Lee Morof's Real Estate Blog

When it comes to real estate, putting your home in its best light is key when it comes to making the sale. While it may seem like you’re more limited with a home of a smaller scale, here are a few ways you can enhance what’s best and make a good impression on potential buyers.

Let There Be Ideal Light

If you’ve ever taken note of a room on a perfectly lit day or a downcast one, the difference in how lighting can impact a space is marked. When staging your small space, you’ll want to check the lighting of each room and make sure it ideally enhances the space it’s illuminating as few things can improve the look of a place like lighting. If you’re prepared to go all out, you may even want to install a swanky chandelier or lengthy light fixture in certain rooms as it can draw the eye up and lengthen the look of your space.

Brighten a Room with an Accent Wall

Homeowners often think that bright colors are a bad idea because they’re flashy and will minimize a space, but using a brilliant color on one wall of a room can actually maximize the look of your room and can serve as something memorable for viewers of your home. While you’ll want to make sure the color you choose isn’t garish and doesn’t completely overwhelm the eye, you’ll want to keep in mind that an accent wall works particularly well for enhancing a pint-sized bathroom.

Stand By a Statement Piece

It might seem like unique or off-the-wall furniture pieces will overtake the room in a small living space, but one statement piece can actually provide potential buyers of your home with a unique look that may instill an interest in your house and highlight it in a unique way. Instead of choosing multiple pieces that are bright or quirky, stick with one or two items per room that will stand out and make themselves known, but will still give off the living-style vibe that you’re going for.

Staging a small home can seem more complicated with less space, but there are great ways that you can highlight it to positive effect. While you may want to consider an accent wall or lighting that will effectively illuminate the room, if you’re interested in more tips for small home staging, you may want to contact a local real estate agent for more information.

When it comes to staging your home to sell, it can sometimes seem like there are so many things to do that it’s hard to know what will make a real difference. Since staging is such an important aspect of successfully selling your home, here are the three golden rules for how you can make it work for you!

Don’t Forego The Front

Homeowners often spend so much time inside of their home that it’s the first thing they think about when it comes to staging, but the first thing a potential buyer is going to notice is the exterior so it’s very important to keep this in mind. Ensure that the grass is cut and any stray plants or weeds are trimmed or pulled. If you’ve left out any old, ugly furniture or the kids toys are strewn about the lawn, you’ll want to clean these up so the house is polished and enticing right from the start.

Make It Match With Your Décor

There are no certainties that the design aesthetic you have is going to appeal to your potential buyers, but they will notice if your home is completely out of touch with its accents. If you’ve got a comfy, family style place, make sure you deck it out in durable but well-maintained duds that will complement the buyer you’re trying to capture. On the other hand, if you’ve got sleek hardwood floors and a stylish accent wall, you should be able to get away with a modern decorative style that can only enhance your home’s natural charms.

Keep A Handle On The Accessories

It’s certainly true that a personal style that gives off the sense that you really live in your home will draw in the offers, but you’ll want to keep some of it at bay so your decorating is not distracting the viewers. Instead of going for big, over-the-top pieces, stick to a style that’s neat and tidy with some quaint accents that will play it up. A few brightly cultured coffee table books or a quirky light fixture can go a long way in adding interest to your living space!

It may seem like a lot is required to properly stage a home, but by using these golden rules you should be well on your way to a successful sale. If you’re currently in the process of selling your home and have questions about entering the real estate market, you may want to contact your local real estate professional for more information.

With the busyness of the holiday season, selling your home during the winter months can often be more difficult than it is in other seasons. If you’re intent on selling before the year is out and you’re looking for some staging pointers, here are a few ways to convince potential buyers that your home will be the perfect place to spend Christmas!

Compliment Your Home’s Colors

If the green, red and gold tones of the holiday season contrast with your home décor, it might be a good idea to bring out some less flashy pieces that will still lend to the joyous season. Instead of huge garlands all over the house or old decorations that have been passed down through the years, go for items that will complement the décor and coloring of your home to maximum effect.

Adorn It With A Wreath

A holiday wreath is often the perfect finishing touch when it comes to home decorating, but since your door will be one of the first things that potential buyers will see, it’s a staging tip you might not want to go without. Since a wreath will make buyers think of the exciting season ahead, it may be much easier for them to picture themselves sipping eggnog around the fire and putting presents under the tree of their potential new home.

Bake A Holiday Batch

There are few things more enticing about the holiday season than its treats, and since it’s proven that scent can go a long way in selling a home, you might want to dive into the holiday baking early. Whether you go with shortbread or gingerbread, this sweet holiday scent will likely enrapture potential buyers and may make them feel like they’re already home.

