Home Staging SOP

The kitchen is another important room in a house that should look its best when potential home buyers come through for a look. Most home buyers will look at the kitchen and master bedroom as the first indication of whether or not they will move along to the next house for sale or stay and admire the rest of your house. Make your kitchen as inviting as possible and consider the home staging ideas below to make this happen.

Use a top-down approach when cleaning a kitchen. Start with the appliances, move to the counters and finish with the floors. Use appropriate cleaners to eliminate bacteria, cut through grease, remove baked on food and eliminate odors.

Step 1
Get rid of the clutter We as homeowners tend to pile mail, newspapers, food packages and other items on to our kitchen counters all the time. To start this kitchen staging project, get rid of the items that could be stored away elsewhere. Put dishes and packages in pantry, place mail in a basket in your home office and set the extra flower vase on the table. Leave the counters as empty as possible. Clear off any magnets and papers from the refrigerator. Get rid of any dishes from the sink.

Step 2
Cleaning solutions- There are a lot of cleaning products out there that claim to offer the solution for your cleaning needs. Some of these products work great but they are heavily laden of chemicals. A much safer route is to use natural cleaning products. These products are just as effective and are healthier for you.

Step 3
Clean the stove – Remove the knobs and clean the entire surface of the stove with an all-purpose cleaner. Don’t forget to clean the hood of the stove and any glass surfaces. Make the stove look like no one uses it.

Step 4
Clean the oven – Baking soda can be a great answer to naturally cleaning the inside of your oven. Without harsh fumes or dangerous chemicals that can make you ill, baking soda can absorb grease and grime, cleaning your oven thoroughly.

Step 5
Sparkling dishes in the dishwasher Dishwashers need regular cleaning, even if they are run through water on a regular basis. You can use a small amount of vinegar to run through the dishwasher’s cycle at least once a month so that you keep the nozzle and sprayers clean from any calcium deposits.

Step 6
Clean the sink and faucet – Apply baking soda and white vinegar so it doesn’t scratch the faucet. This green cleaning technique cuts through the grease, safe for the family and isnt harmful to the environment.

Step 7
Clean the counter tops Try spraying some eco-friendly cleaner on the counters. If you have Formica counter tops, you can add a little club soda to make them shine. If you have granite counter tops, only clean them with neutral cleaners or mild dishwashing soap.

With the home staging ideas above, it is quite easy to enhance the appearance of your kitchen and very cost-effective too. Make this space as spotless, neat and inviting as possible so that potential home buyers will consider when making their final home buying decisions. And remember to give a busy kitchen a weekly thorough cleaning; otherwise, tackle it once or twice a month.

The art of home staging is frequently in the details homeowners include in their presentation. Whether you may be utilizing your very own furnishings or rented furnishings to stage your home to help it sell, details however count because they will lead to the overall feel of the home.

In an old-fashioned home staging ideas and details will give a greater total appeal to prospective home customers if you include modern touches such as replacing an old showerhead by way of a contemporary one or including furnishings with cleaner lines. Similarly, if you wish to avoid generating a contemporary homes presentation cold and office-like, including pillows on sofas or tablecloths can soften a a spaces presentation. If you choose to include throw rugs of any sort, consider fastening them to the floor utilizing a carpet tape that will be easily removable as soon as you want to lift the region rug.

Furniture location can be elevated to an art shape which we all know when we see somebody whose furniture arrangement in a room makes us want wed thought of angling a sofa or including a reading region. If you’re staging your home yourself, look through online resources to see various ways of arranging rooms. Furniture location must moreover enable highlight features of a particular space such as a fireplace or over-sized window instead of conceal it. Possible homeowners should be able to find the more appealing features of an space.

Bedrooms can be hard to stage because they are individual and you dont know whether a room is going to be for a child or adult or perhaps a single or perhaps a married individual. When you are staging your home, try to consider that a bedroom that is not the master bedroom may be used by another adult. Staging the space with kids s hues or babyish furnishings will detract from a prospective home customers capability to imagine their family within the home. Personal touches for example lamps that light a dim corner of the space or upholstered table chairs that create the room inviting as a workspace can enhance the image associated with the bedroom and indicate its size.

