(484)318.5629

ReImagine Interiors

Interior Designer|Interior Decorator|Interior design services

How to avoid Selling Mistakes (even in a Hot Real Estate Market)

by Filed Under: home stager, home staging, tips

Can anyone mess up their sale in a hot real estate market? The answer is yes!
Even though the real estate market is showing signs of improvement in this spring market and the inventory is low there are a few mistakes a home seller should avoid if they want to sell fast and more profitable. If you want to have several buyers bidding for your house, follow these easy steps and sell your home fast and for more money:

1. Price it Right

Yes, the market may seem hot but and pricing your home too high may get you burned. While the inventory is low and the current market resembles a “sellers market” high pricing for condition and location may make your property become “that one” that sits on the market and makes home buyers think “there must be something wrong”.

2. Prepare and Showcase your home

When selling your home – no matter if the market is hot or not, it is important to look at it objectively, through the eyes of a critical home buyer. Identify the potential negative issues buyers may have and correcting them through prep work or staging. Identify the positive features, the selling points and show them off. Create emotional connections through the home so the potential buyers can envision themselves living there.

Don’t forget the curb appeal and that includes the backyard too especially during the spring/summer months when everyone’s attention shifts to the outdoor spaces.

Home staging is designed to increase the selling price and reduce the amount of time the house stays on the market. Having your home professionally staged in will bring out multiple offers.

3. Have Great Marketing Photos

Home buyers start their search for their new home online and having lousy pictures of your home won’t help driving more foot through the door. Your house should be at it’s best on photo day and phone photos really shouldn’t be allowed!

4. Give space to your potential home buyers

Now that you have prepared and showcased your home for a faster, more profitable sale and your marketing is in place allow your potential buyers to view your house and Give them Space to envision themselves  living in your house.

Try to be flexible and allow showings when needed. It is tough and emotional draining to have the constant visitor in your home but if the first 3 steps are in place you will start getting offers really soon. Also, work with your home stager. She/he will be able to help you keep organized and on top the things so that the hassle of showing your home at about any time will be minimized.

5. Don’t Hide Issues from the buyers

Sometimes when a seller is a hurry to sell is tempted to hide issues like the leak in the roof or the crack in the foundation. The problem is that these things come up during the inspection and at a hefty price! The potential buyer may back up their offer or ask you to cover the costs to fix the problem adding an extra 10%  to cover any other issues they may think were not disclosed.

6. Don’t go at it alone

Last but not least, find a good realtor. Ask your friends or relatives for recommendations, conduct interviews, see if you are on the same page. But keep in mind they know what and for how much is selling in your area and have the connections necessary to market your home better.

If you want to sell your home for top dollar you need to use all the marketing available to you: work with a professional home stager to wisely chose the improvements that will get you the best return on investment and showcase the property in it’s best light possible, have a great online presentation, public open houses, etc. The more people see your house and go WOW the better your chances are  for selling it.

What do Millennial home buyers want? – Move in ready

by Filed Under: home stager, home staging tips

According to recent studies millennials or gen Y comprises the largest share of home buyers. What do they want? Here is my tip as professional home stager in Chester County: younger home buyers want a house that is turn key.

While homeowners are hesitant to invest in a property they are getting ready to sell – and it is understandable, they should reconsider. Selling your home AS-IS might cost more than doing some easy fixes and it will only help selling the competition. Of course, a full kitchen or bathroom remodel are not necessary most of the times, or even recommended. But if you lived and raised your family in your home for 15-20 years most likely your house needs a face lift.

Home buyers are not looking into getting an allowance to fix up the cracked concrete steps or to repair the roof, redoing the kitchen or the bathrooms, or repainting. They want a home that is priced well so they can move right in without spending any extra time or money.

One of the reasons younger buyers want updated homes is that they have limited budgets and most of their budget will probably be maxed out by the down payment and furniture. They won’t have extra money to paint, update the kitchen or the bathrooms. They will want to move in as soon as possible and not when they’re done with the improvements that would make their new home livable.

Let’s say you offer a $3.000 allowance for replacing the carpet. The buyer will think: “Ok, but will this be enough to get new carpet for the whole house/ whole floor?” or “I’m new in the area – I don’t have time/want to source that right now”. Your potential home buyer might take your offer and knock down another 10% just to be on the safe side and make sure they cover all the costs. Or they reject your home, and move on to the house down the street that is in move in ready condition.

