How to Sell Your Home FAST

In the digital world we live in, many buyers never leave their house when they start their home searches!  Online search tools and databases put house hunting in the palm of a buyer’s hands! Home sellers have to make their first impressions on the small screens of smart phones!  The best way to stand out in a sea of photos is through home staging.

According to the National Association of Realtors®, 49-percent of buyers’ agents feel home staging affects their buyer’s view of the home. Both the International Association of Home Staging Professionals and StagedHomes.com say on average, staged homes sell in 11 days or less and for 17-percent more money.

Staging depersonalizes a home. It also features the home’s assets and selling points while minimizing any potential negatives. For example, a professional home stager’s strategies make small rooms look larger and give even the most awkward of spaces purpose, making it easier for buyers to picture themselves living there.

Which rooms should I stage?

The living room, kitchen, master bedroom, dining room, and bathroom are the top areas to stage. These are the rooms in your home that you want to shine.

If you can’t stage every room, start with the living room and master bedroom. Those places are most important in a buyer’s eyes.

Ready for some home staging tricks with real before and after photos?

Staging a well-lived-in home

The problem for many sellers is that they lived in a house for years, maybe even decades.  It’s tough for them to envision switching up the furniture arrangement or swapping out items in favor of  different decor.  But even those sometimes subtle changes can have a huge impact on showings.

Here’s great example.  Take a look at this picture of a home we staged in Blue Springs.  Here’s the BEFORE photo:

In this living room, the furniture was great– but needed some “refreshing”.  The space was heavy on decor– and the large rug weighed down the vibe of the space and seemed to suck the light out of the room.

Now,  take a look at the AFTER photo.

We removed the rug to open up and brighten up the room.  We added lighter pillows to contrast the dark sofa and reflect more light.  We deleted some of the decor to declutter the area.

The result?  A lighter, brighter, clean & open space that suddenly appears larger, too!

How to stage a small space

Speaking of size — some homes simply have small living spaces. While we can’t change the physical dimensions of the room, we can make rooms FEEL larger than they are.

Check out this BEFORE photo of a home we recently staged:

This room has too much furniture and clutter for its size.   Plus, the curtains seem to shorten what should be a fabulous feature: the oversized windows widows flanking the fireplace.

Now– take a look at AFTER picture!

Can you believe this is the same home?  We used our staging inventory to bring in lighter and brighter furniture and arranged it to open up and create a more welcoming space.  We added long sheer curtains to accentuate the oversized windows and let in maximum light.  We added a light rug to make the flooring and fireplace “pop”.

These changes allowed buyers to focus on all the fabulous features of this home!

Staging Grandma’s house

We all love our Grandparents, but do we love their decorating styles?  If the vibe of a home is stuck in the 70’s & 80’s or 90’s, buyers get easily overwhelmed. They automatically start calculating how much it will cost to renovate the property to something that fits their style.

Adding insult to injury, many families are left with the task of selling these outdated homes when a loved one passes away.  It’s often an emotionally painful process, but a home staging professional can lighten that load by providing while brightening the space. They’re unbiased and can objectively decide how to freshen up the look.

The truth is, many dated homes can be instantly updated by utilizing some simple staging strategies.

Here’s another BEFORE photo to prove that point:

Now– Here’s the AFTER:

Simply switching out the furniture with more modern decor on a smaller scale suddenly makes this room feel brighter and more youthful.  No walls needed to be painted, no floors needed to be replaced.  Even if sheet vinyl and oak trim aren’t among today’s buyers first choices, the space is super clean and inviting and 100% move in ready!  That’s what buyers really need to see– so they can envision themselves moving in without a pile of projects awaiting them.

How to stage a vacant home

Home staging WORKS WONDERS in selling vacant homes.  Studies show less than 10% of buyers can envision the true size of an empty room.

Here’s a great example. This open concept floorplan is notoriously challenging for buyers to figure out furniture placement.

The BEFORE photo:

And here’s the AFTER:

New home construction

Staging works magic in new homes, too.  Even though everything is BRAND NEW, buyers still struggle to get a feel for true room sizes, and with today’s open concept floor plans, they really struggle with trying to imagine where they will put all their furniture.

Here’s the BEFORE picture below.  How would YOU would arrange YOUR furniture in this family room?

Now– take a look at the AFTER photo:

Are you SOLD?  We are!  We feel so strongly about the power of home staging, we are happy to share our top 10 home staging secrets!