While the art of home staging consistently advises homeowners to put away as many individual photographs and items as they may be able, a few well-placed items for example favorite vases or artwork can assist people watching your home to gain some awareness into your lifetime as a real individual living within the home.

This advice might go from the guidance of those who advise that home staging that really makes your home look completely neutral, but in reality, people buying a home frequently like to understand something about the active homeowner with whom they may be doing company.

The Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program scheduled for January 2008 offers a new career opportunity for individuals with a talent for decorating and creativity.

The New Year is often a time for individuals to think about making improvements in their lives and one of the areas in which people are most dissatisfied is work. Simply making a resolution to leave a job, train for a new career or set up a business isnt enough. You need to take action.

Some people know what the ideal career would be for them, but feel its beyond reach. Others have a passion or a hobby but dont believe it could ever make them any money. And most people would like to set up a business but dont have the right experience.

The Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program gives individuals who are interested in turning their decorating talents and creativity into a new career the tools to start and grow their own successful home staging business. If you are one of those people who has a passion for design and decorating, home staging may be the ideal way to marry your passion with a highly lucrative business opportunity.

Home Staging (House Staging, House Fluffing, House Primping, Real Estate Staging) is the art of decorating a home to sell quickly and for top dollar. Home staging has been named one of the hottest growth businesses by Entrepreneur Magazine.

“My mission is to inspire and empower others to discover new opportunities to live the life of their dreams”, said internationally recognized home stager Debra Gould, President of StagingDiva.com and developer of the Staging Diva Training Program.

“For many of our Staging Diva Graduates, it’s their first opportunity to combine their passion for decorating with a desire to run their own business.”

The Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program is the only home staging program taught by someone with an MBA and over 25 years of business experience, who has also personally built a successful home staging business (not as a sideline to selling real estate).

The programs emphasis is on business practices, marketing strategies and pricing of services. It is not a “decorating” course but instead encourages those with an eye for decorating to turn their passion into a business.

Want to know if Home Staging is the right business for you? Gould has also developed an online quiz to help you decide. View the free quiz at http://www.stagingdiva.com

Heather Ray Ryan of Florida says, “The Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program gave me the knowledge, power and confidence to quit my job of eight years and start doing something I have only dreamed of. Family and friends have a new found respect for me for being an example to my children by stepping outside my comfort zone and going for what I really want!”

The next Home Staging Training Program begins January 9, 2008. For the course description and schedule, visit http://www.stagingdiva.com.

Debra adds, “Over 700 Staging Diva graduates worldwide agree that my course is not theory, its practical hands-on advice you can use today and in the years ahead as your business evolves.”

When you are planning to sell your home and want a fair price you will have to impress the potential buyers to get them pay what you demand.

That can be possible only if the buyer is adequately impressed by your property. In fact the buyer should see himself living in your house, the moment he steps into survey your home. Obviously first impression counts. The process of doing up a property or dressing up a property before the sale is called Home staging. As an art and marketing gimmick it will give you a competitive edge and fetch a fair price that perhaps you never imagined!.

Justify Your Price

So the critical action to impress a buyer rests with you as a seller. You you must embellish your house in such a manner that every penny you are asking as the price is fully justified. So now, put your home’s best foot forward! First tour your house with a critical eye and repair anything that needs it.

Boost the Appeal: Make sure your home is perfectly ready to lure the buyer or all onlookers. To make the home beautiful, you can do these things

Wash the siding and walkways
Put easy-to-read house numbers
Blooming Plants flowers and fresh greenery
Mow the lawn
Clean windows
Repaint the porch floor

These will make the floors shining and windows gleaming. Now clean all counters so that all surfaces sparkle.

Repair the Cracks: Do away all cracking plaster and burnt out lights.

Lighting: It is an area of low-cost yet high-return investments. Many houses may not have enough light. Try to put more overhead fixtures and add some great lamps.

