REAL ESTATE PHOTOGRAPHY IN SOUTHERN MARYLAND- HOW TO STAGE A HOME
In the Southern Maryland real estate market, the visual elements of the marketing campaign are very important!
White Orchid, a home staging company, made a video and offer some very good points.
The staging business owner John Matthews, according to the video, says"
“Here’s the simple formula: when you stage a home for sale, the photographs looks awesome. And when the photographs looks awesome, people view that home online. When they view a beautifully staged home online, they visit, they fall in love, and they make offers.”
That makes sense!
You hired a professional real estate photographers to photograph the house - great. Professional photographs make a real difference that can promote the property for sale. But a poorly prepared house will not do nearly as good as one where the extra attention has been made to staging.
John says,
“Other than pricing it right, home staging and professional photography are the most important factors in selling real estate today.”
That seems reasonable since the vast majority of buyers will first see their new home on the internet along with the photographs and property information.
Here's an example:
Say there are two homes very close to each other. The Jones family and the Smith family. Both homes are identical in layout, each has three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
The Jones family is generally neat; with two small kids there is some clutter and the furnishing looks old. Their agent takes his own pictures and the some of the images are dark inside, there's a yellow cast to some, and others are too bight.
The Smith family has two children as well. Their agent encouraged them to have a professional home staging company help them out. The company used some of the Smith's furniture and brought in a few special pieces. The master bedroom, living room and dining room looked practically brand new.
They added some decorative pieces, a few beautiful chairs, and removed all the clutter. Their agent hired one of the best photographers in the town where they took outside pictures during daytime and great twilight photograph as well. The home looked great!
Both houses are priced the same and on the market at the same time.
Now, when potential buyers are browsing the internet, which home will be more attractive? The Jones family's home that looks very average, poor photographs or the Smith family which is staged and has great photographs?
Clearly the Smith home presents itself better which supports the point made in the video - home staging and professional photography will influence buyers, reduce the days on market and improve final sale price.
Here are some suggestions when selling a home:
Prepare your home with a professional staging company. If your budget doesn't support that, then there is a lot of improvements you can make on your own.
Tori Toth is a professional home stager offers a few simple tips.
Tip #1: Declutter – “Get creative with storage solutions”.
Tip #2: Start packing – “Pack away items you will not need immediately over the next few months.”
Tip #3: Clean up – “Giving your entire house a wash from top down so it sparkles is a must when preparing a home for sale.”
Tip #4: Handle repairs – “If you have small repair projects around the home … complete them before going on the market.”
Tip #5: Painting – “Make the home look fresh and clean.”
Tip #6: Reuse items – “Play with rearranging furnishings that may maximize square footage and improve traffic patterns.”
Tip #7: Curb appeal – “Add some seasonal flowers, a new mat, and a wreath to welcome buyers up to your front door.”
Top 10 real estate staging tips included in the video above are:
The top suggestions include:
#1: Make a first impression so that the exterior of your home looks great as people approach it.
#2: Declutter your entire home – “If it’s smaller than a basketball it probably needs to go somewhere.”
#3: Impersonal works, and that’s because the buyer wants to imagine themselves living there.
#4: Keep it fresh by making sure there aren’t any unpleasant odours.
#5: Declare a war on grime by cleaning the home like it’s never been cleaned before.
#6: Hire a handyman to take care of all the little odd jobs around the home.
#7: Colored up with fresh paint in key rooms and the front door.
#8: Reduce furniture so that there is more open space to make the rooms look bigger.
#9: Light it up by washing all of the windows to add 30% more light, and replace low wattage bulbs with brighter lights.
#10: Add a touch of humanity by bringing in some fresh plants or flowers in a vase.
He summarizes this by saying this great line:
“The way we live in a home doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best way to present it to the world.”
I think it’s important to remember if we don't have a perfectly staged home right now while we are still living there, then that’s not a bad thing – we live in our homes and that’s fine. However, when it’s time to sell a home then we need to see it as no longer a home, but as an item that needs to be sold. Taking the time to present it the right way can have a big, big impact upon the final sale price that you achieve.