The sun finally showed its face today and what a difference that can make for those selling houses this spring.  Houses will show lighter and brighter, the flowers will bloom, the grass is green and outdoor living is once again appealing. 

It's never too early to start getting the house ready. One of the surest ways to ensure a speedy home sale is through effective home staging.

Home staging is more important now than ever.  "While our market isn't quite what you hear about on the news, it's a bit tougher than it has been. The quicker you can sell your house, the better off you are," says Jessica Dolan, Room to Breathe. "You can't change the location of your house. You could change the price; though you probably don't want to or you can simply change the condition. It seems more buyers than not, want move-in ready homes these days.  They don't want to fuss with updating and painting.   It's very inexpensive to make some of these changes, and the ROI is fantastic!"  

According to a HomeGain Survey, simple staging techniques, like deep cleaning and decluttering, can return up to 10 times the investment.  Room to Breathe supports this by saying that sometimes these two things alone can sell a house.  Yet sellers don't seem to take them seriously.

More expensive jobs, like painting (color is key though, so please don't slap a coat of white paint on the walls...ohhhh, that makes us cringe!) and simple updates to fixtures, can more than pay for themselves in increased sale price and reduced time on the market.

Staging does NOT have to cost a lot.  This is perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions floating about.  There are so many creative tricks, tips, and ideas that can be used to keep staging costs at a minimum.  Tricks that only stagers know because this is their specialty.  Room to Breathe loves to hear a Realtor or seller utter these words, "I never thought of that"...it's music to our lil' staging ears!  It's those little unthought of ideas that create a house that outshines its competition.

Room to Breathe has found that houses that have been staged spend about 33 days on the market, versus more than 150 days for homes that haven't been staged (at the time of this e-news article the average DOM in State College is 155.  Room to Breathe staged properties are selling in less than 33 days).

Call us today and we'll share a free tip with you!