Space: Decongest the furniture such as a giant sofa that may make a living room look small. Remove them. Only small groupings of furniture can create a sense of space.

Kitchen: The kitchen should look very neat, clean and clutter-free. Keep a single bowl to hold all cooking utensils. Store all small appliances in cupboards.

Clean out the clutter: Get rid of all clutter and in that process let make some of your personal stuff also go away.

Personal items: Minimize the presence of family photos and provide more clean surfaces and objects that are artfully displayed.

Storage space: Buyers want more storage space. So do not show them your overflowing cabinets and closets as it becomes an advertisement of inadequate space for storage. If you are using basement or garage for storage make sure that you have left enough empty space.

Furniture: Remove unwanted furniture to provide a feeling of open space that buyers seek. Stow your personal stuff away when buyers come calling. So have space for easy stowing and clear out items not in regular use.

Depersonalize: After the clutter is out, focus the attention to achieving a modern look. Depersonalize your own decorating.

Painting: Paint the walls in neutral colors and upgrade the appliances.

Now you can behold what difference has come to your little home!

When potential home buyers first take a look inside your house, your living room needs to present itself well and attract their full attention. This is one of the first rooms they will see when entering your property. You must take full advantage of this space and update its look to resemble a modern and warm environment. If a potential home buyer sees an outdated and dingy living room, it will have a negative emotional impact on them. On average, if this happens they are not excited and will try to leave the property as soon as possible. Dont let that happen and consider the home staging ideas below to better your chances at selling your house.

Step 1
Paint the living room. Paint can add a dramatic difference to any room. Bright white or neutral color walls are the way to go. Painting is also the easiest and least expensive way to update any space. When painting, make sure not to overlook the trim work. You want to brighten it with high-gloss white paint and caulk any open seams between the molding, ceiling, baseboard and wall.

Step 2
Add some flowers. The scent and look of a vase full of beautiful colorful flowers will definitely add a hit of zest to any room. Research shows that yellow floral arrangements envoke buyer’ emotions. The Home Staging Channel does not recommend using fake flowers either. Fresh live flowers are what excite buyers.

Step 3
Replace your flooring. Most flooring projects can indeed be a costly investment. On average, quality hardwood flooring ranges from $2-$9 per square foot. For a 220 square foot area, expect to spend about $1,250 if you do-it-yourself. If you prefer to hire a professional, calculate this into your budget. Next comes sanding hardwoods which can be physically tough. If you make a mistake, you can permanently damage the floor. If youre concerned, you may want to hire a pro. You can then do your own staining and sealing to save some money. If you have carpet in the living room, you can either have it professionally cleaned, which can range anywhere from $75-$200 or you can replace it if its torn, stained or has a bad odor. Pricing for new rugs and carpet also vary. Do your homework and find out the best ways to update this part of the living room.

Step 4
Hang some art. Adding wall art also adds zing to a living room. When you see pictures of the wonderful outdoors it brings a feeling of energy and joy. DO NOT display photos of beloved friends and family while your home is on the market. This is mistake that many homeowners make while there home is on the market.

Step 5
Fire Place Mantel. Replace your old mantel with a new wood or stone mantel for as cheap as $100. The fireplace will be the main focal point of the living room! Make sure it presents well. TIP: do not put too many knick-knacks on the new mantel. You want the potential homebuyer to focus on the new mantel and not your decor.

Step 6
A ceiling change. If you have popcorn ceilings in the living room, or any other room of the house, get rid of them! Popcorn ceilings will be a tough sale. Instead, paint the ceiling with a high-gloss white color.

Step 7
Fabrics and pillows. Another way to increase the energy in your living room or any other room in your house is to add pillows and fabric accents. Add curtains in neutral colors or deep jewel tones. Silk pillows with ornate beading and sequins are very beautiful too.

When your house is on the market for sale, its up to you and your creativity to sell it quick. You dont want your house to be on the market for more than a few weeks. It should ideally sell within the first week its on the market. Consider the home staging tips above and you may make a sale within the first few days of your house being on the market!