These powerful examples illustrate why we are so passionate about providing professional home staging to our seller clients, at no extra cost! With the Sally Moore Real Estate Team, it’s always “On the House”!

FREE Kansas City area home staging

Accredited Staging Professionals, like Sally Moore, have the experience and extensive training to stage homes and sell them faster and for top dollar. Ready for her to work some home staging magic on your home?

Contact us today!

The post Quick Guide: How To Stage Your Home To Sell appeared first on Sally Moore Real Estate Team.

Sell quick with “Upstage Studio”

“Upstage Studio” is a 1,600+ square foot combination consultation center / home decor warehouse located in Blue Springs. It’s the brain child of Realtor® and Accredited Staging Professional Sally Moore, who has had a career-long commitment to the proven power of home staging.

“We wanted to create a space where we can interactively work with sellers to conceptualize a plan to stage their homes,” Moore explains. “Being able to tour our inventory and visualize the transformation we are proposing is a powerful tool in getting sellers to buy in to the power of home staging.”

Of course, the “buy in” is made even easier given the fact that Moore and her co-listing agent, Dee Harding, offer the staging service absolutely for free.

Home staging sells homes fast

While a quick internet search shows prices for home staging range from a few hundred dollars for a consultation to thousands of dollars for full staging service, it is complimentary for clients of The Sally Moore Real Estate Team. It is the team’s unique value proposition that sets them apart from the competition.

“The statistics speak for themselves. Staged homes sell faster and for top dollar compared to non-staged properties.”, explains Harding. Moore wholeheartedly agrees. “We want our clients to net the most money they possibly can on the sale of their homes. Simply put, we designed the Upstage Studio to help our clients upstage the competition!”, Moore says.

A tour of the “Upstage Studio” helps sellers understand the arsenal at their disposal. As the purpose of home staging is to depersonalize a property and help buyers envision themselves — not the sellers — living in the home, the warehouse is fully stocked with a rotating supply of furniture and decor in the styles and trends most popular with today’s buyers. This takes the pressure off sellers, letting them focus instead on simply cleaning and decluttering their homes in preparation for staging day. The transformations often stun the sellers, themselves.

“We’ve had clients walk in after we’ve staged their homes and not want to move!”, laughs Harding. Moore adds, “Or they ask us if we come back and stage their new homes, too! We love that reaction. Next to receiving multiple competing offers on the properties, it’s the highest compliment we can receive!”

Transforming Kansas City homes

“Upstage Studio” features literally thousands of ways to transform a home.

This inspiring collection continues to grow daily! Plastic storage bins stacked to the ceiling hold everything from throw pillows, rugs and bedding to towels, shower curtains, table runners & placements. Rows of shelving units display an array of accessories, while paintings, prints and mirrors adorn the walls. The center aisle is lined with furniture arrangements, from family rooms to dining rooms to offices and bedrooms. It’s like walking into your favorite home decor store and furniture showroom all at once!

Until now, this treasure trove of home decor and furniture collections was stored in boxes in garages spread across the city. Now, it’s painstakingly arranged and organized by color and function, making it quick and easy for Moore and Harding to find inspiration to stage their sellers homes.

How we increase home values — a message from The Sally Moore Real Estate Team

The Sally Moore Real Estate Team sells homes in any condition! Our team understands life happens. We are here for you whether it’s a divorce, sick parent, or a home that needs repairs. Our treasure trove of decor transforms homes, increases values, and takes the stress out of selling.

Sometimes, sellers just want a quick and painless sale. We understand that, but caution them to not undersell the value of their home.

Here’s a prime example: We often hear from sellers after they talk to a home investor who promises to sell their Kansas City home quickly. They call us because they know their home is worth far more than the investor has offered. That’s exactly what happened to Debbie.

We sold Debbie’s home for
$79,000 MORE than an investor offered.

• 

• 

• 

How did we do it? We staged her home, priced it competitively and quickly received 15 offers!

Here’s Debbie’s breakdown:

Investor: $106,000.
Our listing: $159,9000
Sold: $185,000
————
Difference: $79,000

Sell your KC home fast

Bottom line, our team can stage any home, no matter the condition. We’ll use our proven staging strategies to get you tens of thousands of dollars more than signing a contract from an investor.

That’s because while investors promise a quick sale in just 7-days with little or no fees, what they’re NOT telling you is that they offer far less than fair market value.