So work with your home stager, and let them help you find what repairs, improvements and finishes that would bring the best return on investment and help showcase your property. Don’t ask your potential home buyers to assume risks and additional expenses. Most of the times, they will be either unwilling or unable to purchase a home that will require repairs before they can move in.

As a professional home stager here is my advice: if you want to get your Chester County home sold faster and for more then price it right and have your team in place to make sure it is in move-in ready condition and marketed right.

Why a Home Staging Consultation is the Best Investment

by Filed Under: home stager, home staging

Many people seem to think home staging is just moving things around, fluffing up some pillows or getting in rental furniture. While that may be partially true, every home is different and everybody has different things to work with.

By calling ReImagine Interiors for an occupied Home Staging Consultation you’ll get expert advice on what what updates would bring the best return on investment(ROI) and how we can accomplish an effective “packaging” to bring the best out of your home, at an affordable price.

home staging return on investment

During a Home Staging Consultations we’ll go through your home, inside and out, and we’ll discuss what needs to be done to get your home in market ready condition. We will suggest the optimal furniture layout, discuss what items need to be pre-packed, and make paint color recommendations, if needed.

If you’re the do-it-yourself type then a Home Staging Consultation is the perfect choice for you! The goal of the Home Staging Consultation is to give you a solid plan for what needs to happen in every room of your house. At the end of your consultation you will know exactly what needs to happen in each room in order to sell your home for maximum profit.

Once you’ve completed all or part of the suggestions discussed in your Home Staging Consultation, ReImagine Interiors will do as much or as little work as you’d like.

The bottom line is that with an investment of only a few hours of your time and a couple hundred dollars for a Home Staging Consultation you will see at least 299% ROI (according to HomeGain Home Improvement National Survey Results). And having your home professionally staged always costs less than the first price reduction.

To schedule a Home Staging Consultation call (484)318-5629 or send me an email at info@reimagineinteriors.com

Home Staging Tip: How to Make a Small Room look Bigger

by Filed Under: home stager, home staging, home staging tips

Staging a house for sale doesn’t have much to do with decorating, it is more about marketing. When staging a property for sale I may make the place look boring or spare to the home owner, but the way we live in a house is completely different from the way we’re selling it. When staging a home for sale I’m selling the property and it’s architecture, not a personal style.

As an expert home stager in Chester County I have 4 main goals and everything I do in staging is done to meet one of these goals.

One of my main goals, as well as a frequently asked question by homeowners and real estate agents is how to make their home or listing look bigger in order to appeal to more buyers.

Here are 9 tips for making a small home feel bigger. You can use these tips whether you are staging a home to sell or if you are planning to stay and just need some help dealing with smaller rooms.

  1. Remove clutter. Lots of smaller items eat up visual space and make a room look smaller. Only display a few items at a time and in odd numbers like 3 or 5. Try and follow the “cantaloupe rule”: items smaller than a cantaloupe just crowd a room.
  2. Use appropriately sized furniture and pare it down to essentials. Having a large sectional in a small family room will highlight how small the room is. If possible opt for sofas and armchairs with exposed legs, it will create a sense of light and space.
  3. Cooler colors recede while darker colors make a room seem cozy. Opt for lighter paint colors like gray, pale blue and light colored flooring as well to make the room feel airy. You can also make a room appear larger by painting the walls, trim, and detailing in different shades of one color, such as off-white.
  4. Pulling the furniture away from the wall will create the illusion of spaciousness.
  5. Show more hardwood. The larger the expanse of hardwood, the larger the room will look. Area rugs are good for defining spaces but you should try and see how it looks without a rug too.
  6. Strategically placed mirrors make a room feel larger.
  7. A well lit room feels larger. Use a few smaller lamps to spread the light around and draw the eye around the room.
  8. Use fewer and less busy patterns on upholstery. Extra tip: If you have a big sifa that has a busy patter you can always “break it up” with a solid color throw and throw pillows.
  9. Minimize or even remove window treatments if they’re dated. The simpler the better. Shutters, blinds or simple drapes take up less visual space, give a cleaner look.

If you need help figuring out how to make your home or listing feel larger or more appealing contact us for a home staging consultation. It’s a great investment in preparing your home or listing for sale, or making your home more livable if you are planning to stay.

