No matter how many improvements you make to your home over the years, you never know which elements will be assets, and which will be drawbacks, when you try to sell it. For example, if you have a shed in your yard, you may wonder how – or if – it will affect your asking price. The answer is that if it’s attractive and well-kept, it may actually increase the value of your property; if it’s a crumbling old eyesore, it can hurt the sale.
With all of the things that go into a person’s home-buying decision, in today’s competitive market, you need as much of an edge as you can get. Your home must be picture-perfect, inside and out, because prospective buyers can form opinions even before they pull into your driveway. The quality that will make them want to come inside is called curb appeal – a phrase that has permeated the modern vernacular.
If you want them to love what they see inside, there’s another up-and-coming term to learn – staging. It’s a technique that’s increasingly being used by realtors to make houses more appealing to a broader clientele, so that they will sell faster. The practice is catching on quickly, as approximately one quarter of home sellers nationwide are staging their homes, which are selling nearly twice as fast – and for higher prices – as unstaged ones.
The idea is to scale back on your decorations, photographs, souvenirs, and knick-knacks. No matter how tasteful and stylish, these personal items are mere clutter to a prospective buyer, and even the most innocuous ornament can be a deal-breaker. This is especially true of collections of any kind, whether they’re Victorian teacups, guns, or whimsical statues of dancing pigs. Even books should be kept to a minimum, particularly if they reflect your political or religious views. These are the kinds of things that stick in people’s minds.
Staging is all about de-personalizing your home, so that others can imagine themselves and their belongings in it. The best way to sell it is to start packing before it’s actually listed. In fact, professional stagers and real estate agents recommend that you remove up to half of your furniture, to give the impression of more space and easy flow. Rent a personal storage pod, and it won’t be too big a hassle. Arrange the remaining furniture to put the focus on the most desirable aspects of a room. A group of comfortable chairs around a fireplace, for instance, can’t help but conjure a cozy tableau.
These little things can do a lot to make your home more inviting on the inside. On the outside, a beautiful shed could be a real asset. Sheds from GazeboCreations.com are designed to last for decades, without ever turning into eyesores, and are available with tons of options, including skylights, cupolas, shelves, shutters, sliding windows, window boxes, extra doors, screens, and several colors of siding, trim, shutters, and shingles. More than simple utility buildings, they can be used as home offices, workout rooms, laundry rooms, artists’ studios, play houses, and anything else that you –or whoever is buying your property – can imagine.
At GazeboCreations.com, you can select a pre-designed cedar, pine, or vinyl shed, or customize your own. To contact a design consultant, or a customer service representative, call 1-888-293-2339, or e-mail cs@gazebocreations.com. By the way, don’t tell the prospective buyers, but, when it comes to your shed, you can take it with you!