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The following is a list of additional mistakes to avoid when staging your flat for sale:

Think Square Footage - Many flats have limited space. When planning your furniture layout, instead of thinking square footage . . . think square inch, and make each one count!

Size Really Does Matter - When shopping for furniture focus on scale and proportion, NOT bigger is better! Oversized furniture may look great on the showroom floor, but when you get it home it will look much different.

Flex Areas - Flat living calls for carefully planned, creatively designed, multi-functional spaces known as flex areas. Because of the growing demand to meet the diverse needs of today’s flat buyer, more and more manufacturers are offering proportionately scaled, multi-purpose furniture to their lines. They include upholstered slipper chairs that fold out into guest beds, ottomans that serve as extra seating and storage, high-low tables that instantly transform from cocktail tables into dining tables for entertaining . . . just to name a few. And for the savvy targetted flat buyer, staging a multi media/home office area is always advisable.

Defining Spaces - Whether you prefer the clean, contemporary lines of ultra urban or the graceful warm feel of timeless traditional - remember to use COLOUR to define your spaces and create memorable WOW effects. Too often sellers believe that by keeping the walls neutral, it will make the limited space of a flat look larger. Actually the opposite is true. By bumping out a few accent walls with well chosen COLOURS you not only will add excitement to the room, but visually add depth, giving the illusion that the space is larger than it is.

Presentation Is Everything - Choose fewer, but larger, more dynamic artwork and accessories. This is one of the most frequently made mistakes by sellers who believe you should do quite the opposite. Just remember . . . scale down your furniture and scale up your artwork and accessories to successfully stage a flat with limited space. Your presentation and end result will certainly be more dramatic . . . and memorable!

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These are the questions which I often encounter from clients. The answer is – it depends! Each house and each situation being unique, so is the approach to staging your property. But we’ll try to give you some general rules and tips to help you evaluate what needs to be done to sell your house quickly and for most money.

On average, you should plan to spend between 0, 5% and 1% of the property’s market price on fixing it up and staging it.

How do you decide where should your money go? A good starting point is to walk through your house and examine each room – be critical and objective.

If a room looks small, cluttered and/or unclean, put it on the “to do” list. If you notice things which need to be repaired, your visitors will too, so put the items to be fixed on the ”to do” list as well (cracked and chipped paint, dirty /old carpeting, broken door/closet handles, missing/broken lights, doors that don’t close properly, missing/broken tiles, etc). A clean, bright, spacey and freshly painted house is already an excellent start to your home staging project! Actually, you are 80% done at that point.

The rest are final touches which will take your property from ordinary to Wow. Depersonalizing, optimizing your living space, as well as adding a few tasteful accessories will insure that your house looks its best and is ready for dozens of potential buyers. If you can’t stage the whole house, focus on the main areas: entrance/hall (that’s where the first impressions start), Living room, Dining room, Kitchen and Master bedroom. If you are able to, stage a bathroom as well. Don’t forget the outside – make sure it looks clean and up kept.

In general, when staging, a golden rule is “Less is more”. It sounds obvious but it’s not, especially if you are living in the house. So, if in doubt, ask your realtor or a professional staging consultant to give you a hand – staging services are not very expensive, as a few hours of their time will usually suffice and it will be worth the money as it will come back to you many times over at the sale time.

Stage your house – sell your house!

As homes that are listed for sale populate the internet and are available to be viewed by a national audience, professional realtors are increasingly seeking to improve their skills in order to assist the homeowner to market his or her home in way that will showcase the property in the best light and improve the final sale price. Often, these skills include advising the homeowner on how to prepare the home for photographs as well as the actual physical viewing of the home.

While, most realtors may know the marketability of a property based on other factors such as the location of the property, size of the property, etc., they may not be as adept in interior design principles that will enhance the showcasing of the home. Thus a whole new service industry, called “staging” has sprouted from these needs. Staging is the new buzzword in the real estate industry used to describe the de-cluttering, redesigning and in some case remodeling of a home to prepare it for sale.

In the past, homeowners were left to their own discretion when it came to home showings. If they didn’t have any idea on how to prepare for the home showing they often depended on their realtor for guidance. While that may have been sufficient then, in this ever increasingly competitive market (where sellers try to solicit the best prospective buyers) staging has become a growing industry and a tool in the realtor’s marketing arsenal.

In order to maintain a competitive advantage, more and more realtors are adapting quickly to either learn these basic principles themselves or to add interior designers to their contact lists who can provide these services. Usually as part of the marketing of the property, several photographs of the home are almost mandatory and as virtual tours of homes become increasingly popular the need to showcase the home properly becomes almost a necessity.

Professional home stagers are practiced in the art of preparing a home for resale. They work with the “flow” of a home, eliminate clutter, edit and arrange furniture, and may even assist in enhancing curb-appeal. The interior design techniques that professional home stagers use to increase the overall look and desirability of the home have a significant impact in improving the home’s final sale price. With ever popular real estate television shows on HGTV such as “Curb Appeal” and “Designed to Sell”, homeowners almost expect their realtor to be knowledgeable about these techniques.

In the current real estate climate where most homes have interior and exterior photographs taken of the property and posted on internet sites this type of service is a plus. Some statistics show that staging improves the final sale price of the house by anywhere from 2% - 10%. For example, in the current California real estate market with the median sale price of a home hovering at $597,640 these figures can mean anywhere from $11,952 to $59,764! That’s quite a bit of pocket change for a comparatively minor investment.

Depending on the home seller’s budget, a home staging service can prepare a home with simple tasks like rearranging furniture, eliminating clutter, advising the homeowner on special cleaning tasks to coordinating much more complex activities such as repainting, carpeting and refinishing hardwood floors. When it comes to higher priced homes in luxury neighborhoods sometimes extensive remodeling is advisable. While the initial outlay by the homeowner may be substantial, a homeowner’s equally substantial return on investment usually makes it worthwhile. With such great returns, what might have seemed liked a trend a few years ago isn’t showing any signs of stopping.

Entryways give people their very first glimpse of a home and into it’s story . . . has it been loved and well cared for by the people who lived there ? Does it have a warm and welcoming feeling which will draw people in, enticing them to see more? This is a very important question to ask. If it doesn’t . . . it will cause them to turn and walk away. Look at the home closely through “buyers eyes”. What is the story telling you?

The following are 5 ways to make an entrance that says welcome:

1. A fresh coat of high gloss paint or varnish will do wonders for an old tired door. When selecting paint there are two basic considerations, color and finish. Pick a color that will accent the exterior colors of the home and represent the message you want to convey, i.e. red for exciting, black for elegance. When considering which finish might be best remember that matte or flat finishes will help to hide imperfections. Glossier finishes will reflect light.

2. Colorful plants and flowers surrounding the front door, in attractive pots of various sizes, are always a nice way to greet your guests. Make sure that the style of the containers are in keeping with the style of the home. For instance, urns say ‘traditional’ while clay pottery screams ‘casual’.

3. Have you checked your entry mat lately? Is it saying “welcome”, or is it saying replace me? This is an item that is too often overlooked. And P.S. - stay with the simple, traditional mat. This is not the place to be trendy!

4. What about hardware? Is the style appropriate for the architectural style of the home? Does it need to be replaced with an updated finish? Is anything loose fitting?

5. Proper lighting is critical for the entrance of a home. Again, is the style of the fixture compatible with the home? Is the brass pitted, or paint peeling off? Is the size in proportion, visually in balance with the door?

Remember, having a beautifully staged entryway that is warm and inviting is the necessary first step in enticing your buyer to want to see more of what the home has to offer!

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