Home Staging Myths

by Filed Under: home stager, home staging tips

Even though they know the importance of Home Staging, a lot of Realtors have a difficult time bringing up the subject and when they do they find that clients are going to be skeptical and resistant for many reasons. Here are some of the most common myths:

Myth 1: I Don’t Need to Stage:  My Realtor will sell my house anyhow 

Maybe, but the question is how long are you willing to have your house on the market and how much is that going to cost? And the cost doesn’t include only the financial toll but also the emotional part. And always, the longer a house sits on the market the lower sale price will be.

Myth 2: Staging is Decorating/Staging is a Critique About How You Decorate
Staging is NOT decorating. Staging is a marketing tool.

While decorating and home staging have elements in common, the way you decorate is to express yourself, and to fit the personalities of your family. When staging a home you will make it look more appealing but  one should not be able to to profile who lives there. The way you live in your home is different from the way you sell your home.

Myth 3: Staging is Only for High End Houses

You would think so…but regardless of the listing price of the home, home staging is always beneficial to the seller. The only difference between an “average” priced home and a high end home is the amount of staging that has to be done. In the average home, it just might be as simple as de-cluttering and re-working the existing furniture.

According to a HomeGain study, the number one thing that added value to a house was de-cluttering which added an average return on investment of a ridiculous 403%!  
The key is how to de-clutter, how to de-personalize and how to make emotional connections, and using a professional Home Stager can give you the direction that you need.

Virtual Staging

by Filed Under: home stager, home staging

I feel that the “virtual staging” subject comes back every year and tends to be a “hot subject” in the industry. And since real estate season is about to peak, even more so. I see ads all over the place attempting to sell you virtual staging software.

In my opinion there are two types of virtual staging:
The first type of virtual staging is basically a “virtual” consultation because the home stager I won’t actually go into a client’s home but I give staging advice by email based on the images of the property they provided. It is an ideal situation but for some wors and it gives homeowners professional home staging advice.

The other type of virtual staging is the one where no home stager goes to the home and no real furniture goes in the house. Sometimes the floors are refinished, carpet ripped off and hardwood installed, and the walls are repainted too!
How does it work? Photos of the property are sent to “virtual” stagers who choose furnishings and accessories that are rendered into the photos so that buyers see the picture of an attractive room when browsing online, on a brochure, etc

I can see how this type of software could be useful to show what you’re going to do in a home when working on an interior re-design project, but for home staging I think it kind of beats its purpose.
Potential buyers are going to be quite disappointed and confused when they arrive at the house and see that the house looks nothing like the photos they viewed online.

Using virtual staging to give an idea to potential buyers how they could arrange the place might work if you place photos of the “staged” place in the house and explain what they represent and their purpose. Everything else is misrepresentation if you ask me, and it may backfire.

My job as your professional home stager is to make the buyer fall in love with your home, and while having great pictures online it’s very important, it is not everything – it is just the first step. Once the buyer walks in and doesn’t recognize the place the disappointment will settle in, and an unhappy buyer is not a buyer that will likely make an offer. Home staging is a 6th sense: in order for buyer to have an emotional connection and an actual feel of the space the ol’ traditional staging is what a home really needs.

Why Home Staging Works

by Filed Under: home stager, home staging

Home staging works! But why you might wonder: the truth is that today’s typical home buyer wants either a great deal on a property or they will pay a premium to buy a home that is “move in condition”
Most of the times the house hunters start their search thinking they can look over empty or cluttered rooms. In reality, less than 10% of buyers can actually do that. Home Buyers leave the house with a list of items they want to find in a house but end up buying based on emotion.

Successful home builders know they need create a lifestyle that the potential buyers will aspire to and this is the reason we see te Model Homes in new developments. They don’t leave things to the buyers imagination.

The same principle is applied in home staging/real estate styling to help you sell your home quickly and for top dollar.

Home staging is about creating a great first impression of a well-maintained home. Done well, home staging should make your house look bigger, brighter, cleaner, and warmer. Home staging should give purpose to every square foot.
Staging your home should help buyers make that emotional connection that makes them want to buy your house instead of the one down the street. Done well, a staged house should feel like home – your potential buyers home, not yours.

Once a potential buyer can say, “I love it, this is it” they will be looking past some of the “must haves” they had on their checklist before they walked in the door. That’s why when staging a home to sell it is important to have a strategy and to pay attention to even the smallest detail.

Simple things like rooms that are crowded with furniture, too many personal collections, squeaky doors or dripping faucets make the buyer think that maybe the house wasn’t maintained well, and they’ll going through the house finding small issue just to reinforce that first thought. All these little items should be fixed.

