Staging Your Home to Sell

Spring is just around the corner and although it may not feel like it now, soon the flowers will be blooming, birds will be singing and the For Sale signs will be popping up on front lawns. If you are looking to sell your house this spring, we’ve put together some valuable tips from our Hodorowski Homes sales team for you to consider as you prepare to stage your home to sell.

"Spruce up the front of your home, including landscaping, lawn, walk-way, front door, porch area and garage door and trim” says Paula Filkins. “The first impression of your home is crucial to a potential customer.” An additional way you can spruce up your exterior is by power washing the exterior. If you don’t have one on hand, you can easily rent one from a big-box home improvement store. Another over looked but an easy fix item is washing all of your windows which will allow the best natural light to come in. John Mesko echoes that by saying: “Data suggests buyers decide not to buy a house within less than 2 minutes upon arrival, so keep your lawn mowed, or in winter plowed and shoveled! Be as neat as possible.”

Once a potential buyer steps out of their vehicle and into the front door of the house, make sure the inside is in order. Jim Bordis suggests to “De-clutter and keep it simple. Remove anything that's not needed, so in a kitchen for instance, if you don't use the toaster every day, put it away.” As you are de-cluttering, Jim also suggests putting away some of the personal family photos, this way the potential buyer can better envision themselves living there. Mesko adds: “Rent a storage unit short term, if needed. Keep ALL areas viewable and illusion of space as good as possible. Make beds, clean dishes, make a place someone wants to stay and explore as opposed to flee.” And while ridding of clutter is always good for your home, one other suggestion is to bring in fresh flowers on the kitchen counter or a few smaller vases of fresh flowers along the center of your dining table.

The last but equally as important tip for staging your home is to freshen up the carpets and floors of any pet hair and odors. If a potential buyer is offended by any odor coming from your house, the chances of them making an offer will be slim.

Oh, and if you are looking to build your dream home, we happen to know a great trustworthy company who can make that happen.

* Paula Filkins has 25 years of experience in both re-sale and helping individuals and families through the process of building a new home.
* John Mesko has been working with Hodorowski Homes for over 25 years and is experienced in both new construction and re-sale.
* Jim Bordis’s background is in management and has been guiding people through the building process since 2003.

Hodorowski Homes is the Capital Region's premier homebuilder building single family homes in Schenectady NY and it's surrounding regions. Please visit www.HodorowskiHomes.com for more information.