If you’re considering selling your home in Toronto, the first impression it makes on a potential buyer can make or break the sale. Whether they see an MLS listing for your home or pass it on the street, it has to draw them in and make them wish they lived there.
According to a 2011 analysis by the Real Estate Staging Association, homes which were properly presented when being put on the market were likely to sell 79% faster than those which were not.
Preparing your home can not only help you attract the right buyer and close the sale, but get top value for your property. Proper staging requires knowledge, experience, insight into the market, and a bit of creativity.
It’s about more than cleaning the house and putting away family photos. Preparing a house for sale in the GTA requires an understanding of the home’s value, the market you want to sell your home in, and the pool of buyers you will be selling to. It’s the kind of specialized knowledge that few people other than experienced real estate professionals have.
Preparing a Home for Listing, Not for an Open House
Although most people think that a home is staged for an open house, at Frank Leo & Associates we do things differently.
We don’t think you should have strangers walking through your home so we avoid doing open houses.
Instead, we provide buyers with information about your home on the Toronto & GTA Home Listings page of our website.
This approach is part of the innovative marketing strategy that has made Frank Leo the #1 RE/MAX Agent in Toronto & the GTA.
It’s with this core value of putting you first that we will prepare your home for sale in Toronto & The GTA. Now let’s get down to what to avoid when staging your home to entice buyers and help get your home sold for top dollar value.
For most people, step one will be getting help from a real estate professional.
Professional Home Staging in Toronto & The GTA
Although being involved with the preparation process as a seller can be productive, the real estate team should be driving the operation and making decisions.
A real estate agent who understands the property’s value and selling points is ideally situated to leverage them and sell the property for top dollar. A good Toronto Real Estate Agent will know the market, the buyer, and how to reach them.
Know Your Audience When Selling Your Home in The GTA
Prepping a home is marketing the home, and that’s what real estate agents do best. While some people choose to sell independently and have success taking this route, in a market as competitive as Toronto hiring a realtor is a quick way to get insights into your potential buyers that can increase your chance of selling for top dollar.
If you’re looking for a Toronto realtor to stage and sell your property, Frank Leo has 3 decades of experience selling 1000’s of homes and will do the same for you, Guaranteed. Find out Frank Leo’s net worth as a realtor for yourself. Contact Frank Leo today to get started.
Once you’ve decided whether or not you will enlist the help of a realtor to sell your home in Toronto, it’s time to move on to the staging itself.
Avoid Over-Staging the House For Sale in Toronto
By getting your home show ready we can get it sold for a better value, over-doing it can potentially be a detriment to the home sale and lose you dollars on the final price. It is possible to over-stage a house.
Avoiding over-staging comes down to keeping décor tame but interesting and being tasteful with choices. Don’t decorate too much or focus too much on one element. Instead, blend together each aspect of the home’s décor into a cohesive whole.
Don’t Under-Stage If You Are Selling Your Home in Toronto
Potential buyers should step into your property and see it as a blank slate for their home. If it looks fake and uninviting, it’s going to be difficult for them to imagine themselves in it.
Placing fake plants, bowls of fruit, food, or other “staging” items into your home can prevent buyers from feeling comfortable in it.
Make Sure You Are Staging Your Home For Sale in Toronto To Scale
Most people like living in spacious accommodations, so it may seem like a good idea to use smaller items and furniture throughout a home in order to give the illusion of more living space.
Using this tactic can actually dwarf the home and turn buyers off. Potentially making home staging mistakes like dwarfing a room is one of the many reasons why you shouldn’t stage a home for sale by yourself.
Furniture and accessories should match their space in both scale and proportion. For example, a small family room won’t benefit from having small furniture to make it look more spacious. You should embrace the space and instead make it look cozy.
Interior Design is A Crucial Component of Staging Your Home for Sale in Toronto
Design plays a big role in staging your home for sale in Toronto. If your home is the artwork on display, the design is the frame which accents its presentation. When done right, design can work wonders in winning over buyers and getting your home sold for top dollar in Toronto.
With that said, here are some tips to make sure your interior design contributes to your home staging when you’re selling your home in Toronto.
- Don’t “Overdesign.” The trick with interior design when you’re staging and selling your home in Toronto is to create a feeling of subtlety and nuance – not bold, in-your-face décor. The interior design should accentuate the features of your home, not overshadow them. After all, it’s the home you are selling and not the décor.
- Use Neutral Colours on the Walls and Avoid Custom Wallpapers. As a homeowner, it’s normal to want to decorate your space to your tastes. Using bold colours or exciting patterns on the walls can be fun, but there’s no place for this type of expression in a home that’s on the market. Your tastes are not necessarily your buyers’. Use neutral colours to appeal to a wider range of potential buyers.
