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Tip of the Day - Stage Your Home

   When you are selling your home, it is imperative that you stage your home properly in order to have your home be the "Best in it's Class."   The following are some suggestions we recommend to our clients if they are truly intersete din selling their home and not just putting it on the market.

• Have your home staged by a professional - an expert is worth their weight in gold.
• Remove all magnets and pictures from refrigerator.
• Put away all unnecessary items on kitchen countertops, especially dish cloths, food, extra canisters, etc.
• Stow under the kitchen sink your dish cloth, scrubbies, dish and hand soap, etc.
• Remove all throw rugs from the flooring in all rooms.
• Stow away all items on bathroom countertops except a nice soap dispenser, or if you have a nice matching set of accessories.  If you want, place everything in a small bin so you can access it easily and yet be able to hide it away when showing the house.
• Place a nice hand towel in the bathrooms.
• Remove all items in shower/tub—again, you may want to put them in a bin so you can easily hide them away as well as pull them out to use.
• Make all beds—daily!
• Hide away all laundry.
• Put away all shoes.
• Have a “10 Minute Showing Drill” set up so that when you receive a call from Showing Solutions you can quickly prep the house.
• Bake cookies or bread prior to showing.

Winter Tip for Selling Your Home

If you have your home on the market for sale, here are a few tips to help you attract a buyer:

1. Shovel the front porch, sidewalk and driveway when it snows.  Most people use the garage entry to their home and they forget about the front entry.  By keeping the walkway clear, potential buyers will be paying attention to your beautiful facade and won't have to be worried about snow and ice.  If you have already relocated and are far away from the house, hire a neighbor or a friend to keep the walkways clear (and pick up newspapers!).
2. Have an area inside the front door where buyers can remove their shoes, maybe even have a pair sitting there.  This will keep snow and dirt from being tracked in, and, it will show the buyer that you take care of your flooring by removing your shoes.
3. If you have space heaters in the house, remove them from sight.  They will say to the buyer, "This house is drafty and the heating bills are high."
4. If you have a deck or a patio, remove snow and ice from them so the buyer can experience the "nice weather" space.
5. And, it's always a good idea to have a "comfort" smell in the air.  Winter brings memories of warm bread baking, coming home to mom's chocolate chip cookies, and hot chocolate.