Real Estate Staging Los Angeles, Does Your Listing Feel Like a Cave? Learn The importance of Good Lighting

Hi,

This is Darlene Parris with UPSTAGED!  a Professional Home Staging and Interior Redesign Service in Los Angeles.  Thank you for joining me here again today.  I just wanted to give you a little quick tip here today on something that people need to make sure they're doing in all of their showings.  And that is lighting.

It's so important to make sure that your potential buyers, as they're coming into your home and viewing your home, have enough and ample lighting throughout so that they're able to take a really good look at your home.  So as they are walking through, you want to make sure that you have every light turned on.  And even in the bathroom, it's going to be important because those are darker spaces.

Also, make sure that all the curtains are drawn wide open to allow as much light in as possible.  No one wants to feel like they are living in a cave or that they could potentially be living in a cave so light your home to dollars and cents for you on the market.  Make sure that you're doing this for each and every showing.

I'm Darlene Parris.  Thanks for joining me again here today.  I'll see you next time.  Bye-bye.

Darlene Parris

Interior Redesigner, Organizer, Home Stager

UPSTAGED! by Darlene Parris

www.GetUpStaged.com

888-224-0323

Real Estate Staging, Will Your Home Make Potential Buyers Stop The Car or Just Keep On Going? Quick Curb Appeal Tips That Will Make Everyone Want to See More

Hi, this is Darlene Parris with UPSTAGED!. Thanks for joining me here today.

Today we're going to talk with you a little bit about curb appeal and the importance it plays in preparing and staging your house for sale.  Curb appeal is vitally essential to the overall look of your home.  Because after all, 'Hello' or 'Goodbye' starts at the curb.  So let's talk about the things that need to happen when you are preparing the exterior of your home for sale.

First if you have either stucco or siding to your home, you can certainly take the out time to power wash that home.  Get off all that excess dirt and grime that's been there and built up for years. If you have loose paint on the home or loose stucco, you definitely want to address those issues by patching and repairing whatever needs to be patched or repaired.

Don't forget to clean out your gutters.  It's really important that they're not full of leaves especially at certain times of the year.  Fall time you're going to get lots of leaves if you have big trees on your property or surrounding your property.  Clear out those gutters.

Clean off your walkway.  Make sure that there's a very clear path to your front door.  And while we're talking about front doors, make sure that your front door sparkles.  If you need to add new hardware to your door or even paint your door, that would be a wonderful thing, because from the street, people need to be able to see that entry and know that it's beautiful and ready to receive people.

Don't forget that if you have exterior lighting, that it should shine and be pristine.  Pay attention to your door knobs, your door bell, your mailbox.  If those things need to be cleaned up... CLEAN THEM UP so that they sparkle and shine.

And don't forget to trim excess foliage and shrubbery or even overgrown trees.  It's going to be important to frame your house in the best possible light that's available for your home when you're trying to sell.

And if you have animals, even outdoor animals, make sure that you have cleaned up properly behind your animals and that they are contained in a particular space during your showings and that of course the property is free of animal waste and things of that nature.

Feel free to put out any decorative items, without going overboard though, outside.  For example, if it's Christmas and you wanted to put out a few poinsettias on the steps, that is certainly acceptable and perfect of the occasion and the season.  So you can decorate still, while not going overboard, and making sure your curb appeal is clean, concise and ready to rock and roll.  When buyers show up, they want to stop the car as opposed to continuing down the street.

Thank you so much for joining me here today.  I'm Darlene Parris with UPSTAGED!. See you next time.

Darlene Parris

Interior Redesigner, Organizer, Home Stager

UPSTAGED! by Darlene Parris

www.GetUpStaged.com

888-224-0323

Home Staging Tip #5, Could Your Ceiling Fan Kill Your Deal When Trying to Sell Your Home?

Hey there,

It's Darlene Parris with UPSTAGED!, a professional Home Staging Company right here in Los Angeles. Today we're going to finish our 5 part series of ways to avoid deal killing criticisms when trying to sell your home.

Today's tip, although it may seem very commonsensical, is not widely followed, so pay close attention. Today's tip is all about cleaning.  And again, although it sounds like someone would do this all the time no matter what, it does not happen a frequently as it needs to.

So I'm going to invite you to start by looking up.  Up because you want to look at all the little corners at the ceiling line in your home and make sure you're taking down all the spider webs and dust bunnies that exist there. While you're looking up, make sure you take a look at your light fixtures and clean those. They need to sparkle and shine as well as your ceiling fans.  Those are notorious to harbor lots of dirt and gook as they stay up for years and years and years and some people never touch them at all.

You want to then look downwards onto your walls.  Repair and paint any chipped or peeling paint on the walls but of course if your paint is in good shape, you can just go ahead and wash your walls.  Not a problem.

