By Joe Szabo, Scottsdale Real Estate Team
When staging a house for sale, it’s crucial to consider every space with the buyer’s perspective in mind. Once you’ve accomplished the five basic staging steps, make sure every room in your house has one clear purpose.
Defining how to use a room is incredibly important for buyers because it helps them connect to a home. Here are the top 5 reasons every room needs a clear purpose:
1. Buyers subconsciously feel lost if they don’t know what to do with a room
They will wander in and out of a room very quickly if they cannot easily tell what the room should be used for. The house will not feel comfortable, which will make it hard for them to imagine it as home.
2. Buyers don’t know how to place furniture in a room they can’t define a use for
When buyers walk into a room they feel comfortable in, they’ll start to picture their belongings where yours are now. A big comfy bed signals “This is a bedroom,” so buyers will be able to imagine their own bed in the space. This is exactly what you want them to do.But if buyers can’t tell the room’s purpose, they won’t know if they need new furniture to fill it, or if they have something perfect for it already.
3. Buyers assume they don’t need a room they can’t see the purpose of
If a buyer can’t see what a room’s purpose is, they go one of two ways. They either assume they don’t need the space, or they decide your home doesn’t have a room that will serve a purpose they do need. Either way could cause them to pass on your house and go on to the next.
4. Buyers don’t have time or energy to figure it out for themselves
There is so much competition for buyer dollars – even in a seller’s market. Buyers have no time, energy or need to “figure out” a house. They can simply go visit the next one or go visit the new home builder they’ve seen advertised. You can bet the builder will show them exactly what every space is for and tell them why they need it.
5. Buyers can’t emotionally connect to rooms they can’t see themselves using
You want buyers to picture their sofa in your living room so they can start seeing themselves living in your house. This is when they truly connect with a house and decide they have to have it as their own home. This connection brings you the best offer possible.
Many homes today feature a “great room” that contains many spaces to be used as individual rooms. This is what the term “open concept living” refers to, and it is highly desired by modern buyers. Mixed purpose rooms can confuse buyers. They may think that if one room has to be used for multiple purposes, the home must be too small. If your house fits this description, be sure to clearly define spaces within the great room to serve only one purpose. For instance, define a family room space and a dining space separately so that buyers know how they can use these areas. Staging your house for sale is a lot of work. But as difficult as it can be, don’t skip it. The way you present your home makes a big difference in finding a buyer. Please note that this Scottsdale Real Estate Blog is for informational purposes and not intended to take the place of a licensed Scottsdale Real Estate Agent. The Szabo Group offers first class real estate services to clients in the Scottsdale Greater Phoenix Metropolitan Area in the buying and selling of Luxury homes in Arizona. Award winning Realtors and Re/MAX top producers and best real estate agent for Luxury Homes in Scottsdale, The Szabo group delivers experience, knowledge, dedication and proven results. Contact Joe Szabo at 480.688.2020, info@ScottsdaleRealEstateTeam.com or visit www.scottsdalerealestateteam.com to find out more about Scottsdale Homes for Sale and Estates for Sale in Scottsdale and to search the Scottsdale MLS for Scottsdale Home Listings.
cleaned and stored. Check hoses for cracks, holes or other faults, store propane tanks away from your home if you have a gas grill, don’t cover or put away your grill until it has cooled, rinse charcoal with cool water before disposing of it, and keep a fire extinguisher nearby. Don’t grill in an enclosed area.
While grownups man the grill, kids may choose to jump around on the trampoline. Nearly 105,000 children visited emergency rooms last year for injuries caused by trampolines, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
To prevent injuries, don’t take shortcuts when assembling the trampoline. Furthermore, pad the bars, springs and the surrounding areas, and get the trampoline as close to ground level as possible to reduce potential impact if a jumper falls.
Always supervise trampoline use, and let your insurance provider know about this type of addition to your home. You need a fence around it for the same reason you need one around a swimming pool on your property.
For the most part, open houses are just that — open. They make it possible for anyone to see a property in a certain time period, without an appointment or even being a very serious buyer.
New buyers should leverage the open house opportunity to get a feel for the market. In today’s world, using online search tools, mobile apps and the open house, a buyer can start to get a feel for pricing and the market before committing to an agent. Most importantly, open houses are some of the best ways for buyer and agent relationships to start.
