Pretty soon the second busiest home selling season of the year will be upon us and if your house is going to be a part of it this fall, we need to make sure that you’re capitalizing on it. So what things do you 100% need to keep top of mind when selling your home?
The number one and most crucial thing (before even touching your cluttered closets) is to determine the psychology of your ideal buyer. So, how do you tap into your buyer’s wants and needs?
There are a lot of psychological factors that need to be considered when staging and marketing your home for a successful sale, but let’s just touch on a few below.
Firstly, ask yourself and your realtor, who is your target audience? Who is the ideal person or family to buy this home? Once you know this, you can then start to determine how your home needs to be presented to those people, in order for them to be emotionally attached to your home from the minute they walk through the door. Emotions play a huge factor in the marketing and selling of your home, if a buyer doesn’t get that warm, fuzzy feeling within the first few minutes, not only will they not remember your house when they’re done viewing 10 others that same week, but they won’t even spend much time looking around. Remember, taking into account all the below considerations becomes even more crucial when you only have 7-10 seconds before the buyer creates their first and lasting impression!
Let’s say your ideal buyers are a couple with a young child/family, for example. A 
couple who is taking the next step from their first-time home, as they need more living space, an extra bedroom, and a bigger outdoor space for their children.
What key wants and needs are going to be on their wish list? What do you need to show them to tick all their boxes?
- You need to make all living spaces feel big, bright and functional – If you show any of your friends or family some pictures of bright and spacious rooms, verses dark, closed-in rooms, 9 times out of 10, their eye would be immediately drawn to the brighter spaces, as it plays on our emotions of an ‘inviting place’. This is exactly the emotion you want to create with your online listing photography and the feeling you want to maintain for the buyer when they arrive at your home. Removing excess furniture, such as extra tables, chairs or smaller pieces of furniture that are not really adding to the value of the room, will immediately create a sense of space and more importantly good traffic flow. (Quick tip – pulling things out of the corners of the room will instantly make the dimensions of the room appear bigger. Try it!) When your staple pieces of furniture are in the correct places, add some colourful, interesting décor elements i.e. throw cushions, neutral-themed artwork and ornaments, to give a higher-end look and value to your home and ensure that lasting impression!
- You need to
fully showcase all bedrooms – This is where turning rooms back into their original function becomes really important. The way we ‘live’ in our home, is not the best way to ‘sell’ our home. So while turning the smallest bedroom into an office worked for your lifestyle, it’s likely not going to work for your ideal buyer who is looking for extra bedrooms. Setting up and showcasing every bedroom in the house, with the basic necessities, to be fully functional and pleasing to the eye is going to hook in the buyer quickly.
- You need to keep a simple, tidy outdoor space with a hint of interest – You certainly don’t need to invest big $ into landscaping, but you can bet your bottom dollar that this is probably going to the icing on the cake decision for the buyers and their young family. They’ve toured the rest of your home, with its beautifully presented bedrooms and very functional living space and what they really need to see now, to make them offer you full asking price, is the ideal back garden for the children to play in. Neatly cut grass, that has been well-maintained with some inexpensive lawn feeder and some simple grasses/scrubs finished off with mulch, is about all it takes to show the buyers the well-presented outdoor space they’re looking for. Also remember that the curb appeal of the front of your home is just as important to create that great, lasting first impression!
Full details of our Home Sale Preparation Report, which include our professional recommendations all of the above mentioned items and more, can be found HERE. For an investment of just $200 +hst, we can provide you with an easy-to-follow yet detailed report, on the day of assessment.
Don’t forget…we also have a large warehouse full of fabulous home staging furniture and accessories available to rent if you’re missing that perfect piece!
