Home Staging Matters

Properly priced, well maintained, and effectively presented homes sell quickly and for top dollar.

As you get your home ready to sell you will hear a lot about ‘curb appeal’.  So you put in the time and energy to make sure those ‘maybe’ shoppers who are just going to ‘drive by’ slow way down and take a good look at your home as a clean, well maintained, solid investment.

This gets them in the driveway and making an appointment to tour your home.  There’s an old real estate truism that says buyers make a decision on whether or not to move forward with writing an offer within the first ten seconds of walking in the door.

From the moment they walk in the door they are doing a high speed scan of everything in sight from the light fixtures and cob webs to the color of the paint and texture of the furnishings, to the finish on the floors and the condition of the baseboards.  You get ten seconds. 

As the seller you are looking for the buyer or buyer(s) to see the beauty and potential of your home that you saw when you bought it.  That brings us to the professional home stager.

I spoke with Chad Neiberger owner of Ambiance at Home the Twin Cities premier home staging company.  Chad said, “Home staging is more than playing musical furniture.  It is presenting your home in its most polished state, it is about the furniture groupings, but it is also about lighting, and making the environment neutral and appealing, making your home inviting”.

Ambiance at Home is staffed with professional designers that will work with the home owner to make a notable first impression on potential homebuyers.  Ambiance at Home is happy to provide you with a free consultation.

“To achieve the greatest possible result,” Chad adds, “a home should be presented in its very best light from the time it goes on the market.  Your asking price may be directly influenced by the home staging process.  Chad noted, “Ambiance at Home had more than twenty properties staged in the recent Parade of Homes, a testament to their working relationships with builders and Realtors”.

Before you list talk with your Realtor or contact Ambiance at Home.  They will be able to tell you if home staging would be of benefit.  If you know in advance that it would be in your best interest to hire a professional staging company to maximize your return and shorten your days on the market you can budget accordingly. 

Next time you are out looking at properties ask if they have been professionally staged.  Then ask yourself if it made a difference in how you viewed the property?  I think overwhelmingly you will answer yes.  Remember you get ten seconds.  I think home staging could make all the difference in selling your home, and you might only know by consulting a professional.

Staging your home for sale is more than keeping the grass cut and picking up the dirty cloths.  Make sure the ten seconds the potential buyers spend looking at your home is the ten seconds they are talking about when they are backing out of your driveway.

Find Chad Neiberger at www.ambiance-athome.com .  Need a great Realtor referral give me a shout.

Owen Riess