Why settle for less? We can sell your home in as little as 30 days, PLUS, you’ll pocket tens of thousands of dollars more — even after paying real estate fees.

Out-of-state seller

Here’s another example of how we helped a seller who was given a low-ball offer by an investor. This seller lived out-of-state. An investor offered her $105,000 for her father’s home.

The challenger for the seller: her father had recently passed away, and she lived all the way in California. We put boots on the ground to help coordinate the clean out of the property, and the ensuing clean up. Even though the seller chose to sell the property in “AS-IS” condition, by helping to coordinate those two simple steps, we sold the property FAST for more than $20,000 over what the investor had offered her.

You should get the full value of your home even if you need to sell quickly. That’s the Sally Moore Real Estate Team difference! We value you and your home — no matter your circumstance and or its condition.

Let’s get you started with a quick and instant home value! It’s free!

Complimentary home staging increases home values for everyone! We also work with vacant homes.

Vacant homes

With vacant homes, our team has a few options. We can add a little decor, stage the entire property, or virtually stage the home to capture even the most discerning buyer the moment they see the photos online.

Here’s an example of how we transformed a vacant home by fully staging it with our furnishings.

The house had failed to sell after being on the market for a year with another real estate team. We staged it and sold it the first day on the market!

Take a look at the dramatic before and after difference!

We sell homes quick for clients

• Out-of-state sellers. We’re the on-the-ground contact to coordinate clean-out and minor repairs.
• Family members with older parents who are downsizing or moving to a nursing home.
• Property owners who have homes that need some work.
• Families who need to sell quick due to illness, divorce, a new job or other life circumstances.
• Vacant homes.
• Owners who haven’t been able to sell with other real estate agents, or For Sale By Owner.

One of those For By Sale Owner failures turned success story comes to us from Virgil and Loretta of Independence. They came to an open house of ours, and it’s a good thing they did!

They tried selling their home on their own — no luck. Tried selling with other realtors — same disappointing result.

“We had 2 real estate agents before The Sally Moore Real Estate Team. God brought us to your open house because we could not get rid of our home and Sally and Dee staged it and sold it in a short time!“

Virgil and Loretta ended up calling on us again to sell their next home! We staged it, SOLD IT, and got them moved into their new property in just a few short weeks. Its a time and time again testament to the power of home staging!

Ready to sell your KC home fast? Contact our team today to see how we can increase your home value and find you a buyer quickly.

Sally Moore and her partner, Dee Harding, are both Accredited Staging Professionals (ASP). They offer sellers complimentary home staging, transforming homes so they sell faster and for more money. “Upstage Studio” is their latest innovate investment setting their service apart to “upstage” the competition.

The post Proven Results Show This Is How You Sell Your KC Home Fast appeared first on Sally Moore Real Estate Team.

Vacant homes present a unique challenge for sellers — unless you’re a client of The Sally Moore Real Estate Team! We always offer complimentary home staging for our sellers, utilizing our large warehouse filled with furniture, home decor and other design inventory to completely stage even the emptiest of properties.  That said, sometimes we have homeowners who aren’t quite comfortable with outside property being placed inside their vacant homes.  In those cases, we offer a phenomenal staging technology to enhance their listings.  It’s called “virtual staging”, and it helps accomplish the same goal:  allowing buyers to envision the property as their own!

How virtual staging works

Virtual staging uses technology to insert appropriately sized furniture into each room of a home.  It gives every space a purpose (think, “what would I put in THAT nook?”) and provides the proper perspective for the sizes and dimensions of each room. As buyers are looking online, they are able to get a true picture of a home’s potential.  

Here’s how!

Scroll right and left on the before and after photograph of a virtually staged living room.  In the before photo — it’s tough to envision how much furniture truly fits into the empty space

Scroll to the after photo, and you can see how virtual home staging helps scale the true size of the living area and points out there’s a dining space nearby, too!

Virtual staging helps an empty home stand out among the thousands of other homes a buyer may look at online, from the comfort of their home. It ensures your home doesn’t get lost, overlooked, or questioned by buyers.  Furniture and decor help turn houses into homes more than 4 walls can ever do.

Virtual staging can also help buyers envision the same home differently! For example, we often employ this strategy to showcase our new construction homes. We may physically stage one model, and then use virtual staging in a more modern style to give the same home an entirely different feel!  Statistics show less than 10% of buyers can envision the possibilities of an empty space.  Let us do the heavy (or virtual!) lifting to get them to fall in love with your home!  As Accredited Staging Professionals, we have the experience and expertise to get the job done.

