inexpensive baskets and bins at Target or Bed Bath & Beyond that you can use to store items such as files or personal grooming items.  
                                                                                         

Room Service Home Staging


CLOSET-If your closet is packed with shoes all over the floor, shirts mixed in with your pants and boxes stacked in no particular order, then your buyer is seeing a closet that may not be big enough for his or her own clothing.

                                                                                                       Room Service Home Staging

COMPUTERS- can't live with them; can't live without them.  A home office is not only an "extra" in today's houses, but a necessity.  Buyers don't just give this area a cursory glance, they're figuring out where to hook up their computer and printer.  Pack up your personal papers and put them out of sight.  
         Do whatever you can to minimize and/or hide all of the tangled mess of computer cables.  
         If you have a bulletin board, remove the family pictures, invitations, etc.  

                       Room Service Home Staging

GARAGE AREA: People DO look in your garage.  South Florida does not have basements so extra storage area becomes even more critical for our Buyers.  They will want to know how many of their 3+ cars will fit in the garage and what extra storage is available.  Work benches and peg boards need to be straightened and cleaned just as if they were sitting inside the house.

          Room Service Home Staging


BOOKSHELVES: Yes you have them, but can anyone SEE them.  You will want to Edit this area. Do you really need access to all of those professional journals lining your walls?  Place a few books etc on each shelf and call it a day.  

        Room Service Home Staging       Room Service Home Staging           
      In the "Before" view, Buyers saw things; whereas the "After" view actually shows a VIEW and bookcases.         

So by now you have : 1.Realized your home is a marketable product
                                 2. Learned how Buyers will view it
                                 3. Cleaned and repaired everything in the house
                                 4. Edited and packed up all unnecessary furniture and accessories

Stayed tuned for Part 5!!       
           
 

 

Kathy Streib 
 
Subscribe to room service home staging
 

Subscribe to my blog

 


   Google+    Facebook    Wordpress      Twitter    You TubeRSSLinked In


                                   

Room Service Home Staging 

 

 

Preparing Your Home for Sale in Palm Beach County-What to do BEFORE you List Your House! (Part 3)

 

                                                                    CLEAN, REPAIR AND REPLACE

Whether you live in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Palm Beach, or anywhere else getting your house ready to sell and STAGING it are NOT just about painting and moving furniture around.  In Part 1 of this Home Staging Series I suggested that as soon as you decide to place your home on the market you have to look at it in a different light.  You'll need to begin to think of your house as a product to be marketed in a very competitive field.  Part 2 provided two exercises to help you see your house as buyers will see it: taking pictures of your house and downloading them to the computer and asking friends for their honest opinion.  

In Step 3 the really hard work begins.  This is when you'll :
          1. Clean your house inside and out
          2.  Repair any items in your house that you've neglected
          3.  Replace what isn't working
          4.  Finish house projects.  

Think about this: Buyers will view a dirty house with broken or missing items as a NEGLECTED house.  If the items they can see aren't taken care of, what about the items that they can't see?

 
Remember the Spring Cleaning you've been putting off since you moved in?  Multiply that by TEN! Room Service Home StagingVacuum in places you forgot existed.  Move and lift everything.  "Leave no stone unturned".   Scrub as if you were trying to reach a gold mine.  If you have carpet, have it cleaned.  Same thing goes for upholstered furniture.  These hold not only dust and pet hair but odors as well.  In sunny South Florida, we pay a high price for our beautiful view of golf courses, canals, lakes, and palm trees.  Your buyer will be looking for this as well so windows that give them only a hazy view need to be cleaned and cleaned often.  

Room Service Home StagingIf you're not familiar with a pressure washer or know someone who is, then rent and/or hire someone.  Take a good look at the walkway to your house.  Is this how you want to "greet" Buyers as they approach?   There may be stains from lawn chemicals and fertilizers, oil from your car, chemicals in your sprinkler system, whatever they are the stains will detract from the "welcome" you want to project to a buyer.  Some homes in South Florida use well water with a high mineral content which leave a rusty stain.  Check with your home improvement store to see how these are best removed.  


As your are going from room to room cleaning in every corner, you'll want to make notes of what needs fixing.  Unrepaired items are a signal to your buyer that this house has been neglected.  Some items on your list are easy and take just a little time and tools.  If you are not handy, consider hiring a service to go through and suggest and/or make the repairs necessary.  
       
                       Room Service Home Staging Notice the missing switch plate to the left of the closet door! 

 Room Service Home Staging

         

                                                                               

 




OUTSIDE:  When you stand in the street and look at your house, can you see it?  What do you see?  It's easy to forget about the trees and bushes that line our driveways and sidewalks but make sure your house isn't being overshadowed by a bush that is covering your front door; or whose palm trees are in bad need of trimming.  Room Service Home Staging


The Bougainvillea plant to the left offers beautiful shade for this patio area but has become overgrown.  Instead of enhancing this outdoor living area, it is detracting from it.    

You'll want to replace plants that have become too leggy or have seen better days.  Trim bushes, de-weed sidewalks and flowerbeds.  Put fresh mulch in your flower beds.


FLOORING:  Worn or stained carpeting, chipped or cracked tile, or faded hardwood floor boards all need to be addressed.  Your buyer will be running a calculator in their heads trying to determine just how much replacing these will cost.  Besides this figure, they will factor in the time and inconvenience of the project and before you know it, they've put a big NEGATIVE by your property. Offering the buyer a credit is almost a thing of the past.  Present day buyers want a property in move-in condition.  

PAINT:  At the very least you will probably want to paint your house especially if you have not done so since you moved in and/or if you have colors that might not be in eveyone's color palette!   When in doubt, go NEUTRAL!  This does not mean bland white!  Remember, what you're trying to do is appeal to as wide a range of Buyers as possible.  One in 20 buyers may love a purple wall but what about the other 19!                                                                                         Room Service Home Staging







AS A REVIEW: 1. START TO THINK OF YOUR HOUSE AS A PRODUCT FOR SALE
                         2. LEARN TO SEE YOUR HOUSE THROUGH THE EYES OF A BUYER
                         3. CLEAN, REPAIR OR REPLACE



 

 

Kathy Streib 
 
Subscribe to room service home staging
 

Subscribe to my blog

 


   Google+    Facebook    Wordpress      Twitter    You TubeRSSLinked In


                                   

Room Service Home Staging 

 

 

Nature & Marketing Contest

Room Service Home Staging

We all need help when it comes to Staging our home.  A fresh and different perspective can help you prepare your home when you're ready to place it on the market.  Whether it's what color to paint your walls; what needs to be stored or packed; or where to place your furniture and accessories you'll want an objective and experienced opinion.

When Mother Nature isn't available, call us:

Room Service! Home Staging

561-914-6224              Kathy@MrsHomeStaging.com          www.MrsHomeStaging.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kathy Streib 
 
Subscribe to room service home staging
 

Subscribe to my blog

 


   Google+    Facebook    Wordpress      Twitter    You TubeRSSLinked In


                                   

Room Service Home Staging