Keep The Tree Simple

It goes without saying that you’ll want to put out a tree for the holidays, but with all of the personal trimmings that can go into a tree, it’s a good idea to keep it relatively simple. Instead of overdoing it and distracting from the rest of your home, go for an understated tree with a few bulbs and simple decorations. This will showcase your love of the season without obscuring the attention that’s meant for your house.

Selling a home in the winter months can be more difficult than it is in spring or fall, but staging it for the holiday season may have a positive impact on potential buyers. If you’re curious about other staging tips for the holidays and selling in the winter, you may want to contact your trusted real estate professional for more information.

The idea of impressing potential buyers can be a matter rife with stress, but there are a few things you can do before a viewing to ensure your home is seen in the best light. If you’ve recently put your house on the market and you’re looking for some fast and easy fix-ups, here are a handful of ways you can be sure to create a positive first impression.

It’s All About the Smell

It may seem like purchasing a home is all about appearance, but you shouldn’t underestimate the power of scent when it comes to the overall impact of your home viewing. Instead of leaving this invisible factor up to chance, consider giving the house a quick light spray with a pleasant scent or even baking something that will be sure to remind potential buyers of the familiar comforts of home. Make sure you dont over do it though, having too much sent may make potential buyers uncomfortable or even sick.

Take Away the Family Portraits

While it won’t be necessary to clear away everything of personal value, a large number of photographs in the home can actually remind potential homebuyers that it’s not their home and may make them feel like they’re a visitor in a place they want to live. By removing the photos that adorn the fridge and the side tables, you can eliminate distractions for potential homebuyers and keep them focused on what the home might come to mean for them.

Clear Away Any Clutter

This might seem like the most common sense of points, but it’s very important that your house is clean so that viewers can see your home in its best light and will easily be able to imagine themselves living in it. While it’s important for giving your house the best possible presentation, it will also make your house look more spacious than it would with a lot of unkempt clutter.

Highlight Your Favorite Features

With potential homebuyers viewing a lot of different houses, having a few key features in your home that will help it stand out from the pack can be a definite benefit. Whether you have a fabulous Jacuzzi in the master bathroom or unique kitchen tiles that you installed yourself, ensuring that these features are noticed, and even accentuated, may help your home stick in the mind of its viewers.

Showing your home can be a stressful matter, but a few quick tips can ensure success with potential buyers. If you’re curious about other ways to impress viewers of your home, you may want to contact your trusted real estate professional for some valuable insights.

With the season of jack-o-lanterns and crunchy leaves under foot, there can’t help but be plenty of ways to integrate the loveliness of autumn into your home decorations. Whether you’re looking for a simple touch or a statement that will completely define a room, here are a few ideas for highlighting the best the fall has to offer.

Showcase a Seasonal Bouquet

A vase full of flowers can add a lot to any room in the house, but a great way to integrate the season outside with your home is to make a bouquet that will utilize the best of fall’s vegetation. Instead of opting for the usual bright colors, gather an array of colored leaves that strike your fancy and add a collection of branches to a vase that suits the purpose. If arranged right, this can be a striking and unique embellishment to your front entrance.

Carve Out a Candle Holder

An easy way to join the cooler weather with your inside atmosphere is to utilize the help of the season’s most familiar vegetable, the pumpkin. Instead of going for the typical Halloween carving, cut the top off of a small pumpkin, clear away all of the seeds and let it dry out. Once this is complete, you can put a candle in the pumpkin, and create a unique lighting look for your home. If you like it enough, you may want to consider doing it with several pumpkins for an even more festive display.

A Falling Light Fixture

Instead of making something from scratch, you might want to consider using the pieces you have in your home and switching them up to complement the changing season. If you happen to have a chandelier in your dining room and you also have kids who like to craft, have them put together some papier-mâché leaves and pumpkins so you can hang them decoratively from the chandelier. While this is a look that will take more work, it will be a particularly striking way to illuminate your chandelier – and your dining area!

Adding some fall inspiration into the mix for your home decorating can be a great way to better enjoy the season and have some fun with your family. From a festive chandelier to a striking autumn bouquet, there are plenty of ways to become crafty for the fair season. If autumn is making you contemplate your neighborhood and your home, you may want to contact your local real estate agent for more information.

When it comes to buying a home people are more apt to consider a newer model. After all new homes are more energy efficient; require less maintenance the perks many buyers want. For homeowners with older homes getting a competitive edge can take a lot of extra work, especially in today’s real estate market.