Home staging before and after photos

Take a tour of this empty home, from the open concept main area to the bedrooms.

Dining Area

Living Area

Master Bedroom

Second Bedroom

Kansas City virtual staging

These are some before and after photos of virtually staged homes that are empty.

With open concept homes, it’s often difficult to envision the size of all the separate spaces. Can you tell how large that dining area is? The virtual staging shows you a large table can easily fit into the space. 

This before and after staging photo also shows how the open concept living, dining, and kitchen area flow.

 

Bedrooms

Master Bedroom Facing Bathroom

Additional Bedroom

Master Bedroom Other View

Additional Bedroom

Recreation Room

Contact us today to see how virtual staging can transform your vacant home.

The post Kansas City Home Staging For Vacant Houses appeared first on Sally Moore Real Estate Team.

Kansas City home staging

During this time of social distancing, we’re getting creative and giving buyers new ways to view homes. We’re using the best technology to make it easier to buy a home and envision what a room could look like with your items inside.

With new construction homes, it’s hard to imagine the space as your own, because it’s typically vacant. That’s why we stage new construction homes. 

Our team of Accredited Staging Professionals typically stage homes with our own furniture, wall hangings, rugs, and accent pieces. 

Home staging gives you ideas. Plus, it shows you the true size of a room. Something your eye can’t envision well just looking at a blank space.

It’s like painting a white canvas. It looks a lot prettier painted than the blank slate.

Home staging is functional and provides design inspiration.

We believe in home staging so much, we also offer this complimentary service for all our sellers. That’s something you don’t get from most Kansas City real estate agents. We do “Moore” for our clients.

Typically, we stage the home ourselves using a combination of your furniture and some of our accent pieces. 

With new construction homes, since they’re vacant, we also bring our own furniture.

We simply can’t stage every new construction home as we have a number of new construction subdivisions in Blue Springs, Grain Valley, Lee’s Summit, and Kansas City. Virtual staging allows us to stage more new construction homes so you can envision the size and layout of the home like never before! 

Virtual home staging also gives life to sellers with a vacant home. 

Kansas City new construction 

Virtual staging before and after photos

Homebuyers still need homes even if there is a health crisis. We’re still selling homes and connecting buyers. That’s why we’re giving you a new way to look at homes if you’re unable to walk through every home you want to see. 

We don’t change anything. We just pop in items you might find in a living room, bedroom or kitchen like a television, rug, accent piece, and furniture.

Virtual home staging puts technology to use to benefit your home shopping experience.

Garden Creek Floor Plan

In this Garden Creek floor plan by Dave Richards Homebuilding, we have before and after photos to show you how different it looks staged. You can see this floor plan at 809 SW Mill Creek Court in Grain Valley.

It’s an open concept true ranch home in Ryan Meadows. There’s abundant custom cabinets, granite counters, walk-in pantry, wood floors in the great room, and a mudroom in the kitchen and living area. The 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home has a large walk-in closet in the master.

Living Room

Dining & Kitchen Area

Bedrooms

Bedroom 1 View 1

Bedroom 1 View 2

Bedroom 2 View 1

Bedroom 2 View 1

View all floor plans from Dave Richards Homebuilding.

Reverse 1.5 Story Virtually Staged

The reverse 1.5 story by Foushee Homes features a spacious open concept design. It’s a 3 bedroom and 3 bathroom home with a large master and en suite plus a secondary bedroom and full bath on the main level. The back wall of windows provides a lot of natural light. The dining room and kitchen feature a large island, pantry, and plenty of prep space.

The lower level is finished and includes a 3rd bedroom, recreation room and plenty of storage space.

There’s also an oversized covered deck to relax outside.

Kitchen & Living Area

Master Bedroom

Additional Bedroom

Finished Recreation Room

Finished Recreation Room

View listings for Foushee Homes.

Kansas City homes for sale

This is the latest list of new construction homes for sale, by our team of builders. We’re in the following neighborhoods:

Grain Valley: Rosewood Hills 

Blue Springs: Sonora Valley, Stone Canyon, Four Pillars, and Brittany Ridge

Lee’s Summit: The Fields of Highland Park

Kansas City: Villa Meadows

The post Kansas City Home Stager Offers Virtual Staging For New Construction appeared first on Sally Moore Real Estate Team.

