De clutter, De clutter, De clutter
When staging and preparing your home for MLS photo’s and open houses I cannot emphasize how important it is to de clutter your home..it is nothing personal I promise. If you love that oversized painting hanging above your couch then go for it in your new home but scale and size may over power the space for that possible home buyer who has just walked through your space.
When staging, a rule of less is more is often the case, and the job of a stager is to know how much less and how much more is needed!
Staging is about what the potential buyer see’s, not the empty, void of personality home you say you see when all your personal belongings have been pared down. I promise this is not personal…decorate your next home with your flare and colours but make the home you wish to sell stand out
and be what it needs to be to the vast majority!
Having said that, I wanted to show you what MLS listings look like cluttered verses de cluttered.
This will give you an idea of how the buyers see the first impression of your home-the computer listing.
Here is a home of a lovely family who were getting ready and de cluttering by putting everything into boxes for storage until they moved. SO SMART. As a stager, I never tell people they need to throw away their belongings, just put them away temporarily until the home is sold.
This family was very organized and prepared to de clutter and put a ton of things into storage. They had accumulated belongings from other family members and was holding on to all of it for them…
this happens quite often and when you are selling you need to remove those belongings so it does not look like 4 families live in the one house.
Imagine though that this is how they left their home for listing…
This is the approximate size your MLS listing would look like on the computer…this is what your potential home buyer will see. Looks busy, dirty (although it is not), small. Can you tell it is a living room and dining room?
Again, same size it appears on MLS listing but de cluttered..
We can tell the two spaces now, and it looks much more spacious and clean.
(Disclaimer-same lens and camera was used for all the photo’s so the only thing that changed was the de cluttering)
Living room before and after
Family room before and after
Upstairs bathroom before and after
One of the bedrooms before and after
Master bathroom before and after
You can see how important it is to de clutter.
How that first impression of the MLS listing is to the sale of your home.
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