Staging a Home With a Buyer’s Critical Eye in Mind

Staging a Home With a Buyer’s Critical Eye in Mind

Before staging any house or condo, the team at Design to Impress will first view your home with a critical eye. Their attention to detail goes beyond simple cleaning and re-arranging – these Toronto-based home stagers will look to see what’s hurting your home, and what changes you can make to sell it for a much higher price.

Buyers tend to form an opinion about a home with eight to ten seconds of entering it, so their first impression shouldn’t be influenced by anything outside. If you have a large tree, home stagers will draw attention to its beauty by cutting down or trimming bushes surrounding it. In fact, they’ll likely keep your shrubs minimized, in order to get as much natural sunlight into your windows.

Home stagers notice the little things – is the front door squeaky? Does the door handle feel like it can easily come off? These minor details can depreciate the value of any home.

Each room will be inspected to ensure nothing personal is lingering. Family photos will be removed. Corners will be free of dirt and hair. Pets will be relocated to a friend or family member’s place. Dead plants will be thrown out, and anything unorganized will soon be either stored away off-site, or tidied up. A clutter-free room is perceived as a larger room than it appears to be.

The home stagers will also colour-coordinate your home. Curtains, rugs, throws and pillows may be added or removed in order to keep a colour theme consistent in each room. Even your linen closet will contain folded, vibrant tablecloths, pillowcases and napkins.

A fresh coat of paint will likely cover your kitchen cabinets in order to give the kitchen a new look. Countertops will contain nothing but a bowl of fruit. Bathtubs could be re-glazed, with no personal belongings apparent.

Finally, as nice as your home may look, the buyer will also use their other senses to gauge the property’s value. If your home contains traces of cigarettes, pet odours or any undesirable scents, the aroma will have to be purged immediately. Design to Impress, may even bake something before a showing, so that there is a delightful, inviting smell coming from the kitchen.

Design to Impress prepares houses and condos in the GTA with the buyer in mind. With the buyer’s perspective in mind, our home stagers can pinpoint what each room needs, or doesn’t need, that the seller might have overlooked.

There will be times potential buyers drive by the home in order to get a quick look from the outside. Our home staging team will ensure the property’s exterior gives a positive first impression. Grass will be cut, bushes trimmed, decks swept and front steps bare. The exterior lights will shine, so that nothing from the outside of the home would steer anyone away. As a buyer’s eye will look for the front door when looking at the property for the first time, home stagers will ensure its wood does not show any dents or chips. The door and window frames will also receive a fresh coat of paint before the house even goes the market. Even the door handle will sparkle, suggesting to the buyer that they are about to enter a move-in ready home.

Inside, the walls will be painted with neutral colours, so that the tone accommodates every buyer’s taste, as bright or darker tones can deter them. If the buyer feels the wall colours will need to be re-painted, they’ll factor the cost of it into your asking price, assuming the current shades don’t chase them away. Neutral tones, like beige, make the room look larger.

There will be no sign of clutter after the home stager has prepared the property. Personal items of the seller will be moved off-site, as buyers want to see space to put their own belongings. The basement will also be purged, so that the buyer sees a whole new room they can convert, perhaps into a small apartment, man-cave or an exercise room.

Like neutral colours, a tidy area makes the room look larger than it is. Even personal effects, like photos on a table or pictures on a fridge door, can make furniture and appliances look smaller. There will be no signs of dirt or grime anywhere – from inside the oven, to the corners of your bathroom.

By taking care of the details a seller takes for granted, our home stagers eliminates any reasons for a seller to lower the asking price, raising your ROI. By creating a flawless property, Design to Impress encourages the buyer to make an immediate offer, as your property won’t stay on the market for very long.