There is no denying it, first impressions matter! This is true in all areas of life, and selling your home is no exception. As soon as buyers pull up to the curb outside your home, they know within seconds whether they’re going to like it…or not! Your landscaping and house color schemes are the first thing buyers are going to judge. Make sure they’re in tip-top shape! The second ‘judgement’ location happens when they’re outside your front door. Take a serious look at your front door. After over 30 years in the real estate business, I’ve created what I call – “Chasen’s Front Door Theory”. Whenever I approach a front door, I can accurately tell how well the home is cared for and styled. If the front door is custom, is a new or has a fresh coat of paint, this means that the interior of the home is more than likely to be beautiful as well (especially when there’s a custom front door). Smart sellers know their front door is the gateway to their home and they want to impress you from the start. Once buyers’ step inside your entry way, their ‘style-radar’ is in full swing making judgements as to whether they might want to write a contract on your home.
If you’re ready to learn about how to style your home, let’s go! Here are some strategic tools for tasteful decorating that will elevate your home from mediocre to magnificent! If it’s in the magnificent category, you’re much more likely to have it sell fast, and get the highest profit.
1. Be Switzerland – Keep it Neutral. When it comes to decorating your home, keeping your colors neutral is the best way to go. Soft whites, beige, or light grays help make your home feel more immaculate, open, and inviting. By maintaining a more neutral color palette, prospective buyers can better visualize how they would decorate the space, allowing them to easily envision themselves living there. Too much decorator paint, especially with BOLD colors will turn off more buyers than turn them on.
2. Let There Be Light! One key trick to making your home feel more appealing is by maximizing the natural light within the space. By opening all curtains and blinds, you’ll allow sunlight to flood the home, creating a bright and open atmosphere. Heavy drapes can be replaced with a lighter or sheer fabric to assist in brightening up the room and making your space more inviting. Everyone’s heard the term, “Light and bright”. Take a hint and style your home to let in the light!
3. The Sweet Smell of Victory! – Using Scents to Enhance the Experience. A nice touch is to make sure your home is not only visually inviting, but also aromatically pleasant. Walking into a funky smelling home will quickly make buyers turn up their noses. Here are two true stories I’ll share with you. I was showing some buyers a multi-million-dollar home. The MLS made it sound perfect for these folks. Little did I know the husband had a very sensitive nose. We weren’t 5 feet into the foyer when he turned around and announced, “I’m outta here!” The sellers thought they were adding to the atmosphere by having a couple vanilla candles lit. I must admit, the scent was rather pungent, and I’m a vanilla guy. I had to twist his arm to return and tour the home. And no, they didn’t buy it. The lessons is -be subtle with any scents. Use them, but with a very light touch.
Story #2 is… I had a listing for an out-of-area seller. It was rented and the seller told me the lease stated, ‘No smoking’. Opps. I guess the renter-wife didn’t read that part of the contract. When I came to the door to introduce myself, she greeted me with a cigarette in her hand. The seller was furious, and the entire house was inundated with the smoke smell. He evicted the tenants and then had to recarpet, repaint, and install new curtains throughout the home. That added up to over $40,000 and that was in 2002 dollars.
Keep things neutral and don’t go with any scents that might be too overpowering; Skip the scented candles and go with this idea that I use before an Open House. I go early and put a baking pan filled with chocolate chip cookie dough in the oven and time it so they’re done just when the open house begins. The entire house smells yummy and then I leave the freshly baked cookies out for the visitors to enjoy!
Here are some more points to follow when styling your home for sale.
1) Declutter your entire home, inside and out. You’re going to be moving anyway so start packing and store the stuff in a local rental storage place or stack them neatly on one side of your garage if money is tight.
2) Organize. I worked in Silicon Valley for the first 8 years of my realty career and the valley is filled with engineers, and engineers like organization. Buyers will like and respect a home that is beautifully organized. I had one messy executive organize all his suits, shirts and pants in sections and according to color. It sold the next week and I represented both sides.
3) Staged homes typically get 5%-12% more in sales price. As Tony Robbins said, “Success leaves clues!” If you have the money, hire a stager, especially if it’s vacant.
4) Use textiles like pieces of artwork. Your house is your canvas, so texture away.
5) Wall pictures. Remove the personal ones. Like textiles, look at your home as one large canvas and keep the colors consistent and not too bold. Do not use any pictures that might offend someone. I can remember my first listing back in 1991. The single woman had a large picture of a female nude above her bedroom headboard. Boy did I get some feedback on that! It became known as the “nudie” house. After asking several times, the seller finally removed it, and it sold two weeks later.
6) Most people love indoor plants. They provide lots of great oxygen, color and texture. Use them like the childhood bear’s story. Not too hot, not too cold, make the amount just right… and nothing too exotic.
7) Lighting can make or break a home. If you have older light fixtures, invest in some contemporary, cool lighting.
8) Window treatments are like lighting. Get rid of anything that would remind buyers of grandma’s curtains. Replace them with modern pieces that paint a picture of light, neutral colors.
9) The color of your interior (and exterior) can make or break a sale and its price. I had a client once and the wife had what I call ‘designer disease’. The exterior was a funky off-green color, and the interior was a hodge-podge of varying colors and designs. I knew she was very proud of her work, and I had to walk on eggshells when I shared feedback from the showing agents. Finally, after a couple price reductions and both interior and exterior paint changes, the home sold asap. She had a hard time admitting I was right, but that’s what a good agent does – share ideas that will help sellers make more money and get the home sold faster.
If you want to increase the potential of multiple offers, implement these tips and your home should be ready to WOO every buyer that visits!
© 2024 Chasen Chess. All rights reserved. No part of this blog may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, please contact Chasen Chess at chasen.chess@pacificsir.com