Give Older Homes A Fresh Look

But there are ways to make older homes stand apart from newer homes on the market. Start by sprucing up the outside out the house. It’s amazing how a fresh coat of paint and a newly paved driveway can improve the curb appeal of an older home. Also, it’s good to remodel any room that could use a fresh, updated look like the kitchen and the bathroom for instance.

Homeowners of older houses don’t have to spend a fortune to make their homes look like new, but it helps to help the prospective buyer feel easy about not having to commit to a heavy remodeling job if they buy the house.

Staging Works Wonders For Selling A Home

While cosmetic touch-ups are wonderful, there’s one thing the serious home seller should apply and that’s home staging. The ultimate goal of staging is to make a home as attractive to as many potential buyers as possible. More interested buyers means the home could potentially sell for more and sell faster. Staging isn’t new but has become more popular in this tough market.

Home staging is often mistaken for decorating, but it’s much more than that. Expert home stagers know how to present homes in the best possible light. This often means suggesting paint colors, or rearranging and moving items to make a particular space more appealing to buyers.

For instance, most lived in homes have one thing in common, clutter. Showing a house with clutter can make a buyer feel a home is too small. Expert home stagers know how to open up a home so the perspective buyers can see themselves living there.

According to the Real Estate Staging Association, home staging reduces listing time by as much as 81 percent. Also, there’s an up to 10 percent return on investment when home staging technique is implemented.

It is true that staging a home can be a bit of a challenge. Some homeowners may be bit put off by a stager’s suggestions, and by the inconvenience of the process itself. However, the result can be well worth it if it results in a quick sale.

Homeowners should call their trusted real estate agent, right away before deciding on a home staging professional. A real estate agent may even have a list of professional home stagers he or she regularly refers.

Curb appeal is often neglected by sellers. So much attention is spent getting the inside of a home cleaned up that the outside is left until last. This is a mistake. Landscaping and gardens are the first things a prospective buyer sees. Following these tips ensures homes look their best and give a positive first impression.

Spruce Up Mulch

A fresh layer of mulch brings out the color in a garden and makes gardens look well-tended. Homes on the market in the spring, summer, or fall benefit from a fresh application of mulch prior to putting a home on the market.

Clean Up

Cluttered yards full of toys and tools are unattractive. Pick up any clutter and place it out of sight of prospective buyers.

Branches, leaves, and other debris are equally unsightly. Rake leaves and eliminate brush to give lawns a clean, manicured appeal. This is important year round.

Renting a power washer to clean driveways and walkways is also advisable. A clean driveway and gleaming walkways invite prospective buyers to picture themselves strolling through the yard.

Trim Grass And Shrubs

Overgrown grass and shrubs look unkempt. Take the time to cut the grass and sweep or blow the clippings off of driveways and walkways. Trim shrubs and trees to desired shape and height, and clean up all trimmings.

Don’t worry about trimming out of season. Well-manicured landscapes suggest that the rest of the house is equally well maintained.

Fresh Plantings

Add a little color in the garden to increase its appeal with some fresh flowers. A new planting ensures blooms look their best, especially against that new application of mulch.

Tend To All Garden Beds

This is the time to spruce up all garden beds. Remove weeds and trim up perennials to create a well-maintained appearance. Remove or trim back any plants that look dead or otherwise unhealthy.

Address Water Issues

Yards with fountains, faucets, pools, and irrigation systems require additional care. The time to fix issues is before the showing.

Resolve any issues with irrigation systems. Clean fountains and pools of algae and leaves. Fix leaky faucets as they suggest issues elsewhere with plumbing.

Fixing up the outside is just as important as a clean interior. Making gardens, lawns, and landscaping appear attractive and well maintained gives prospective buyers a positive first impression.

Don’t wait until the day of the showing. Start working on landscape staging a month before putting a home on the market. Call your trusted real estate agent today for more staging tips.

With all of the time and money that can go into moving, spending money on one more thing can seem like a bank account drain. However, when it comes to selling your home, investing in a professional photographer can mean the difference between getting a buyer and making a sale you’ll be proud of. If you want to get the deal your house deserves, you might want to consider the skills of a professional who will make your house look like someone’s dream home.

“Lighting” Up Your House

If you’ve ever noticed how dull a room can look when it’s cloudy outside, you’ll quickly realize how important the right lighting can be in complimenting the appearance of your house. A professional photographer will be able to determine what hours and what types of flash will work to highlight the rooms in your house the best. Not only that, they will go above and beyond what your smart phone can do to correct the issues that can impact a potentially perfect picture.