Home staging sells homes quickly

Less than 10-percent of home buyers can walk into a house and visualize their furnishings in the property. That’s why home staging makes such a big difference. It helps buyers see the possibilities of a space.

The Sally Moore Real Estate Team offers FREE home staging to all Kansas City area home sellers. There’s no doubt it sells homes faster and for more money, even in a seller’s market!

As Accredited Staging Professionals, Sally Moore and her partner Dee Harding, are certified stagers. They have the experience and training to transform your space. According to Stagedhomes.com, 88-percent of staged homes sold at or above list price!

[bctt tweet=”88% of staged homes sold at or above list price, according to StagedHomes.com. ” username=”SallySellsMoore”]

Whether you’re selling your home, or updating the look of your home and looking for design help, these tricks of the trade will help you transform your space with items you already have in your home.

All of these tricks are easy to perform in your own home, and they’re all FREE. You don’t have to spend a dime to transform your space. The items already in your home are perfect for changing the way an area looks.

1. Depersonalize your space

Sellers want buyers to focus on the features rather than the decor. So, depersonalize the space before you begin staging or redesigning it.

Your decor has sentimental value. After all, it’s probably hung on your walls and filled your counters for years. Now, it’s time to look at your items in a different light.

You want your buyers to envision the home as theirs, not yours. So take down personal items and collectibles.

First, decide what you’re keeping and what can go. Put your items in three boxes. Keep the first pile, throw away the second one, and donate the last box.

2. Shop your own home

Then, lay everything you’re keeping on a table and shop your items. Be a picky buyer, since the home buyers who tour your home will be!

When you see your items in a pile rather than displayed in a room, you’ll see new ways to repurpose.

Anything you don’t use to stage your home, pack away in a box for moving.

3. Positioning matters most

Then, once you have the items for staging, focus on where to position them. Positioning is more important than the decor!

Move the items around, so you’re highlighting the home’s features!

4. Be creative

When we’re staging homes, we often move things around several times. We may like it in one place when we first start in a room, but later on, we place it somewhere else. That’s ok. Let your creative juices flow and be open to putting items in new places and spaces.

You want items that flow together and vary in size. Some decor can be tall, while others are small.

Use items differently. For example, here’s an easy way to make European looking shams with pillowcases you already have in your house or a cheap new bedding set.

5. Highlight the home’s features

With home staging, you want to highlight a home’s features, so the buyer’s eye is drawn to them during a showing. You’ll use decor to do this, but ultimately your goal is to show off the home, rather than your items!

For example, in the kitchen, you may want the granite countertop or backsplash to stand out. So, keep your counter space clear and only use a few accessories that draw the eye to these features.

In a living room, you want the fireplace to stand out if you have one. It’s a fan favorite with buyers.

For example, if you have an island with bar seating you want to highlight this feature. Home buyers like to see all the places they can gather to eat or for entertaining. If you have island seating, make sure you have bar stools and consider adding table settings to showcase how much you can fit on the spacious island.

If you have a glass cabinet or tall ceilings, make these features stand out.

6. Use color to make a home’s features stand out

Color makes a home’s features pop especially in dark spaces. If you have dark cabinets, add color to the shelves or bookcases.

If you have a glass cabinet in the kitchen, use colored glasses to accent it. That way the buyer notices this feature of the home. Plus, it helps the buyer envision their decor in your home.

In this example, the dark pillows on the couch don’t allow the light to reflect off of them. The large windows create a lot of natural light in this room, but the dark couch absorbs all that brightness.

With a quick pillow change, the room transforms. The light reflects off the white and gold pillows!

The pillows came from the bedroom. Another example of transforming your home by re-using your items but in different locations around the house.

Even something as simple as greenery, adds color and freshens up a room. It doesn’t even have to be real!

7. Follow the rule of 3s

The rule of 3’s is a staple in home staging. You want to group items. From chairs to accessories, things look better together. You can also add more details and make it the rule of 5’s. Just keep the number odd as that’s more natural.

In this photo, you have three items of different height and color. Yet, they all flow together and accessorize the beautiful backsplash.

On a couch, add three pillows instead of two!

8. Use table settings for a “homey” feel

Should you set the table when you’re showing your home? It’s a question we often get and the answer depends on practicality and the look and feel of your home. First, if you’re living there, you may not have time to set the table before every showing. If you have time, make it a habit of setting the table after every meal so it’s always ready for that last minute home tour.