As you continue to look further down, take a look at the floor boards and baseboards. Scrub those things! They tend to collect lots of dirt and dust over time.  And if you can't get them clean, go ahead and paint them.  A fresh coat of paint will make anything feel brand new.

And then of course all the way down are your floors.  Your floors need to sparkle.  If there's carpeting, they need to be cleaned.  If the carpet is sagging, it needs to be re-stretched or replaced if your budget can handle that.  If not, stretch it out, clean it up, make it fresh and ready to rock and roll.

This is no ordinary cleaning.  This is not your weekly regimen cleaning.  This is not even your mother-in-law coming over, white clove type cleaning where you get the kids to pitch in. This is the type of cleaning that if you can't do it yourself, hire a cleaning crew to come in and do the cleaning for you.  Your cleaning crew, much like your Stager or your Real Estate Agent, are going to have fresher eyes than you.  That's because you live in the home yourself.  You see it all the time and every day.  You don't look into all those little crevices that the rest of us do.  So hire a cleaning crew to go through and fine tooth everything so that your home is pristine and buyers will appreciate that.

So again, this is Darlene with UPSTAGED!, home staging agency right here in Los Angeles.  This concludes our 5 part series of Five Ways to Avoid Deal Killing Criticisms When Trying to Sell Your Home.  Thank you so much for joining us.  We'll catch you next time.

Darlene Parris

Interior Redesigner, Organizer, Home Stager

UPSTAGED! by Darlene Parris

www.GetUpStaged.com

888-224-0323

Home Staging Tip #2: Is Too Much Stuff Standing Between You And a SOLD sign?

Hi… I’m Darlene Parris with UPSTAGED! a Professional Home Staging Company right here in Los Angeles.

Today I’m going to talk with you about tip # 2 of our 5 part series of how to avoid deal killing criticisms when trying to sell your home.

Today’s tip has everything to do with decluttering.  I know that on the surface, decluttering sounds very easy like ‘well I’ll just put my junk in a closet’.  Well, not necessarily the case when it comes to decluttering your house to prepare it for sale.

Let’s take a minute and think about what buyers are and what they do.  When buyers show up to your open house or to view your home, buyers are going to go through all of your cabinetry, your kitchen, your drawer space, they’re going to open up every single closet you own, they’re going to look at how much counter space there is in your kitchen, they’re even going to look into your garage because all buyers and everyone needs space for their stuff. 

That said, if you’ve just taken all of your things from the living room floor and from the bedroom that are unsightly that you don’t want around, and just shoved it into a closet somewhere, then technically you’re showing the buyer that they won’t have enough space in what will be their new home.  And remember you’re trying to sell a buyer your home but also a lifestyle that goes with the home. 

So That said, decluttering is more than just taking your stuff and sticking it into a corner.  You will really have to take a look at how much you have and how much you need.  You may look at off sight storage for some of the things that you can put away for your future home.  So if you don’t have enough garage space to pack things away neatly and label them as such… living room, dining room, etc, as you’re moving and stack them neatly into your garage space, then doing an off site storage unit would be the answer if you have excessive things.

Of course closets, you want to pare down things that you don’t need.  And you can always prepack.  So for example, if its summertime and you’re selling, well you can certainly pack up all of your winter clothes and heavy garments and such.  Prepack those things and have them labeled in your garage or off site storage and have those things out of the way so that when buyers or prospective buyers are looking at your home, they see the kind of space that they would be able to enjoy once they’ve purchased your home.

The same thing is true for kitchen counter tops.  You don’t need every single kitchen appliance you own on top of those counter tops.  Maybe a few would be out but again, neatly organized so that a prospective buyer can visualize themselves, not in your old house but their new house.

I’m Darlene Parris with UPSTAGED! Professional Home Staging Company here in Los Angeles.  Thank you so much for joining me today.  And tune in next week when we’ll cover the 3^rd tip on ways to avoid deal killing criticisms when trying to sell your home.

Thanks… see you then!

Darlene Parris

Interior Redesigner, Organizer, Home Stager

UPSTAGED! by Darlene Parris

www.GetUpStaged.com

888-224-0323

Home Staging Tip #4: What's That Smell? Is It Your Deal Going Out With The Garbage?

Hi… This is Darlene Parris with UPSTAGED! a Professional Home Staging Company right here in Los Angeles.

Today I’m going to share with you tip # 4 of our 5 part series of Ways to Avoid Deal Killing Criticisms when trying to sell your home.

Today’s topic is ODORS!  Funny.  Right?  Well…not so much in the eye of the buyer.  It is very, very, very important that no matter how immaculately staged your home is for sale, that there are no potentially offensive odors existent in the home. 

