Staging the Outside of Your Home

You’re probably familiar with the term “home staging”. It involves cleaning, de-cluttering, reorganizing, and decorating specifically in order to make your home more attractive to potential buyers. Furniture stores do something similar when they “stage” a bedroom suite in a showroom.

Most sellers focus their staging efforts on the inside of their homes. But the outside is important too. After all, a property’s exterior is the first thing potential buyers see. So you want to make sure that the first impression is a good one.

Here are some ideas on how to make sure that happens.

When preparing your home for sale, imagine you’re a potential buyer and take a walk around the outside of your property. Do you like what you see? Are there issues that concern you? Try to be as objective as possible.

You may notice, for example, that the deck is faded and worn, some of the border stones around the flower bed are chipped or missing, or the fence gate squeaks. If you notice these things, so will potential buyers. So, consider getting these minor problems repaired.

As you inspect your yard, pay particular attention to sheds and other areas around your property where rakes, shovels, garbage bins, bikes, toys and other items tend to accumulate. Just as you would unclutter the inside of your home before a showing, you should also make sure the exterior areas of your property are as uncluttered as possible.

Then explore simple ways you can make the exterior of your property look even more attractive. For example, giving your hedges, shrubs and other evergreen plants a trimming, can dramatically improve the look of your yard. Planting flowers or placing flowerpots at key locations, such as near the front entrance can also have a big impact.

Is It A Mountain? Or A Molehill?

There’s an old expression: Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. It refers, of course, to putting a problem or issue in the right perspective. Some things just aren’t worth worrying that much about – the molehills. However, there are other things that you do need to be concerned about – the mountains.

What does all this have to do with buying a home?

It’s difficult to find a property on the market that is absolutely perfect and has no issues whatsoever. Even if you find a home that you fall in love with and that meets all your requirements, there are bound to be one or two areas of concern. That’s normal.

The trick is to determine whether a particular concern is a mountain or a molehill. For example, say you want a home with four bedrooms, but find one with three. That may seem like a big problem. But if you look closer, you may find that one of the rooms in the finished basement can easily be converted into a comfortable spare bedroom.

That particular issue is really a molehill, and shouldn’t prevent you from putting that home on your shortlist.

On the other hand, say you want a home in an area with local parks for your kids and a sidewalk out front. If a property you’re considering doesn’t have those features, you might not think it’s a serious issue. But consider how difficult it will be to take young kids for a walk and decide where you think they’ll play. You may actually have a mountain in front of you.

So, when shopping for a home, you need to understand which are minor issues that can be easily dealt with, and which are major issues that will seriously impact your enjoyment of the home.