Capturing The Perfect Panorama

In the right light, it’s possible that you’ll be able to get some great pictures of your house on your own, but a photographer will be able to go beyond that. It’s a proven fact that people are most often lured in by façade photos when searching for homes online, and it’s these the right photographer will be able to perfect. By using a professional who understands what size of lens to use to compliment your home, your photos will easily optimize the way your home looks.

Diving Into The Details With Expertise

Beyond the panorama shots that might convince a potential buyer into considering your house for their next home, a professional photographer may be able to hone in on details that differentiate your house from the rest. With their keen, curious eye, they’ll not only notice intricate details, they’ll be able to highlight them in a way that makes them look interesting, expert and one-of-a-kind. They’ll also be able to beautifully capture the special features that you love about your home!

It can be tempting to be cost effective when it comes to showcasing your home, but just like wedding photographs, you don’t want to skimp on real estate images. If you’re interested in learning more about positive ways you can highlight your home, you should contact your local real estate professional for more information.

To potential homebuyers, a bedroom is more than just a place to lay your head at night. It’s a place to relax, retreat, and recover, a place where the demands of the busy world are locked out. And with a properly staged bedroom, you can tap into potential buyers’ desire for relaxation and make your home their number one pick.

So how can you stage your bedroom in a way that buyers will love? Here are three strategies you can use to make your bedroom look like a modern oasis – without spending a fortune.

Position The Bed In The Right Place

One easy-to-change yet often overlooked detail in staging the perfect bedroom is the location of the bed. The bed is the focal point of the room, so position it accordingly. If your bedroom has French doors or a large window, positioning your bed directly opposite that amenity will create balance.

Ideally, your bed should have space to walk around it on both sides. If that’s not possible, place it against the longest wall in the room.

Use Neutral Colors And Ample Lighting To Boost Appeal

As a highly personal and intimate space, the bedroom is one area of the home where potential buyers are likely to try to imagine themselves in the space. If your bedroom incorporates loud colors, unique patterns, or poor lighting, it’ll be harder for potential buyers to envision themselves there. What you want is a neutral color and lighting scheme.

Take out any dark curtains and heavy drapes, as they can make the room seem dirty. Swap out your bed sheets with white duvets and covers, and use some solid-colored throw pillows for contrast. Add a lamp to give the room a cozy feel.

Remove Everything That Screams “You”

The point of staging a home is to help potential buyers see themselves living in it – if you can get buyers to picture themselves actually living in your home, they’ll form an emotional connection to it and will be more likely not just to buy, but to bid at or above asking price.

But in order to help buyers see themselves living in your home, you have to make it look as if you were never there. That means the family photographs, books on the nightstand, and exercise equipment has to go.

Home staging is a highly effective way to make your home sell faster – and for more money. And although it may seem like quite the undertaking, an experience real estate agent can make it a breeze. Contact your trusted real estate professional today to learn more about home staging.

Curb appeal is important in the home sales process, and this is because it will impact the overall first impression that potential home buyers have about the property. Some homeowners can easily spend a small fortune and a considerable amount of time improving curb appeal, but others may be looking for faster and easier results. The good news is that boosting curb appeal is easy and affordable to do when these three tips are followed.s

Spruce Up The Front Door

The front door and patio area are focal points for those driving by the home, and this area receives even more scrutiny by those home buyers who walk up to the home to take a tour of the interior. Re-staining or re-painting the front door can be highly beneficial to dressing up the look of this focal area, and this can give the impression that the home is well-maintained and stylish. In addition, consider replacing the front door mat and hardware on the door for improved results and added aesthetic appeal.

Power Wash The Exterior Of The Home

Beautification efforts for the front of the home would not be complete without spending time cleaning up the space, and one of the best ways to clean the exterior of a property thoroughly is by power washing it. Power washing the exterior may include cleaning the exterior siding material of the home, the patio, the driveway, the sidewalk and even the fencing. This can give the entire area a fresher and more appealing look.

Add Color To The Flower Beds

Some homeowners may not have funds or time available to fully revamp the landscaping, but showing the flower beds some attention can pay off. After weeding the flower beds, add some fresh, brightly colored blooms to the area to dress up curb appeal. Homeowners can finish off the look by spreading a new layer of mulch across the flower beds after the flowers have been planted.

Curb appeal is vital to selling a home quickly and for top dollar. Enhancing curb appeal can cost a small fortune and could take weeks to do, but even these small and affordable efforts can give homeowners great results with minimal time and money required. Homeowners who are thinking about selling their property soon can contact a real estate professional for personal assistance with their staging and home improvement efforts.