Table settings showcase all the places to entertain and eat in a home. Plus, they create a homey space. Just don’t overdo it. You don’t want to add more clutter to your home. Remember, that’s why we decluttered before staging.

9. Mix and match different textures

Shiny objects are great attention grabbers. They glisten and catch a buyer’s eye helping them focus on the home’s features around that item.

Decor with texture also helps. Mix and match. For example, use organic placemats with ceramic plates. The different textures create warmth in a room.

10. Less is more

Back to the first point, depersonalize and declutter. Make your room pop with less because less is more! Remove bulky furniture to make a small room look larger.

If you have a small space, add a mirror. It instantly makes a room look bigger.

We have all sorts of tricks for every room and type of house. Whether we’re staging Grandma’s house, a vacant property, or a well-lived-in property, these before and after photos from Kansas City area homes will show you how to transform any space.

Once the home is staged, walk through it and make sure every room is as functional as simple as possible, so the house shines!

These home staging tricks will help sell a home faster, and for more money! Just remember, your home rather than the items in it should be the star of the show!

What room are you ready to transform? 

The post Kansas City Home Staging Expert Shares Her Top 10 Secrets appeared first on Sally Moore Real Estate Team.

Kansas City home staging experts

Designated as Accredited Staging Professionals, or ASP’s, Sally Moore and Dee Harding have undergone extensive training to utilize the proven strategies of home staging to help their clients get top dollar for their homes.

So, what exactly IS home staging?

Perhaps it’s easiest to start with what home staging ISN’T.

Staging ISN’T decorating.

Decorating is PERSONALIZING.  Staging is DEPERSONALIZING.

What is home staging?

When we stage a home, we apply specific strategies to position a property in a way that buyers can visualize themselves living there. We maximize the home’s positive features while minimizing any potential negatives. Sometimes this means we bring in our own supply of neutral décor, but often we can utilize our sellers’ existing furnishings to achieve the same effect. See the difference home staging makes with before and after photos from Kansas City area homes.

Have you ever walked into a new house on the Parade of Homes tour? Did you start envisioning what it would feel like to live there? That’s EXACTLY the experience we strive to create for buyers when they walk through the door of our listed properties.

As Accredited Staging Professionals, we believe passionately in the power of home staging. Our motivation is simple: to seller our clients’ homes in the shortest amount of time for the highest possible price with the least amount of stress.

Why home staging works

The statistics speak for themselves. According to a 2015 survey by the National Association of Realtors®:

• More than 95% of buyer’s agents say home staging impacts buyers
• More than 81% of buyers find staged properties “easier to visualize”
• More than 50% of buyers will pay more for a staged home

According to Stagedhomes.com:

• Staged homes sell FASTER and for MORE MONEY than non-staged properties
• Less than 10% of buyers can visualize the purpose or potential of an empty space

According to a survey by one of the nation’s largest real estate companies:

• Staged homes spend half of the time on the market than non-staged properties
• Once staged, homes spend an average of 73% less time on the market
• Buyers are willing to pay 1% to 5% more of the dollar value on a staged home a non-staged home
• Staged homes sell for more than 6% above the asking price

FREE Kansas City home staging

Home staging companies stress that the investment in home staging is always less than your first price reduction if the home fails to sell.  But with the Sally Sells Moore Team, the staging is included in our list of services—so there’s no out of pocket cost to you!

Many other Realtors® have questioned why we stage homes—it’s a time and financial commitment on our part. Plus, in a hot seller’s market, they wonder about the true need. We provide this service because we strongly believe in the power of home staging.  We want our sellers to get the ABSOLUTE most money for their homes, in the SHORTEST period, with the LEAST amount of stress.

Home staging is the “pixie dust” we provide to make our listings stand out above the rest, and it’s a service we provide to give our sellers confidence that we are doing everything we can to get them the highest price possible for their homes.

Staging “sets the stage” for buyers to be able to see themselves living in your home.

The key to home staging is honing in on a buyer’s psychology.  Home staging ensures the home looks its best and helps the buyers connect to the property.  It is amazing how many homes that lingered on the market before can sell quickly once professionally staged.  Sound familiar?  If so, give us a call!  We stage homes in the Kansas City for FREE including communities like Lee’s Summit and Grain Valley. We’re confident we can get your Grain Valley or Blue Springs home moving with a little home staging magic!