To sell your home fast and for maximum profit you want buyers to fall in love. This is what motivates a potential buyer to actually make an offer and not continue their search to find the perfect home or “the great deal”. Once they start worrying that if they don’t take action someone else will, once they start thinking that if they don’t act now they might be sorry, the competition stands no chance!

Why stage your home?

by Filed Under: home stager, home stagers, home staging

First and foremost You have only one chance to make a first impression and real estate staging is exactly that: giving the best first impression to potential buyers. A professional home stager will research the current trends in the market and the buyer demographics in the area. A professional stager will strive to provide emotional connections to buyers to your home and will provide furnishings and accessories that appeal to broadest range of your buyer demographic.

2. Staging sells your home faster.
You heard it thousand times but lets really think about it: the longer your home is on the market, the longer you are stuck and not able to move on with your life. No matter if the market is hot or not it is physically and emotionally draining be opening your home to buyers while having to keep it in show-ready condition. And then it comes down to the cost of “hanging” onto a home more than you want. Which is my next reason why staging your home works:

3. Staging sells your home for more money.
For most of us homeowners our home is our largest investment, so when time comes to sell we should treat it as just that: an investment. Staging studies show that staged homes sell for at least 8-10% more than their non-staged counterparts. Today’s buyer is more likely to pay more or have less objectives if the house is perceived as turn-key.

4. Staging is a great listing tool.
Having your home staged will make it look better in the marketing materials which results in more showing activity. Real estate agents will be more likely to bring their buyers to see a staged home as they see them as properties ready to sell. The result is a lot more EXPOSURE for your home and a product which will stand out from the COMPETITION.
As a seller you might want to consider staging your house if it is ‘market-worn’ or at the end of the listing period. The house can then be re-introduced to the market as the “Hot New Property”!

5.Staging always costs less than your first price reduction.
The BEST time to stage is BEFORE you list your property. When a house first goes on the market, it usually receives a lot of interest from real estate agents and the buyers. That’s the time to strike. Once that first wave of interest passes, time can become an enemy for a seller.
The next best time to stage is NOW. Consider staging before reducing your price – you wont believe how much impact staging your home can have!

Contact ReImagine Interiors today for a consultation. Home staging services for Chester, Delaware, Montgomery Counties and the Main Line Philadelphia.

Chester County, PA Home Staging Tip: How to Live In A Staged Home

by Filed Under: home stager, home staging tips

So you’ve had a professional home stager come to your home and you’ve done everything that they recommended in order to get your home sold fast and for top dollar. Now you probably wonder how are you going to keep your home show ready all the time.

 

[/one-half-first]

Model homes make us dream about living there, but living in your own home while it is being staged can be exhausting. Your home doesn’t have to look show-ready ALL the time because the way we live is different from the way we stage a home to sell. The key is to contain you personal items so your home can become show-ready at the last minute.

Now that you’ve packed up all the things that are not needed for the next few months, keep in mind this is not the time to be buying more toys or kitchen gadgets.

We want buyers to think that there is adequate storage and staying organized is easy so don’t try to shove everything off counters into kitchen cabinets and closets at the last minute. Buyers will probably open every cabinet and drawer unless it’s furniture.

Instead you can use a basket or a box to store keys, mail, bills, unread magazines etc. and keep it in an out-of-the way place such like in a drawer in a desk. It will not only eliminate a cluttered appearance, but it will also protect your privacy.


Remove all toiletries from the bath counters and showers because buyers don’t want to see your used bottles of shampoo and body wash. Think “spa” or “hotel”. If you don’t have a closed cabinet under the sink, purchase baskets to store these items.
Your home stager probably recommended white, new and fluffy towels be displayed during showings. You can keep the display-only towels, on the towel bars, and hang your regular towels elsewhere. Before a showing remember to remove the laterr and put in the washing machine or laundry basket. Another option would be to have the new towels neatly stored in a linen closet or in the cabinet under the sink. Before an open house do the towel switcheroo.

At the suggestion of your home stager you’ve probably packed away some or most of the toys(children only play with maximum 10-20 of them anyhow!). Make sure you have storage bins or chests in which to put these items. They make for a much neater appearance.

For a fast clean up another suggestion would be to take a laundry basket and walk through the home and put everything in there that you don’t have room to store away. The laundry basket can be stored in the basement, or the trunk of your car to be safe:)

There are many other things that should be done prior to showing your home and having an open house checklist handy is helpful so that you know exactly what you have to do.

Award Winning Interior Design Firm

Reimagine Interior Design Awards