Archives > October 2014

Occupied Home Staging Tips

Furniture Placement and Traffic Flow

Property presentation has so many factors, from the exterior curb appeal to the deepest darkest cabinet in the basement. All areas matter when trying to sell your biggest equity holder.

When planning a room layout for furniture, professional designers go to great lengths to build a plan using drawings and they measure with multiple considerations taken into account.

Although you are not a professional designer, it is important that you follow some basic advice on furniture layout and traffic flow when selling your home.

TRAFFIC FLOW

Consider that when you are having a showing in your home, there may be a few people in attendance. The Realtor, Buyers, their children and perhaps the mother in law! These people are creating traffic through your home and need to be able to move freely, without issues, in order to feel that the home is spacious and accommodating.

All small furniture pieces, miscellaneous ottomans, silk trees, toy boxes, extra chairs, table leaf’s, boxes, storage bins, dog beds…you name it, it needs to be out of the way.

Create a natural flow of walking traffic through your home starting at the door and working your way through to the rest of the home in the way that it naturally opens up.

Proper home staging directs the traffic through each room and also invites the buyer into each room using specific staging techniques.

FURNITURE PLACEMENT

When doing your de-clutter process prior to staging, take care to remove all extra items and then asses the room from the doorway, considering the traffic flow and the focal point first.

All the furniture should be planned according to the natural focal point and the where the buyer will be traveling. So if it’s a bedroom, start at the door and make sure that it’s easy to walk to the closet (they always look in the closets!)

Then make sure that the bedroom window is easy to get to, as buyers’ always want to look outside to get a birds eye view of their surroundings.

Furniture layout in bedrooms should be spacious and designed to accommodate the largest bed the room can handle, with side tables and lamps, on both sides if possible.

In living rooms, create conversation areas, and also pull furniture away from the walls a bit, it will actually open the room up. Consider symmetry when working with fireplaces or built in’s so that the eye is not distracted by a off set furniture placement.

In addition to updates and proper pricing, Staging a home brings in better offers than not staging it. So clean, repair and stage your home, price it correctly and see results fast.

For more on this topic – get you own copy of my eBook, complete with detailed checklists to make the staging process go smoothly

https://stageandsell.samcart.com/products/stage-and-sell-your-property-faster

Jill Turgeon

REALTOR® @ One Percent Realty & RESA Award Winning Home Stager

& Owner of Simply Irresistible Interiors

780-218-7444

https://linktr.ee/thestagingagent

Offering her optional “Stage and Sell Real Estate” services to her listing clients, she can strategize with you on the best way to set your home apart for selling

*This website in whole, is not intended to solicit listings that are currently under contract to other brokerages.

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Direct the Buyer’s Eyes

During your MLS showings and your “In Person” ones!

The strength or weakness of your showings depends largely on what the buyers see when they view your home for the first time.

Considering that all showings are now taking place ONLINE first, you need to make absolute sure that your small jpg MLS photo has an impact visually to the buyer, as well as when they walk through the door.

This is assuming that the pictures were attractive enough to bring them for that second showing “In Person”.

Buyers today surf the internet first before calling an Agent and they decide which homes they want to see. They go online, type in a price range and location and then go from there.

If your home lands in their category, it is IMPERATIVE that your small photos are fabulous enough to warrant a second showing in person.

HOW DO YOU DO THIS?

Creating a visually appealing photo largely depends on the rooms being clutter free, well laid out, as well as color coordinated. Try to keep visual clutter to a minimum and once you have decluttered and rebuilt the layout of furniture. Take a few test photos to see what pops out at you and then edit accordingly.

Make sure that the furniture lines are working with the fixed elements such as fireplaces or railings, and use pops of color to accent, not dominate a room. Remove all items that fill up floor space unnecessarily.

You can direct the buyers eyes by placing furniture and art or greenery next to the area you want to highlight, such as in the photo above. We wanted to direct the eyes to the back of the large recreation room, so we added a papasan chair to pull the eye over.

Directing buyers eyes is all about marketing the assets of your home and showing them how great it would be to live there. Each home has some great asset and when a buyer is only in your home for 4-7 minutes, this can be easily missed unless you take care to point it out.

Remember when you were shopping for a new home?

They all started to blend together after a few and unless something really got your attention, it was hard to keep it all straight in your head. Work off this principal when preparing your home.

Stay on the top of the Buyer’s list by directing their eyes to your property’s assets.

Stage and Sell Real Estate with Jill

When listing your home, Jill offers project planning and contractor management, painting, fixtures updates, facelift renovations, and of course professional staging.

In addition to updates and proper pricing, Staging a home brings in better offers than not staging it, So clean, repair and stage your home, price it correctly and see results fast.

If you are thinking of selling and may need a few things done before hand but don’t know where to start, let’s book a 15 minute strategy call to see if working together would be a good fit.