5 ‘Hip’ Ideas for Do-it-Yourself Staging

By Erica Christoffer, Contributing Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

Looking for some quick home staging ideas that don’t cost a lot? Here are five inexpensive “Hip Tipz” from stager Charlene Storozuk that will help you show off a home with painting techniques and found objects.

1. Paint bedroom furniture antique white and the walls a darker tint. Add crystal hardware such as a chandelier or light fixtures for added elegance to create a French-inspired bedroom.

2. Frame a favorite tea towel for display in the kitchen.

3. Make the rooms off the hallway appear larger by painting them a lighter shade than the hallway.

4. Vintage door panels make an interesting headboard when painted.

5. Make a sloped ceiling appear taller by installing a shelf underneath at height of lowest point of slope.

Are Your Listings Ready for the Spring Buying Season?

By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine

It’s time to get those listings ready for the spring! A recent article in U.S. News & World Report by Luke Mullins, 10 Cheap Ways to Boost Your Home’s Sales Price by Spring, offers up some affordable ideas for getting a property in selling-ready shape in time for the spring sale season. Among the ideas in the article:

1.)  Touch up the paint on the front door—it’s one of the first places buyers will look!

2.) Paint the interior a light yellow or cream color that creates a nice constrast with white woodwork. Read more

Staging Tips: 5 Rules for Tackling Walls

By Erica Christoffer, Contributing Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

Walls are a key element of home staging. They are the canvas showcasing the greatest attributes of a house. But where do you start when preparing a home for sale? Staging Diva Debra Gould, president of Toronto-based Six Elements Inc., offers up five rules of thumb for handling walls in home staging.

1. Remove personal pictures: Those wedding portraits and baby pictures have to come down, as do diplomas and awards. Personal items such as these are distracting to potential buyers. You want them to focus on the home itself, not who the current home owners are.

2. Pay attention to the condition of the walls: If the walls are beat up, dirty or chipped, it can distract a buyer and negatively impact the sale price. “Paint is the cheapest, easiest, and fastest fix you can do on a house,” says Gould. The colors, she says should be fairly neutral, but not to the point of boring.  Select an interesting neutral color palette with three to four tones, or colors that compliment the existing features of the room.

3. Hang mirrors: Big or small, round or square—there is a mirror out there for every style of home. “Mirrors are a great way to visually enhance a room and to help the room appear brighter,” says Gould. Mirrors can provide subtle stylish appeal or an anchoring focal point. Another benefit: they don’t cost a lot! But it is important to think about what the mirror will reflect—avoid unattractive or cluttered areas of the home.

4. Get some art: Select art work that accents the best qualities of a room. No controversial pieces, violent scenes, or religious art. “With staging, what you want to do is enable the buyer’s eye to move around the room and take in everything,” says Gould, and the art should help achieve that goal, not hinder it.

5. Stay in proportion: Small pieces of décor get can get lost on large walls, while giant prints can be overbearing in an area with only a little wall space. Mirrors, paintings, and other elements of décor should relate to the furniture around it, Gould says. Consider the composition before you get out the hammer.

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould is president of Six Elements Inc. and creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. An entrepreneur for 20 years and author of several guides, Debra has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate and uses her expertise to train others worldwide. She also offers a Directory of Home Stagers and a free home stager locator service. For more information, visit www.stagingdiva.com.

Bathroom Update: Maximum Impact on a Minimal ($71) Budget

By Charlene Storozuk

Let me start out by telling you that our home was the recipient of this quick and easy facelift.  My husband and I bought our home as a fixer-upper. It’s taking longer than expected to finish because little things such as life, time, and money seem to get in the way. When it came time to update the bathroom, we had a decision to make. Do we totally renovate it, or spend the money on a new patio instead?

Since both of us love the outdoors, the patio won out. Here’s what I’ve done with the bathroom temporarily and something you can pass along as an inexpensive fix for those selling their homes.

You’ll see that the cupboards looked tired and were starting to peel. The previous home owner painted them before listing, but he either didn’t clean them thoroughly, or he used the wrong paint. Read more

Government Allocates $100 Million for Lead Paint Removal

Nearly $100 million in federal stimulus money will go to getting rid of lead paint from low-income homes, Vice President Joe Biden announced Friday. The toxic paint–which can lead to health problems, particularly in children–is often found in homes built prior to 1978.

HUD is making the money available through grants that will help 53 local programs in 20 states and the District of Columbia.

“It is unacceptable that some 40 percent of homes in this country still contain lead-based paints, the majority of which are in low-income areas where homes have not been renovated in decades,” said Biden in a public statement.

Read more about the dangers of lead paint and the 5 Most Dangerous Hazards in a Home in REALTOR® Magazine’s Handouts for Customers (helpful articles that can easily be incorporated into your marketing materials to buyers and sellers).

From an Architect: 6 Affordable Ways to Make Your Listings More Attractive

By David Applebaum

In this market, selling a house can be more challenging than ever. As a real estate professional, I’m sure you have used many ideas to help make your property look its most attractive to potential buyers. As an architect for two decades, I have suggestions and tips to maximize your potential in selling the home.

Every house and every property is different, and I recognize that a “walk through” can inspire specific ideas for each property. But here are some universal suggestions that will make any house look more appealing for sale.

1.    Clean everything. Eliminate damaged and soiled items, get rid of half of the furniture and rearrange the other half, and remove any personal items. It is important to give the buyers the ability to see themselves in the property.

2.    Accent lighting. This can help make the home more attractive and accentuate the positives by highlighting the homes attributes and diminish the negatives of any setting. The key is to realize that you are playing with contrasts.

Some other lighting tips:

• A light along fabulous furnishings, an architectural element, or detail will show that element off.
• A light behind an object will frame the object in darkness and bathe what is behind it in a wash of light.
• Use highlight and contrast to make a room feel longer, higher, or warmer. Read more

Color Psychology: Choose the Right Color for Your Listings

By Melissa Dittmann Tracey

Is there a science behind selecting the right colors for your listings? In this month’s Realtor® Magazine, I spoke with experts in the field of design psychology to learn how the color on the walls may affect buyers’ moods. (Read the article: “Can Color Cost You a Sale?”)

For years, psychological research has been offering insights into how the brain reacts to color choices. Such research is often tapped by the marketing field in making products more desirable to buyers.

Can these same studies be applied to motivating such big purchases as a home? It’s a leap, but at a subconscious level, certain colors on walls may evoke buyers who enter a home to feel more welcoming and even warmer (which may be particularly nice for rooms in chilly areas of the home).

A recent study by lead researcher Juliet Zhu of the University of British Columbia found that red seems to improve attention to detail. (The findings appeared this month in the journal Science.)  The researchers speculated that we’re taught at a young age that red means danger so red might slow us down and prompt us to zoom in on details (so would that make it a good choice for, say, surrounding the fireplace or to bring out other key details in your listing?).

While color preferences and psychological responses vary, research has revealed some of the following commonalities, according to The Rohm and Haas Paint Quality Institute and Architects Design Group (also included below is suggestions of what rooms the color may work best in).

• Red: Increases energy and heart rate, creates excitement and stimulates the appetite. Best for: Dining rooms

• Orange: Adds comfort, warmth, and cheerfulness and too much can bring about feelings of cautiousness. Best for: Living rooms and Read more