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What the Home Staging Experts and Realtors
Say... 
Inviting Decor's low-cost "Buyer's
Eyes" report is based on the proven method of home staging.
For years, realtors have used home staging as a method to sell
homes faster or get higher prices for real estate. Before Inviting
Decor, home staging services were expensive and too complicated
for most Raleigh home owners. With our "Buyer's Eyes"
report we will show you the inside secrets you need to sell your
home for more money and reduce the amount of time it is on the
market.
Don't just take our word for it. See what
the home staging experts and experienced realtors say about the
benefits of using home staging reports.
What is "Home Staging" and
How Does it Help Sell My House?
by Lori
Matzke
"Home staging" is not a new term,
but for many homeowners and real estate agents the concept of
"professional home staging" is shedding new light on
how to promote a home in the real estate marketplace. In past
years, homeowners were left to their own discretion as far as
preparing for home showings. Though they could occasionally rely
on an agent for instructions, more often than not real estate
agents were just as perplexed at working out the details as the
homeowner....
Read
the full article here.
 Don't
Sweat It!
New
breeds of micro-experts are springing up everywhere, and they
can fix your nastiest money headaches
Ellen McGirt
Money Magazine, November 2004
Like a brilliant idea hiding in plain sight, your humble home
is actually an elegant showplace. Only problem is, no one can
tell from the way you decorated it. "The way you live
in your home and the way you market your house are two different
things," says Barb Schwarz, founder of the 3,000-member
International Association of Home Staging Professionals. "Once
you put your house on the market, it becomes a product."
Staging professionals help make your house appeal to a wider audience
by eliminating distractions (see ya later, old La-Z-Boy; outta
here, teenage ephemera). The result is a neutral but attractive
environment that lets the bones of the home shine through. "We
were about to pull a town house off the market-it just wouldn't
sell," says Dominick Dutra, a real estate agent in Fremont,
Calif. "After a one-day staging, it sold for full asking
price: $545,000." Most stagers work with objects you
already have; some truck in their own pieces.
 Selling
Your Home in a Slow Market
Bubble or not, demand is softening. That means you'll have
to work extra smart to get the price you want
Adrienne Carter
November 2004 Vol. 33 No. 11
"Preparing your house for sale is
like preparing for a blind date," says Linda Mighdoll, author
of Get Ready, Get Set, Sell! "You have to make a good
first impression."To show your home to its best advantage,
concentrate on sprucing up the rooms that buyers care about most:
the kitchen and bathrooms. This is a cost of selling, not an investment,
so limit yourself to relatively inexpensive cosmetic jobs like
slapping on a fresh coat of paint, replacing broken tiles and
updating appliances. A modernized kitchen, realtors note, can
sell a whole house.
Neutral, light colors sell too. So paint
that purple bedroom a warm ivory, and get rid of the gold shag
carpeting from the 1970s. Up the wattage on your lightbulbs to
brighten rooms. Boost your curb appeal by trimming overgrown shrubs.
To make the best impression without spending a lot of money or
time, paint the front door.
Before your first showing, clean the house like you've never cleaned
before. Organize your furniture to draw attention to the nicest
features of your home, such as hardwood floors or a fireplace,
and pull back the curtains if you have a great view. You might
even seek a professional stager's help in showing off your abode.
While these steps help sell homes in any market, they move from
optional to essential when prices soften.
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