- Don’t Leave the House Feeling Empty. Removing clutter is good, but taking it too far by removing too much in terms of interior décor will leave the house feeling empty and cold. That’s definitely not the feeling you want to evoke in people if you’re trying to make them feel at home. Strike a balance between maximizing sense of space while creating a sense of presence in each room.
- Avoid Personalizing the Décor. As with the walls, the rest of the home’s interior design should be neutral and contemporary. If you’ve personalized your home’s interior or done certain rooms in specific styles, you should do your best to make them as neutral as possible. Give your buyers a blank slate and let their imaginations run wild.
- Beware of Bad Paint Jobs. Whether it’s on the interior or exterior, whether it’s window trim or a baseboard, old and chipped paint gives the impression that the home is not looked after. Even subtle details can turn buyers off. If you need to repaint make sure to use warm and neutral colours.
- Keep Colour Palette in Mind. Although it makes sense to choose neutral colours when staging your home for sale in Toronto, that doesn’t mean the colour palette should be uniform. If everything matches, it becomes bland and uninteresting. Use subtle contrast to accentuate features of the house which are selling points and invite the eyes to get excited when taking in a room.
- Don’t Be Too Neutral. Although you should avoid being too bold, being too bland will make it difficult for the house to make an impression on the buyer. Consider adding a splash of unique appeal to rooms to make them stand out from one another, and from other houses for sale in Toronto.
Keep Surfaces Clear
Surfaces up to 5 feet in length should be kept clear of clutter. Larger surfaces can do with having some items left on them so they don’t look bare.
Although placing décorative vases, books, or other props on tables could seem to add flare to a room, it’s also potentially distracting from what should be the main focus – the property you’re selling. Let your buyer’s eyes flow across the room, interruption free.
Keep Personal Belongings Stored Away When Staging Your Home for Sale in Toronto
Minimize the number of personal items and memorabilia you have on display. Family photos and other heirlooms are some of the most distracting items you can have in your home when showing it to potential buyers.
Each personal item is another reminder to the buyer that they are in someone else’s space. You want buyers to feel comfortable and at ease, so take any family photos, heirlooms, or even unique furniture to your next place or put them in storage while the house is on the market.
Aside from family photos, too much art on the walls can also make the home reflect a particular style or taste. A few plain pieces here or there are fine, but over-doing it runs the risk of making the space seem like an art gallery than a home for sale in Toronto.
Avoid Blocking a Home’s Best Selling Features
Knowing where to place furniture and other elements of décor is just as important as the items themselves. It’s important to make sure none of your furniture or elements of décore are blocking a home’s architectural selling features. These can include windows, fireplaces, floors, and more.
For example, one home feature which can really draw a buyer’s attention and appreciation is a bay window. They bring in light and often open onto a gorgeous view, so keeping them covered by curtains or obscured by furniture really detracts from the buyer’s impression of the space.
Make Sure Carpets Are Looking Their Best
If the property you are selling has carpeting, it should be new or at least recently cleaned. Carpets retain smells and stains and can be a real turn off to buyers because they can indicate that the home has not been well maintained.
Wall-to-wall carpeting needs to be cleaned by a professional or replaced. You can also remove a small area of a carpet to check what type of flooring is underneath. If the original floor is nicer than the carpet then you’ve saved yourself a cleaning bill. You can tear up the carpet and just add a fresh area rug to give the room a sense of presence.
Hardwood floors which are completely bare can make the furniture seem out of place or give the room a sense of being unfinished. Throwing a rug under an armchair or coffee table can go a long way to make a room seem more inviting.
Curb Appeal Is Important
Aside from seeing an MLS Listing for a home for sale in Toronto, the first impression a home makes on a potential buyer is the curb appeal. Before even entering the property, buyers have already formed an opinion.
Whether it’s the driveway, the front door, or the landscaping in the front yard, exterior elements are just as important as the interior of the home. First impressions make a big impact, so investing in livening up the curb appeal of a property can really pay off in the final sale price of the home.
Don’t Leave Selling Your Home in Toronto to Chance
Staging a home for sale in Toronto isn’t easy and requires an expert understanding of market conditions, potential buyers, and more. Although some people choose to stage independently, hiring a seasoned real estate agent will help you get top dollar value when selling your home in Toronto.
Frank Leo has 3 decades of experience selling homes in the Toronto real estate market and has sold 1000’s of homes in the city. He can do the same for you with our Guaranteed Home Selling System. Frank Leo’s Net Worth as a Realtor is proven by his consistent results in Toronto & The GTA.
Contact Frank Leo to learn more and sell your home in Toronto to the right buyer for the right price.
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