Potentially offensive odors are pet, food or even cigarette odors that kind of linger.  For those of you have pets or smoke or enjoy that highly seasoned food cooked at home, that’s wonderful.  But when you have potential buyers coming into the space, it’s going to be important to note that they will see and smell everything you don’t. 

When you live in a space, you become very easily acclimated to the smells and sounds of that home.  A prospective buyer come in, it’s all new, it’s all fresh to them and so they’re going to very quickly pick up on anything that seems out of place.  And certainly if they smell pet odor or last night’s dinner or even cigarette smoke, that will be something that will be a deterrent for them and turn them off to purchasing your home.

An impression that one gets when smells of a home aren’t quite right is a very lasting one and they will walk out of that beautifully staged home thinking ‘Ugh… it’s beautiful, but it stinks!’  So they won’t be able to live there.  So certainly, you want to make sure you make your best effort to clean up any potentially offensive odors for prospective buyers.

Again, this is Darlene Parris with UPSTAGED! Thank you so much for joining us here today.  And see me next week when we’ll talk about the 5^th and final way to avoid deal killing criticisms when trying to sell your home.

Take care.

Darlene Parris

Interior Redesigner, Organizer, Home Stager

UPSTAGED! by Darlene Parris

www.GetUpStaged.com

888-224-0323

Home Staging Tip #3: Mine, Mine, Mine!!! Is That What Buyers See When They Are Looking at Your Listing?

Hi… I’m Darlene Parris with UPSTAGED! a Professional Home Staging Company right here in Los Angeles.

Today I’m going to cover with you tip # 3 of our 5 part series of 5 Ways to Avoid Deal Killing Criticisms when trying to sell your home.

So today’s topic is all about depersonalization.  Well what does that mean exactly right?  Well when you live in a home the house is yours so you tend to personalize it the way you want with all the accents and colors and things that you enjoy.  When you’re trying to sell your house however, you’re trying to neutralize the space as much as possible while still making it feel like a home.

So that said, we want to then take away some our most personal effects. So if you have things as simple as your toothbrush and toothpaste out on your vanity top, those things need to go away and be out of sight so that when a potential buyer comes in, they’re not looking at your things.  They’re visualizing their things in the space instead of yours.

Another thing to depersonalize is artwork.  You may be a person that has lots of family photos or memorabilia on the wall.  Those kinds of things can serve more as a distraction for a potential buyer than an added feature.  You want them to look at the bones of your home, what your home is all about, not necessarily your family and your lineage or the team that you’re involved in.  Although those things are wonderful for you, it is very hard for a potential buyer to actually get past those things because in every space as they walk through your home, they’re looking at YOU, YOU, YOU.  And what they’re trying to do and what you need to allow them to do is visualize ME, ME, ME.  Which is ‘hey… how do I see myself in this home?  Does this home make me want to put in an offer because I can see me in the home?’

So remember, Depersonalization is our #3 tip of what to do to in order to avoid deal killing criticisms when trying to sell your home.

Thanks for joining me today.  I will see you next time.  Take care.

Darlene Parris

Interior Redesigner, Organizer, Professional Home Stager

UPSTAGED! by Darlene Parris

www.GetUpStaged.com

888-224-0323

Home Staging Tip #1: Do WHAT To Get My Home Ready For Sale?

Hi,

I'm Darlene Parris with UPSTAGED!, a Professional Home Staging Company in Los Angeles.  This 5 part series will give you tips on how to stage your home and prepare it for sale.

You might think that staging your home to sell is not important so you've left it off your list entirely.  Well... you might want to rethink that notion.

Consider this fact:  Today, more than 85% of Home Buyers search for homes online before ever actually setting foot unto a property.  So let's have a moment of honesty shall we?  Imagine if you listed your home for sale today and your Real Estate Agent took pictures of your home right now.  What would your photos reflect?  What would prospective Buyers think of your home's condition, upkeep, cleanliness and space? Would your home move to the top of their "must see" list or will they decide that you're asking way too much for far too little?  Get the picture?

So why would you leave money on the negotiation table by deciding that you don't need Professional Home Staging?  You see, staging your home to sell before you lists gets you prepared to sell and better pictures for your listing, which creates more views online.  In turn, you drum up more interest in your property.  More interest in your property translates into multiple offers.  Multiple offers mean you get the price you want. Getting the price you want equals a faster closing.  A faster closing means... well, you fill in the blank of what it means to you.

So... Tip #1 to avoid deal killing criticisms when trying to sell your home, get Professional Home Staging BEFORE you list!

I'm Darlene Parris with UPSTAGED! thank you for joining me here today look for me next week when I'll discuss tip # 2 on how to avoid deal killing criticisms when trying to sell your home.  Thank you.

Darlene Parris

Interior Redesigner, Organizer, Home Stager

UPSTAGED! by Darlene Parris

www.GetUpStaged.com

888-224-0323