The post How To Get The Best Kansas City Home Staging For FREE appeared first on Sally Moore Real Estate Team.

Home showing checklist

There are time-honored truths of home selling, and it’s essential you follow them even in a seller’s market. The offers won’t just roll in, even when inventory is low if your house isn’t “show-ready.”

You must ensure your home shows in its best possible light. To do this, you must prepare your home for buyers. Fortunately, one of the most impactful preparations you can make costs very little money.

Call it sweat equity in the form of good old fashion elbow grease!  So roll up your sleeves and start tackling this top 5 do list for prepping your home for showings:

1. Get your home Q-tip clean

First, imagine that buyers visiting your home will be walking in wearing white gloves and checking every single surface for dust and dirt! It may sound extreme, but statistics show that one of the best ways to make a great first impression is to make sure your home is just spotless.

In a buyer’s mind, a home that is squeaky clean is probably very well maintained as well. Meticulous people tend to take great care of their properties.

If buyers get that feeling when they walk into your home, they will have more confidence in offering you top dollar.

2. Knock out that honey-do maintenance list

When you’re preparing your house for showings, it’s probably one of the first times your honey-to-do list gets fulfilled quickly! When was the last time you changed your furnace filter? How about power washed the house? Trimmed your trees and bushes? Cleaned out the gutters? Replaced the mulch in your flower beds? Re-caulked the bathroom sink and tub?

Walk through your home with a critical eye and make a list of all the little projects that you need to cross off your checklist. The more you do, the higher offer you get because the buyer doesn’t have to do as much!

Just because you’ve lived with cracks in the walls and rattles in the radiators, doesn’t mean a buyer will too. If you have hardwood floors that need refinishing, be sure to get it done. Hardwood is a huge selling point.

Buyers like to snoop around, so be sure to fix any sticky doors or drawers as well.

Finally, don’t forget to address the exterior – fences, shingles, landscaping, etc. After all, without curb appeal, some buyers will never get inside.

3. Declutter like a pro

Remember this simple phrase I learned while training to become a professional home stager: Clutter Eats Equity! Don’t let clutter take value away from your Kansas City home.

You will be amazed at the amount of space you will free up in your home. Help buyers visualize how large your closets are, how much storage space there is your home, etc. The more space—the better your offer!

Go through your home, one room at a time, and make three piles. Put what you want to keep in one pile, what you need to throw away in a second pile, and what you can donate to charity in a third pile.

If you haven’t worn something or used something for 6 months, it needs to end up in pile two or three.  Start this process about a month before you plan on putting your house on the market, and at the end of each week, bring your piles of donations to your local charity.

Another bonus? You will have lightened the load of what you need to move to your NEW house SIGNIFICANTLY!

4. Set the tone of a “model home”

A big mistake many sellers make is taking “decluttering” too far, and stripping done their homes to a bare-bones space. The art of staging your home for sale is to create a space that buyers can envision themselves living in. That means DEPERSONALIZING your home—removing personal photos, collections, any taste specific décor and instead setting a neutral palate that appeals to the masses.

Your goal is to showcase your home’s positive features while downplaying its negative ones. Think of the last time you walked through a furnished model home in a new construction community. Also, think of the feeling you get when you walk into a high-end hotel. Go for that vibe!

You want buyers to see themselves in your home. Replace any bold color choices with something more neutral – beige, tans, and whites. Repainting and re-flooring makes everything look fresh and new and helps prospective buyers imagine all the possibilities.

My partner Dee and I can help with the secrets to staging a home like a pro! We offer FREE home staging in the Kansas City area.

Remember, the moment you place your home up for sale it is not your personal space anymore. It is a commodity you want a stranger to fall in love with!

5. Get out of the way

Think about it—you spend hours upon hours depersonalizing your home so buyers can envision themselves living there. Why would you want to be present when the buyer shows up at your door? So many sellers make the mistake of wanting to hover over buyers to make sure they know every detail about their home. That’s a big no-no!

Make sure any open house or showing is an opportunity for the buyers to explore the home on their own without the awkwardness of having you, the seller, present.  Trust your agent to share all the details about your property, and leave detailed disclosures, utility information, and other lists of improvements in the home for buyers to take with them.

Bottom line, let your home speak for itself on showing day, and make the message sparkling clear:  this is well-maintained home just waiting for its new owners to move right in!

If you follow these 5 steps, your home will be “show-ready” in no time. Let me know if I can help with staging your house for sale!

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