5 Tips for Selling your House with Meridith Baer

Home staging is so important because it can sell a house 80% faster and for 20% more money than an un-staged home. The National Association of Realtors did a study and found that staged homes could sell 80% faster and for 11% more money. On average, we see about 20% more money for our staging. The first home I ever staged sold in less than 30 days to an all-cash offer that was $500,000 over asking price!

Home staging allows potential buyers to identify with the space and form a connection with the house as opposed to a connection with the owner. For example, we once staged a home that a single screenwriter was living in. We thought the house would be great for a family, so we turned the office into a child’s bedroom. A family ended up buying the previous “bachelor pad”!

We’ve staged for Gerard Butler, Katy Perry, Matthew Perry, Brad Pitt, Jay Z and Beyonce. Once we staged Scarlett Johansson’s house for a sale. When we walked her through to show her the staging, she loved it so much she took the house off the market and stayed!

There a few rules I always follow:
1. Use shades of white. White makes everything feel new and can even make a room look larger.
2. Make a great first impression. Statistically, you have eight seconds to make an impression on house guests. Painting the front door an unexpected colour sends the message that the home is well cared for.
3. Use fresh orchids to liven up a room.
4. Remove all personal pictures. Potential buyers can’t imagine themselves living in a home if it’s full of other people!
5. Use large mirrors to bring in more light.

Leaving personal items out (like family pictures) [and] having too much clutter around the house – this makes a room feel smaller.