In a chancing market or let me say in a buyers market you need to make a significant first impression. And a first impression you only can create once! With a big pool of houses to choose from buyers need to remember your house ……………. in a positive way.

Generally, buyers are not good at analyzing homes or knowing which house will be the best “fit” for them. Instead, they make predictions based on their first impression and then act in a manner that makes the outcome become what they initially expected. Simply put – they act on emotion. For example, if buyers have a great first impression of a home, they will communicate more with a seller, look at fewer other homes and work diligently to ensure that what they have envisioned comes to fruition. Unfortunately, studies have shown that first impressions may not be the most accurate, but they are often self-fulfilling. The reality is that buying a house is an emotional and psychological decision for the buyer. Studies show that most buyers make a decision about a house within 10-15 seconds of walking in the front door. In fact, they were already forming an opinion as they pulled into your driveway. To achieve the greatest possible outcome, a home should always be presented at its best the first time around. There is little room for error.

One thing I realized after years working in an “easy sellers” market is that sellers don’t always understand the psychology of selling a home. Please view this video and just think you are the buyer. A nice fresh, clean, uncluttered and easy to manoeuvre in and around house is SO pleasant. Make your house stylish and be creative, simple… not flashy.

Is home staging a new fashion or a need? Home Staging also called House Fluffing, Real Estate Staging, Home Styling, Real Estate Merchandising is the art of decorating a home to sell quickly and for top dollar. As said earlier your house must be pleasant to enter. That might implicate that you have to rearrange your furniture, take away picture’s of the whole family. The buyer must be visualising themselves in the house. It must be light and bright, rather in crème’s and white’s then in orange, green and more radiant colours. Your house must smell clean, meaning that we don’t smell the dogs and cats or granddad.

Chuck that clutter & trash the kitsch. If you use your food processor only once a month, purge your cabinets of unwanted items to make more room inside for it and other countertop appliances you rarely use.

Colour Your World. Cabinets, drawers, walls, even a laminate backsplash and countertop can be re-painted (use melamine paint for laminate) to give your kitchen a whole new look.

Pull Together. Replace cabinet knobs and drawer pulls . . . In fact, by just changing towels (colour-coordinated, of course), a new shower curtain, adding flowers and a fresh coat of paint, you can even create a new bathroom in a single day. Other simple solutions that complete the picture include changing outdated light fixtures. For some reason, a new lighting isn’t one of the top jobs on most consumers’ remodelling To-Do lists. Many homeowners are stuck with the same rack lighting that once was the pinnacle of style and a staple in countless suburban cookie-cutter homes. Swap them for halogen lights, which more closely resemble natural sunlight.

Driveway and frontdoor. The driveway needs to look clean. Take away bits and pieces you have dropped there over the years. Plant some colourful plants and make it a happy welcoming drive into your property. Repaint the front door if your dogs or children made there marks on it. One can of paint will make a world of difference. Lastly, do not forget general landscaping around your home. Trees and scrubs can beautifully add to the character of your home, but unless they are trimmed and tame, they appear to make your house dark. Add some colour – it is always a winner! You can do it yourself or I can give you advice. But there are professional home stagers available. Invest in your house, invest in yourself and invest in your future.

Recent Entries

• Rate cut provides welcome relief
• National Budget 2009
• FNB PROPERTY BAROMETER (HOME BUYING MARKET) Q3 2008
• Emotions in the market
• VAT OR TRANSFER DUTY?
• THE NATIONAL CREDIT ACT AND BOND CLAUSES
• NATIONAL CREDIT ACT
• NO NEED TO PANIC
• VOETSTOOTS – DOES SILENCE CONSTITUTE FRAUD?
• ELECTRICAL COMPLIANCE CERTIFICATES – A REQUIREMENT IN LAW

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 12:20 am and is filed under In & around your house. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.