Clean Your Closet!

Out of site out of mind, not! When you are going to look at homes to buy you have to check out the space they offer. Do you really look at a potential home without opening all the doors? No you don’t and neither will other potential home buyers! Closets should not only be clean and organized but also show how much space they really offer. First you want to go through and really clean it out and organize it. If the closet is still full, remove half of the items! Yep, you want your closet to be only about half full! This will show how big the closet actually is! Just like every other space in the home the more stuff in it, the smaller it looks! I am not saying get rid of half your clothes in your closet by any means; this pertains to mostly secondary closets i.e. hall closet, linen closet, guest bedroom closet, etc. Who knows you may find a hidden treasure you forgot you had!

Mirrors Make Magic

In tight narrow spaces mirrors can make magic! Staging is all about making homes visually appealing to buyers. So there is a little trick that can give rooms more “visual” space, add a mirror! Narrow living rooms, hallways, and bedrooms can all benefit from adding a mirror. Mirrors reflect everything in its path and show you what is in your eye line. That being said; be careful where you place them. A lot of people place mirrors over fireplaces, don’t do it! When looking up at a mirror it is going to reflect up. So all you will see is the ceiling. It does your home buyers no good to see the reflection! You always want mirrors hung at eye level.  They say mirrors are also great to put in the front entry of a home when it is staged. Why you ask? If a mirror is in the front entry of the home one of the first things your potential homebuyer will see is themselves. Yep, they will see themselves in the home. Like I said, mirrors make magic!

When Less Means More

In staging less always equals more! When staging a home you really want to show off the features of the home not how well it is decorated or in some cases, how bad it is decorated! You know when you have that one extra piece of furniture that you don’t need but you can’t seem to get rid of? Well, when you are staging your home you need to muster up the strength to part with it!

To show a home’s best features you need to de-clutter! Yep, that means parting with some of your favorite items! Extra furniture can crowd a room. It is best to move it to another room that is lacking or just store it.  I don’t want you to throw away all your treasures just temporarily store them. There are several moving companies that will store your belongings at a very reasonable rate and then discount it when you use them to move.

Extra furniture can make the room feel crowded and make it hard for the future homeowners to see how much space they are buying.  Also, older furniture has a way of dating a house. You want the house to look clean, new and shinny!

Trying to sell your house? STAY ORGANIZED!

Trying to sell your house is difficult! You have to deal with realtors, the shaky housing market, packing and whatever other situations may pop up! It may seem like a lot of work to keep your house clean and organized while you are juggling life while your home is on the market but it is very important.

First of all, organization shows you care. If you are not organized it does not mean you do not care necessarily, but when buyers come to see your home they see everything! They will go through kitchen and bathroom cabinets to check out the space; after all they are buying them with the house. When people see unorganized spaces they see lack of care. It could make people question how well the house has been taken care of if your personal items aren’t properly cared for.

Second, cluttered and unorganized homes can distract buyers from seeing the potential of the home.  When a buyer walks in you want them to be able to envision themselves in the home, which is the first step to get them to make an offer.  If you have too much furniture or items then it is hard to get a good feel for the space as it is all consumed. If there is not enough items of furniture then the home seems empty and the space actually feels smaller!

So when you are selling your home get organized first! All closets, rooms, and built in cabinets should be straightened up and organized. This will let people see what the space is capable of holding and shows there is care that is given to this house and its belongings. Next, speak with your realtor about getting a home stager to come in and show you how to show off your homes best features and make it’s not so great features downplayed. This will help you sell your home faster and for more money!

There are only a few things in life that I love more then what I do (and that’s because my family would kill me if I didn’t say that. Just kidding they will always be my #1 )  This industry has blown up before us over the past few years and who else should we praise and thank more other then our clients?

Our clients are who keep us in business. They are the ones who call us time and time again to stage another home they finished flipping. They call us to thank them because there house has sold three times faster then they thought it could. They send their friends and colleagues our number and referral. They are the ones who took the time to type in “home stager” in to Google and sift through the pages to find us. All we have to do… enjoy what we do and do it for them.

Yes, we may blog, tweet, post, market and “be connected” but  at the end of the day we could not have gotten anywhere without the loyalty of our consumers! So today I would like to say thanks to all of the people who have used Peachtree Home Staging and support us in our journey to help make the home staging industry grow.

This video is the biggest complement I have gotten since I started my business. This is a client who flips houses and has called on me to stage a dozen or so houses. He is one of my favorite clients and his work is immaculate and always quality. He has a video blog that he does on flipping houses and in this instance he used and showcased my work. I could not be more ecstatic that he has so much faith in my work that he calls on me time and time again, let alone, use it in his video blog.  You can also check out his website Sell Fast Forum or House Flip Tips for great tips on selling and remodeling homes!

Link to video:

Dining Room Staging Quick Tips

~Karen & Brette

Walking into homes as a stager we are required to find simple and fulfilling solutions to the homes awkward and unfulfilling problems. This can sometimes leave us perplexed and thinking to ourselves: “What were they thinking in 1952 when they designed this house; there is no good furniture placement to watch T.V.?” Silly really, since in 1952 T.V.’s were up and coming with all 3 offered channels and not in every home. Not like today’s new construction homes that have entertainment centers built in with room for a 56″ television. A home in Atlanta that Peachtree Home Staging recently staged had a long narrow living room leaving a lot of extra space in some place no matter where we arranged it. We came up with a solution that would appeal to younger buyers in this trendy and up and coming neighborhood in Atlanta. Anyone can put a sofa table behind the couch and call it a day, but that was not what we were going for. So we got creative….. We pulled inventory geared to the younger buyer that meets the demographics of this home; a little metal sconce, a thin decorative photo, a tall plant, a plant about two feet tall, a short plant, and a couple oversized boxes ranging in sizes that looked like books. So with a bit of arranging and going back and forth we came up with a plan to balance and fill in the space. It is these sorts of challenges that keep us on our toes as stagers. Yes, it is nice to go in have a nice simple day, but how long can that be fun? These creative solutions are the difference between home staging and interior design. As an interior designer, I would have gone and bought a sofa table and gotten many years of use out of it. As a stager it is about showing the space, making creative everyday use of it fit the target buyer.

Before & After Filling in the Awkward Space: